Bern University and the Grosse Schanze

This is the University of Berne's baroque main building, housing the law faculty and the university's executive administration and overlooking the Grosse Schanze park, a medieval look-out station and one of Berne's highest points. The bus and train stations are situated underneath this park, and are accessible by the concrete-box lift shaft, which can be seen in the photo below:


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Grosse Schanze affords excellent views across the rooftops of Berne to the Parliament and the Alps.


On the far side of the uni building, Grosse Schanze offers another excellent southern view across Berne's rooftops, this time to the Münster and again the Alps.

Einsteinterrasse: Apparently Einstein did the groundwork for his Theory of Relativity at the uni here, so the terrace on Grosse Schanze in front of the uni's Exact Sciences faculty building is named in his honour.

Autumn view from Berne to the Alps

from the Kleine Schanze park to the Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau massif of the Bernese Oberland

Kleine Schanze panorama

This view has the Swiss parliament in the left, and on the right in the distance, the Bernese Oberland massif.

The Bernese History Museum

The museum is situated on Helvetiaplatz, off the Bern "island" at the other end the Helvetiabrücke. I like the way the roof of the building is shaped to fit in with the distant mountains.

Modern-day Berne

While the character and core of Berne are definitely its medieval old town, I don't want to mislead you by only showing pics of the old town. The old town is now completely surrounded with fin-de-siècle and 20th century developments. Here a few representative snaps:



typical street in a "sleeping quarter" (where people live but don't work!)


typical apartment block


a school house


the swinging 60s