Old City of Bern - Districts and Neighbourhoods

Districts and Neighbourhoods

The old city was historically subdivided into four Viertel and four Quartiere. The Viertel were the city's official administrative districts. They ware instituted for tax and defence purposes in the 13th century, and ceased to be used in 1798 after the fall of the Ancien Régime in Bern.

Of greater practical importance were the Quartiere, the four traditional neighbourhoods in which people of similar social and economic rank congregated. They emerged in the late Middle Ages, overlap the Viertel boundaries and remain easily identifiable in today's cityscape.

The central and oldest neighbourhood is the Zähringerstadt (Zähringer town), which contained the medieval city's principal political, economic and spiritual institutions. These were strictly separated: official buildings were situated around the Kreuzgasse (Cross Alley), ecclesiastical buildings were located at the Münstergasse (Cathedral Alley) and Herrengasse (Lords' Alley), while guilds and merchants' shops clustered around the central Kramgasse (Grocers Alley) and Gerechtigkeitsgasse (Justice Alley). Junkerngasse (Junker Lane), which is parallel to Gerechtigkeitsgasse, was originally known as Kilchgasse (Church Lane) but was renamed because of number of patricians or untitled nobility which lived on the southern side of the peninsula.

The second oldest neighbourhood, the Innere Neustadt (Inner New City), was built during the city's first westward expansion in 1255, between the first western wall guarded by the Zytglogge tower and the second wall, guarded by the Käfigturm. Its central feature is the broad Marktgasse (Market Alley).

Situated in the northeast and southeast of the Aare peninsula, the Nydeggstalden and the Mattequartier together constitute medieval Bern's smallest neighbourhood. Workshops and mercantile activity prevailed in this area, and medieval sources tell of numerous complaints about the ceaseless and apparently nerve-wracking noise of machinery, carts and commerce. The Matte area at the riverside features three artificial channels, through which Aare water was diverted to power three city-owned watermills built in 1360. In the early 20th century, a small hydroelectric plant was built in that location. Nearby, the busy Schiffländte (ship landing-place) allowed for the reloading of goods transported by boat up and down the river.

The last neighbourhood to be built was the Äussere Neustadt (Outer New City), which added a third and final layer to Bern's defences starting in 1343. All of these walls, gates and earthworks were demolished in the 19th century ending with the destruction of Bern's greatest of its three guard towers, the Christoffelturm. Only the four central streets were lined with residential houses in late medieval times, while the rest of the area was devoted to agriculture and animal husbandry.