This guide follows Bern's old town from west to east, from the Käfigturm prison tower to the bears on the far bank of the Aare. On the way it covers the Federal Palace, where Switzerland is governed, the armoured bear of the Zähringen Fountain and the Minster, the tallest church in the country. Together they tell the story of a medieval town founded by a duke, named, so the legend goes, after a bear, and chosen in the 19th century as the seat of the Swiss federal government.
Bern's old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
The old town of Bern was founded in the late 12th century on a hill almost completely surrounded by a loop of the river Aare, following a carefully planned layout. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983. What UNESCO singled out is easy to see on a walk: wide market streets running the length of the hill, narrow, deep house plots, arcades from the 15th century under the facades, and the 16th-century figure fountains along the main streets.
Most of the town was rebuilt after a great fire in 1405, and much of what you see was restored in the 18th century in local stone. The covered arcades, called Lauben, let you walk most of the old town under a roof, and many shops sit in vaulted cellars reached by steep steps from the pavement. The UNESCO old town is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
- The cellar doors set into the pavement in front of the houses, which lead down to shops and bars below street level.
- The view from the bridges over the Aare, which shows clearly how the town sits on its river loop.
Käfigturm
The Käfigturm, or Prison Tower, stands across the main street where Spitalgasse turns into Marktgasse. The first tower here was built in 1256 as a gate in the second ring of city walls, when Bern expanded to the west. After the fire of 1405 the town prison moved into it, and the tower took its name from that use: Käfig means cage. The present tower was built in 1641–1644, after the old one was pulled down, and the last prisoners were moved out in 1897. The Käfigturm is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
- The clock faces, added in 1690–91, and the bell, which was hung in 1643.
The Federal Palace (Bundeshaus)
A short walk south of the Käfigturm, on Bundesplatz, the Federal Palace is the seat of the Swiss parliament and government. It was built in three stages: the west wing in 1852–1857, the east wing in 1884–1892 and the domed parliament building in the middle in 1894–1902, to designs by the architect Hans Wilhelm Auer, who tied the three parts together. The parliament building was handed over on 1 April 1902. The two chambers of parliament, the National Council and the Council of States, meet in the central building, while the Federal Council, the seven-member government, meets in the west wing.
The building was meant to show the whole country: it uses 30 kinds of stone from 13 cantons and half-cantons. Under the dome, which rises to about 64 metres, the hall is laid out in the shape of a Swiss cross, and a statue group by James André Vibert, The Three Confederates, recalls the legendary oath on the Rütli meadow that Swiss tradition places at the founding of the Confederation. The Parliament Building is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
- The south facade from the Bundesterrasse behind the building, with a wide view over the Aare and, on clear days, the Alps.
- Bundesplatz in front of the palace, the square where Bern holds its markets.
Zähringen Fountain (Zähringerbrunnen)
On Kramgasse, the continuation of the main street east of the clock tower, stands the Zähringen Fountain, put up in 1535. It honours Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen, who founded Bern. The figure on top is a bear in full armour, with a small bear at its feet. The bear carries a banner and a shield, both showing the lion of the Zähringen family. The basin was replaced in 1889. The Zähringen Fountain is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
- The Zähringen lion on the bear's banner and shield, and the small bear at its feet.
Bern Minster (Berner Münster)
Work on the Minster began on 11 March 1421 under Matthäus Ensinger, a master builder from Strasbourg. It took generations: the bell tower was only finished in 1893, and at 100.6 metres it makes the Minster the tallest church in Switzerland. In 1528, when Bern adopted the Reformation, the 43 side altars were removed and almost all the paintings and statues inside were thrown into the churchyard next door, now the Münsterplattform. Excavations there have since brought some of those pieces back to light.
The main portal survived. Its Last Judgment is one of the most complete late Gothic groups of sculpture in Europe, with 47 large statues and around 170 smaller figures; the large ones on the portal are copies, and the originals are kept in the Bern Historical Museum. Inside, the stained glass windows are some of the most valuable in Switzerland. You can climb 254 steps to the lower viewing platform of the tower. The Minster is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
- The Last Judgment over the main door, with the saved on one side and the damned on the other.
- The Münsterplattform beside the church, a shady terrace high above the Aare, and the view from the tower over the red roofs of the old town.
The Bear Park (BärenPark)
Bern has kept bears since at least 1513, when soldiers brought one back as booty from the Battle of Novara. The bear has been on the city's coat of arms for much longer. According to legend, Duke Berchtold V promised to name his new town after the first animal he caught on a hunt in the surrounding forest, and it was a bear. The first bear pit was on today's Bärenplatz. The present Bärengraben, the fourth pit, opened in 1857 beside the Nydegg Bridge.
In 2009 the city opened the Bear Park, a much larger enclosure on the slope between the old pit and the river, linked to the pit by a tunnel. The bears can now walk down to the water, dig and climb, and from the paths above you can watch them in a setting much closer to the wild. The Bear Park is not on our scavenger hunt route, but it is just across the river from the eastern end of the old town.
- The old round pit of 1857 and the slope down to the Aare, where the bears are most often seen.
How to see them in one walk
Start at the Käfigturm, between Spitalgasse and Marktgasse, and walk south through Bärenplatz to Bundesplatz and the Federal Palace; go round to the Bundesterrasse for the view. Return to the main street, continue east under the Zytglogge clock tower and along Kramgasse to the Zähringen Fountain. Turn right to the Minster and the Münsterplattform, then follow the main street down to its end and cross the Nydegg Bridge to the Bear Park. The arcades keep you dry most of the way if it rains.
See Bern with World City Trail
Our Bern scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the Heiliggeistkirche to the Historical Museum and Einstein Museum. The UNESCO old town, the Käfigturm, the Parliament Building, the Zähringen Fountain and the Minster are all stops, along with the Heiliggeistkirche, the Stadttheater, the City Hall, the Nydeggkirche and the Historical Museum. At each stop you solve a puzzle and learn a story, at your own pace.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Bern, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Bern scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Bern →
Play the outdoor escape game in Bern →
Facts checked in October 2026.