Fun Facts

This doesn’t actually have anything to do with food: Behind Bümpliz, in the far west of Bern, there really is a neighbourhood called Bread and Cheese! Legend even has it that this is where the Swiss cross originated on the day before the famous Battle of Laupen. To be able to tell friend and foe apart, the soldiers got white crosses sewed onto their uniforms.

According to a study, the average walking speed of the Bernese is 1.354 metres per second, making Bern the slowest – sorry, most relaxed – city in the world. We also like to take our time when talking, producing an average of five syllables per second – the rest of Switzerland produces six. Might that be the reason why «Bärndütsch», the Bernese dialect, is one of the most popular in the country?

Everyone knows the famous «Bärner Müntschi». But there are all kinds of other local beers to discover – the Bernese love brewing! The canton of Bern has the highest density of (micro)breweries in the country, making the city Switzerland’s beer capital. You can learn everything about Bern’s brewing culture on the educational and entertaining guided «Beer Tour».

Uninhabited and abandoned since the 15th century, the house on 54 Junkerngasse is said to be haunted. According to witnesses, the shutters regularly fly open between midnight and one in the morning. But not much longer – the house will undergo renovation to be transformed into a shop, an office and an apartment. The question remains whether the ghosts are willing to move out ...

Some of today’s most sought-after flats in the city are located in the area that actually used to house Bern’s lower class: the Matte neighbourhood, located directly on the banks of the River Aare. Its original residents communicated in a kind of secret language known as Matteänglisch (Matte English). It even has its own association, the Matteänglisch-Club. The title of this paragraph says, «pass me a slice of bread». By the way: the expression «Tunz mer ä Ligu Lehm», which means the same thing, is often mistaken for Matteänglisch, but is actually the so-called Matte dialect.

In the final of the 1954 World Cup in Bern, West Germany surprisingly beat the heavily favoured Hungarian team. The German team won 3:2 after already being behind 0:2 after only eight minutes. The so-called Miracle of Bern helped the country out of its post-war depression and is sometimes seen as the «true founding day» of the German Republic.

James Bond’s very first accomplice was played by Bern’s «Grande Dame» Ursula Andress from Ostermundigen. For her role as Honey Rider, she received a Golden Globe for most talented young actress in 1964. Now 88 years old, the former actress is still a role model for generations of actors.

Ice hockey plays an important role in the city of Bern. Every week, over 15,000 fans gather at the arena to watch the SC Bern play, making it the club with the second-highest number of spectators in all of Europe. It even used to be at number 1 – that’s how devoted its fans are. Go and experience the unique atmosphere for yourself!

Before Covid, over 50 tonnes of onions and garlic were sold in a day at Bern’s famous annual «Zibelemärit» (Onion Market). Numbers dropped, but are slowly recovering: in 2024, they were at 34 tonnes – that’s about 50 times the combined weight of the three bears at Bern’s BearPark.

In 1879, Rudolf Lindt, the son of a pharmacist, invented the conching method in a Bernese pharmacy. This method made it possible to produce chocolate with the smooth and creamy texture that we know today. It is said that it was a mere coincidence – Lindt had simply forgotten to switch off the mixer. However it may be, we’re definitely enjoying the results!

Who got to the moon first? The Solar Wind Composition Experiment of the University of Bern! Sounds strange, is true: at the moon landing over 50 years ago, the sail was stuck into the lunar soil even before the American flag. The aim was to measure and sample the solar wind, which was not possible on Earth.

Thanks to its six kilometres of arcades, Bern is home to one of the longest covered shopping streets in Europe. Milan and London don’t stand a chance! Arcades are a feature of all Zähringen towns, by the way, and can therefore also be found in Fribourg, Murten and Freiburg im Breisgau.

To visit the Bern Minster, an impressive cathedral finished in 1893, you’ll need to be in good shape and not afraid of heights: 254 steps take you up to the highest steeple in the country. From the ground all the way to the very top, it stands an impressive 100.6 metres tall.

When Einstein lived in Bern, he was employed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property. At the same time, he worked on his own research and came up with some «relatively» good ideas: in 1905, he published his world-famous theory of relativity. Strolling through Bern’s old town, you’re bound to come across Mr. Einstein’s old residence, now a popular museum.

The football club BSC Young Boys is the reigning champion of Switzerland’s top football league and in the famous Champions League. Its home turf is Bern’s Wankdorf Stadium, which will also host several WEURO matches in summer 2025. You can find out when the next game of the Yellow and Blacks is in our event calendar.

At the 2008 European Football Championship, some 60,000 merry Dutch football fans, dressed head-to-toe in their national colour orange, made their way across the Kornhausbrücke bridge to Wankdorf Stadium. The bridge was unofficially renamed and an orange sign put up next to it with its Dutch designation, «Korenhuisbrug».

Speaking of street signs: have you noticed that the street signs in the lower part of Bern’s old town are colour-coded? After Napoleon’s invasion of the city, his troops invented the system with the five different colours to find their way back after a night of drinking. Whether or not the Bernese still benefit from the original purpose today is not documented. ;-)

What does Bern’s old town have in common with the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu and the Giza pyramids? It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And rightfully so, if you ask us! Be it during the cold winter months or in the heat of summer, you’ll discover all kinds of wonderful surprises in its historic cobblestone alleys

In many countries around the world, the largest city was chosen as the capital. Not so in Switzerland! There are many speculations as to why it’s Bern, with the most plausible being that it is centrally located and the land for the erection of the Parliament Building was free. Others, however, say that a fountain with flowing wine might have played a role. Whichever it may be, Bern has been Switzerland’s federal city since 1848.

263 kilograms and 22.7 metres – those are the measurements of the largest vegan pain au chocolat ever made. A truly sweet world record, set in February 2024 on Waisenausplatz in Bern. And the best thing about it: spectators were invited to taste the treat after the record was official. Yum!

In 2012, Bern set up a new world record in «Böötle» (boating) on the river when 1,268 people in rubber dinghies floated down the Aare to Eichholz – in one day! Since then, there has been a kind of «Böötle» competition between Bern and the Japanese city of Morioka, the previous record holder.

A story as unusual as the name of its protagonist: at the end of May 1654, Bernese student Teo Weinzäpfli (little wine cork) flew off a horse and fell from the Minster terrace – and survived! If you don’t believe the story, go and visit the place – there’s a plaque that commemorates the fall with a happy ending.