Bern

Fortified settlements stood in the area long before the city, but medieval Bern was a foundation of the Zähringer dukes, probably in 1191 by Berthold V. By legend he vowed to name the town after the first animal he met on the hunt, and it was a bear; the bear has been on the city's seal since at least the 1220s, and live bears have been kept in a pit since the 15th century. The town grew westward along the peninsula in planned stages: the Zytglogge marked its western gate until 1256, then the Käfigturm until 1345.

Bern joined the Confederation in 1353 and became the largest city-state north of the Alps, ruling a territory that stretched as far as Vaud. Its population grew from about 5,000 in the 15th century to about 12,000 by 1800. A popular legend links the Zibelemärit to help given after a fire that devastated the city in 1405, though records show the market only from the mid-19th century.

On 28 November 1848 the new Federal Assembly chose Bern as the federal city, the seat of government, ahead of Zurich and Lucerne — the constitution does not name an official capital. The Federal Palace was built between 1857 and 1902, and between 1903 and 1905 a patent examiner named Albert Einstein lived on Kramgasse. The population passed 100,000 in the 1920s and peaked at about 165,000 in the 1960s. In 1983 the old town was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Bernese have their own dialect, Bernese German. The Matte, the old working-class quarter by the river, even had its own speech, Mattenenglisch — both a local sociolect and a kind of pig Latin — which fell out of use in the 20th century but is still cultivated by enthusiasts.

The city's cultural life is broader than its size suggests. The Zentrum Paul Klee holds about 40 per cent of the painter's pictorial work, the Museum of Fine Arts dates from 1879, and the Einsteinhaus marks the years in which Einstein, then a patent examiner, worked out his theory of relativity. Festivals fill the calendar: the Gurtenfestival on the hill above the city, the BeJazz and international jazz festivals, the Buskers street-music festival, the shnit short-film festival in October and Queersicht in November. Bern also has its own Fasnacht carnival.

Old customs survive in the Zibelemärit, when the whole old town is given over to onions and confetti on the fourth Monday of November. Sport draws big crowds: BSC Young Boys play football at the Wankdorf, and SC Bern play ice hockey at the PostFinance Arena. In summer, drifting down the Aare past the Federal Palace and climbing out at the Marzili is part of local life.

About 146,000 people lived in Bern in 2024, making it the fifth-largest city in Switzerland, and the agglomeration of 36 municipalities had about 407,000 in 2014. About a third of residents are foreign nationals, and German is the first language of most, with Italian and French the next most common. The city is governed by a Municipal Council led since 2025 by Marieke Kruit.

Bern's economy is overwhelmingly one of services. It is the seat of the parliament, the federal government and much of the federal administration, as well as the canton's government, the University of Bern, the University of Applied Sciences and the Universal Postal Union. Toblerone has been made in the city since 1908 by the Tobler chocolate factory, founded there in 1899, although part of the range has been made in Slovakia since 2022.

Most people live outside the old town, in districts such as Länggasse near the university, the mansion district of Kirchenfeld, Breitenrain and the western suburbs of Bümpliz and Betlehem. Bern station, with about 165,000 passengers each weekday in 2022, is the second-busiest in the country. Shops close on Sundays, apart from those in the station.

Bern's signature dish is the Berner Platte, the Bernese plate: smoked pork and beef, pork belly, sausages, bacon and sometimes pork ears or tails, served on a large plate with juniper-flavoured sauerkraut, potatoes and green or dried beans. It is not a stew — each meat and side dish is prepared separately — and it is sometimes served as a buffet.

Rösti, the fried potato cake now eaten all over Switzerland, began as a breakfast dish of farmers in the canton of Bern, and French speakers still call it röstis bernois. It is commonly served beside other dishes, such as spinach with fried eggs, a cervelas sausage or Fleischkäse. Zopf, the braided bread with a golden crust, belongs to Sunday breakfasts and brunches.

The Zibelemärit is the city's great food day: farmers sell onion braids alongside Zwiebelkuchen (onion pie), Zwiebelsuppe (onion soup), onion pizza and bratwurst with onions, and mulled wine is the usual drink. Bern's best-known product is Toblerone, the triangular chocolate bar created by the Tobler factory, whose packaging hides the outline of a bear, the city's symbol, in its mountain.