Altes Dorfschulhaus, Bümpliz

About the building

Set back a little from Bümplizstrasse stands a broad half-timbered house under a heavy mansard roof. It is the first building in Bümpliz that was built explicitly as a school. The municipality of Bümpliz, which was not yet part of the city of Bern at the time, had it built in 1833; the architect is not known.

The heritage office assigns the building to the Biedermeier period, with forms that still derive from the late Baroque. The timber frame is painted grey, the infill panels between are white. On the sides of the upper floor there are open galleries reached by outside stairs; curved boards under the roof overhang shelter them. Posts, braces and window sills are slenderly moulded. Inside, central corridors serve the floors, and in the mansard storey a round window shows where this corridor lies. The dormers, however, do not sit exactly above the window axes.

In the 1870s the classrooms were overcrowded. At first a conversion of the old school was considered, but then a new building right next door was chosen: the school at Bümplizstrasse 94 of 1882 is a rendered building in late Neoclassical style. The two houses share a paved playground with a fountain, and side by side they show how building style changed within about fifty years.

In 1979 the old school was converted and renovated by the Bern architect M. Rausser. Older additions on the north-west side were replaced by a new extension under a lean-to roof, and the house was given new uses: a day-care centre, a library, small classes and adult education. It is listed in the building inventory as worthy of protection, as a building important for local history that plays an important part in the local townscape.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bümplizstrasse 92 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bümplizstrasse 94 (Nachbarschulhaus von 1882) · Wikipedia (de): Bümpliz (Eingemeindung 1919) · Wikidata: Q114083278