Double house at Bümplizstrasse 120/122

About the building

On Bümplizstrasse, opposite the Gasthof Sternen inn, stand two houses built against each other that are among the rare surviving witnesses of the old village of Bümpliz. The older house, No. 120, was built around 1800. It is a substantial rendered building in the style of rural late Baroque under a bent quarter-hipped roof with a Ründi, the typical Bernese arched boarding under the gable. Sandstone elements articulate the façades: grooved corner pilasters, strong string courses and strikingly heavy moulded window sills.

The south-east front is framed by wide upper-floor galleries, one on polygonal timber posts, the other on a short wall with a door. Since 1915 two coats of arms have been painted in the Ründi: that of the municipality of Bümpliz and one combining the family arms of Jufer and Schmid. At that time Bümpliz was still a municipality of its own; in 1919 it was merged with Bern.

In front of the house lies a semicircular garden with the well house No. 120A, a small timber-frame building over the well shaft, probably also from around 1800. It is one of the last outbuildings of this kind in Bümpliz and recalls how vital a private water source once was. In front of it stands a limestone fountain with a half-oval basin.

Around 1890 the house No. 122 was added crosswise on the north-west side, a solid rendered building under a gable roof with sandstone frames and a columned entrance porch that serves as a terrace above; the inventory assigns it to the Swiss chalet style. From 1906 to 1912 the building served as the post office. In 1987 the exterior was renovated. Both houses are protected (cantonal government decisions of 1981 for No. 120 and 2001 for No. 122) and belong to the Alt-Bümpliz building group. Together with the Sternen, whose core dates from around 1600, they shape the street; the fence with its old gateposts keeps a distance from the road. Look at the painted Ründi.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bümplizstrasse 120, 120A, 122 · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Bümpliz · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bümplizstrasse 121 (Gasthof Sternen) · Wikidata: Q114084312