Former carriage business at Dählhölzliweg 3

About the building

Looking at Dählhölzliweg from Florastrasse, you see a brick building that recalls a small castle rather than a commercial yard. Six buttresses of rough-hewn limestone blocks divide the two-storey façade under a high hipped roof into five sections. The central one rises like a tower above cornice and roof, with a pointed spire and flags, and a delicate oriel with a stepped gable at the front.

The complex was built in 1897 as a Fuhrhalterei, a business running horse-drawn vehicles, for G. Marcuard. The design was by Albert Gerster (1864–1935), who had opened his own office in Bern in 1891 and had shortly before built the municipal riding school. The building was executed to an amended plan. It forms a trapezoidal complex of four wings around an originally open courtyard, with a second, smaller head building on Justingerweg.

The single-storey side pavilions on Dählhölzliweg once had wooden superstructures used to store hay; they have gone. From 1927 a car garage with workshop operated here, and in 1946 an exit for cars was added. In 1987 and 1990 the architects Bornand + Michaelis converted the building, created a basement and roofed over the courtyards. Since 1990 it has been used for offices.

The building inventory describes it as an interesting utilitarian building in an idiosyncratic ‘medieval-romantic’ style. It belongs to the Kirchenfeld building group.

On the head building on Justingerweg, look at the mezzanine windows: they break through cornice and roof and each has its own pointed roof.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Dählhölzliweg 3 / Justingerweg 4 · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Gerster, Albert · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Kirchenfeld · Wikidata: Q117407952