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BERN |
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Of all Swiss cities, BERN is most immediately charming. Founded in
1191 by the powerful local Zähringen dynasty, it began life as a
fortress town peopled by knights. The growth of the Swiss Confederation
in subsequent centuries owed much to the conquests of the warlike
Bernese. Crammed onto a steep-sided peninsula in a crook of the fast-flowing
River Aare, the city's quiet, cobbled lanes, lined with sandstone
arcaded buildings, have changed barely at all in over five hundred years.
The hills all around, and the steep banks of the river, are still
liberally wooded. It's sometimes hard to remember that this quiet,
attractive town of just 130,000 people is the nation's capital.
The City
Bern's old centre - designated a UN World Heritage Site for the
preservation of its medieval street plan - is best explored from the
focal east-west Spitalgasse . As it leads away from the train station,
Spitalgasse becomes Marktgasse, Kramgasse, and then Gerechtigkeitsgasse,
but all the way down is lined with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
houses, fountains and arcaded shops. Some 200m east of the station, the
street crosses Bärenplatz , scene of much outdoor daytime drinking and a
lively Saturday morning market, to the right of which is the Bundeshaus
or Federal Parliament Building, a domed neo-Renaissance edifice. Beyond
Bärenplatz, Marktgasse continues under the oft-rebuilt Käfigturm (prisoners'
tower), a thirteenth-century town gate. Further along is an eleventh-century
gate which was subsequently converted into the Zytglogge - a
distinctively top-heavy clocktower adorned with brightly coloured
figures that judder into movement four minutes before each hour. (To the
left, in Kornhausplatz, is the most famous of Bern's many ornate
fountains, the horrific Kindlifresserbrunnen , depicting an ogre
devouring a struggling baby.) Further east along the main street, the
Albert Einstein House , Kramgasse 49 (Feb-Nov Tues-Fri 1-5pm, Sat noon-4pm;
Sfr2; www.einstein-bern.ch ), preserves the study occupied by the famous
physicist for two years from 1903. Münstergasse, one block south, leads
to the fifteenth-century Gothic Münster (Tues-Sat 10am-4/5pm, Sun
11am-5pm; Nov-Easter Sun closes 2pm), noted for the magnificently gilded
high-relief Last Judgement above the main entrance and the elegant
buttressed terrace on its south side. Its 254-stepped tower (closes
30min earlier; Sfr3), the tallest in Switzerland, offers terrific views
of the city and distant mountains. At the eastern end of the centre, the
Nydeggbrücke crosses the river to the Bärengraben (daily 8/9am-4/6pm),
Bern's famed bear-pits, which have housed generations of morose shaggies
since the early sixteenth century. Legend has it that the town's founder
Berchtold V of Zähringen named Bern after killing one of the beasts
during a hunt; the bear has remained a symbol of the town ever since.
Bern's magical Kunstmuseum , near the station at Hodlerstrasse 8 (Tues
10am-9pm, Wed-Sun 10am-5pm; Sfr7; www.kunstmuseumbern.ch ), is
especially strong on twentieth-century art, with plenty of works by
Matisse, Kandinsky, Braque and Picasso, whole rooms devoted to Paul Klee,
who was born in Bern and who returned here from Germany after the rise
of Nazism, and a good selection of contemporary art as well. More
museums are grouped around Helvetiaplatz , south of the river: the
Alpine Museum houses detailed and interesting displays exploring
mountain culture (Mon 2-5pm, Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; Sfr7;
www.alpinesmuseum.ch ); the Kunsthalle gallery shows good contemporary
art (Tues 10am-7pm, Wed-Sun 10am-5pm; Sfr6; www.kunsthallebern.ch ); and
the engaging Museum für Kommunikation explores information exchange from
smoke-signals to the Internet (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; Sfr5; www.mfk.ch ).
You could also spend hours in the fascinating seven-floored Bernisches
Historisches Museum (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, Wed until 8pm; Sfr5; www.bhm.ch
); check out the "Dance of Death" sequence in the basement, and their
fine late-medieval Flemish tapestries and weaponry.
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