Guide to Exploring the Old City of Bern, Switzerland

Bern’s founder is said to have vowed to name his new city after the first animal he killed on a hunt, and the animal turned out to be a bear. Whether that story is literal history or civic myth, the city has kept live bears on public display, in one form or another, continuously since 1513, which makes Bern’s mascot older than most of the buildings tourists come to photograph.

Layout and Origins

Bern was founded in 1191 by Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, on a peninsula formed by a tight bend in the Aare river, a defensive choice that still shapes how the Old Town feels today: water on three sides, one narrow approach. The medieval core grew up around the Zytglogge clock tower, and the whole Old Town is famous for its arcaded streets, over six kilometers of covered walkways lining the main thoroughfares, making it one of the longest continuous shopping arcades anywhere in Europe. The sandstone used throughout the old center came from local quarries and gives the whole district its distinctive pale green-grey color, which shifts noticeably depending on the light and the weather.

Zytglogge Tower

The clock tower dates to the 13th century in its earliest form, though the elaborate astronomical clock mechanism visible today was added in the 15th century, and it still tracks the hour, zodiac signs, and phases of the moon on a working mechanism centuries old. A short mechanical performance of moving figures plays out just before each hour, which draws a predictable crowd, so plan your position a few minutes early if you want to actually see it rather than the backs of other people’s phones. Guided tours run about an hour, take you up roughly 130 steps into the clock’s internal mechanism, and end on a viewing platform with a clear look over the old town’s rooftops toward the Bernese Alps on a clear day. Book ahead through the city’s official tourism office, since capacity per tour group is limited.

Bear Park

Live bears kept at Bärenplatz, right in the town center, were the norm from 1513 until 1857, when they were relocated to a purpose-built pit, the Bärengraben, at the edge of the old town above the Aare. That pit is still there and still in occasional use, but since 2009 it’s been supplemented by the much larger BärenPark, a naturalistic riverside enclosure that gives the resident bears far more room to roam, dig, and swim than the old stone pit ever allowed. The park is free to visit year-round, and the bears are genuinely active in the cooler parts of the day, less so at midday in summer heat, so plan a morning or early evening visit if you actually want to see them moving rather than napping in shade.

Bern Minster and Cathedral Square

Construction on Bern Minster began in 1421 and stretched on for centuries, with the twin spires not fully completed until the 1890s, meaning the building took roughly as long to finish as the entire history of the United States up to that point. It’s the tallest cathedral in Switzerland, and climbing its tower, 344 steps with a rest platform partway up near the bells, gets you the single best rooftop view in the city for a small separate fee beyond general admission. The square outside stays lively with market stalls, cafes, and a steady flow of foot traffic funneling toward the arcades.

Parliament Building

The Bundeshaus, completed in 1902, houses the Swiss Federal Assembly and Federal Council and sits with a commanding view over the Aare valley toward the Alps. Free guided tours run when parliament isn’t in session, explaining the building’s symbolism, including stained glass and stonework representing the Swiss cantons, and they’re a genuinely good way to understand how Swiss federal government actually functions, which is not quite like any other democracy’s structure.

Along the Aare

The river promenade circling the peninsula is where Bern actually relaxes. In summer, locals swim the Aare’s fast, cold current, floating downstream from one bridge to the next in a practice that looks alarming to visitors and is treated by residents as an ordinary weekday activity. Even without swimming, the walk along the riverbank gives the clearest sense of how tightly the Old Town is wrapped by the water on nearly every side.

Beyond the Core: Kramgasse, Museums, and Guildhalls

Kramgasse is one of the oldest and most architecturally intact streets in the Old Town, lined with independent shops under the arcades and worth a slow walk rather than a rushed pass-through. Zähringerplatz and the adjoining Rosengarten, a hillside rose garden above the old town, offer one of the better postcard views of the skyline, especially near sunset. The University of Bern sits close by, folding student life into the historic core rather than pushing it to a separate campus.

Two well-preserved former guildhalls, Zunfthaus zur Waage and Zunfthaus zum Säckingen, date to the 15th and 16th centuries and now function partly as venues and restaurants; Zunfthaus zur Waage in particular connects to Bern’s broader museum network. For a proper deep dive into natural history, skip any guidebook mention of an “Alpineum” and head instead to the Natural History Museum of Bern, officially the Naturhistorisches Museum, founded in 1832 and housed since the 1930s in its current building in the Kirchenfeld quarter, a short walk or tram ride from the Old Town across the river.

Food, Festivals, and Practical Notes

Bierhübeli serves traditional Swiss dishes alongside a solid beer list, Café de l’Hôtel de Ville is a reliable spot for coffee in the historic core, and Schwarzhorn has been feeding locals since 1872 if you want a sense of continuity with the guidebook’s older recommendations. Bern’s festival calendar includes Fasnacht celebrations in late winter, the Gurten open-air music festival in July on a hill just outside the city, and the Berner Festwochen arts festival stretching across August into early autumn.

Swiss German, a distinct spoken dialect quite different from standard written German, is the everyday language here, though English is widely understood in tourist-facing businesses. Switzerland uses the Swiss franc, not the euro, and while cards are accepted almost everywhere, small market stalls and some older cafes still prefer cash. Public transport, trams and buses radiating from the main train station, makes the newer parts of Bern easy to reach, but the Old Town itself rewards walking over any form of transit, since half its character is in the arcades and side streets a bus would skip entirely.