Bern is where Switzerland is governed, yet its Old Town still looks much as it did centuries ago: sandstone arcades, painted fountains and a medieval clock tower, all packed onto a narrow peninsula inside a loop of the fast, green Aare. The whole Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here are the facts and stories that make the city special.
10 fun facts about Bern
- A town rebuilt in stone: in 1405 a fire swept through Bern, which was then built mostly of wood, and destroyed most of its buildings. The town was rebuilt in the greenish-grey sandstone that still gives the Old Town its colour.
- A clock show since 1530: the Zytglogge started out as the city's western gate in the early 13th century. Its astronomical clock, built by Kaspar Brunner between 1527 and 1530, still sets a parade of moving figures in motion shortly before every hour.
- A gate that became a prison: the Käfigturm marked the town's western edge from 1256. The town prison moved into it after the fire of 1405, the tower was rebuilt between 1641 and 1644, and it held prisoners until 1897.
- Einstein's miracle year: Albert Einstein worked at the Swiss patent office in Bern from 1902 to 1909. In 1905, while living in a small flat at Kramgasse 49, he published his special theory of relativity. The flat is now a museum, the Einsteinhaus.
- Switzerland's tallest church tower: the tower of Bern Minster rises to 100.6 metres. Building work on the church began in 1421, but the tower was only finished in 1893.
- A fountain that eats children: on Kornhausplatz, the Kindlifresserbrunnen shows an ogre biting into a child, with more children waiting in his bag. It belongs to the set of painted figure fountains put up in the Old Town in the 1540s, several of them by the sculptor Hans Gieng.
- Kilometres of arcades: the covered arcades along the main streets, the Lauben, add up to about six kilometres, so you can stroll and shop in the rain.
- A city of chocolate: Rodolphe Lindt invented the conche, the machine that makes chocolate smooth, in Bern in 1879. In 1908 Theodor Tobler created Toblerone in Bern, too.
- An onion market in November: on the fourth Monday of November, the Zibelemärit fills the streets with stalls of braided onions and garlic, onion tarts, and children throwing confetti.
- One of the first Swiss World Heritage Sites: the Old City of Bern was added to the UNESCO list in 1983, one of the first three sites in Switzerland.
Why Bern is the city of bears
Duke Berthold V of Zähringen founded Bern in 1191 on a rocky spur inside a tight bend of the Aare. Legend says he promised to name the new town after the first animal he killed on a hunt in the surrounding forest, and it was a bear. True or not, the bear has been the city's emblem ever since, and you will spot it on fountains, the Zytglogge and the red-and-yellow Bernese flag. Live bears came later: in 1513 soldiers returning from the Battle of Novara brought one home as war booty. In 1857 the bears moved to a pit at the eastern end of the Old Town, and in 2009 they got the BärenPark, a much larger wooded enclosure running down to the river.
The Federal Palace, explained
Switzerland's constitution does not name a capital. Bern has been the seat of the federal government since 1848 and calls itself the Bundesstadt, the federal city. The domed Federal Palace, finished in 1902, houses both chambers of parliament and the Federal Council, the seven-member government. In front, the fountain on the Bundesplatz shoots up 26 jets of water, one for each canton.
What to eat in Bern
- Berner Platte: a huge platter of boiled and smoked meats and sausages with sauerkraut, beans and potatoes, best on a cold day.
- Rösti: grated potatoes fried into a golden cake. It started out as a farmers' breakfast in the canton of Bern and is now served with almost everything.
- Zibelechueche: a rich onion tart, eaten all year but sold everywhere during the Zibelemärit in November.
- Berner Haselnusslebkuchen: soft hazelnut gingerbread, often decorated with a white sugar bear.
- Ovomaltine: the malted chocolate drink was launched by the Wander company in Bern in 1904.
Good to know before you go
- In summer, locals walk upstream along the Aare, jump in and float back down to the Marzili riverside baths. The current is fast and cold: only swim if you are confident, and use the marked exits.
- For the classic postcard view of the Old Town and the Minster, walk up from the BärenPark to the Rosengarten park.
- You can climb the Minster tower for a view over the rooftops; on a clear day you can see the Bernese Alps.
- Thun, with its castle on the lake, is about 20 minutes away by train, and Interlaken is under an hour.
Explore Bern with World City Trail
Our Bern scavenger hunt turns these sights into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around three hours, with about 44 minutes of walking, past landmarks including the Heiliggeistkirche, the Käfigturm and the Federal Palace.
At each stop you solve a puzzle and hear a short story, at your own pace. You can start whenever you like.
Play the Bern scavenger hunt →
Facts checked in October 2026.