Former tram depot at Grosser Muristalden 6

About the building

Opposite the bear pit stands a building in the Swiss chalet style that is known today as the Altes Tramdepot. The front facing the bear pit consists of a gateway block with a large segmental-arched entrance, a residential house on the slope down to the Aare and a linking block between them. Behind, parallel to the Muristalden and partly cut into the slope, lies the actual shed: 32 metres long, 14 metres wide, without columns, with an open roof structure of iron trusses.

The depot was designed by the engineer Gaston Anselmier (1840–1909), whose Bern office also built the tramway itself. The client was the Berner Tramway-Gesellschaft. On 1 October 1890 it opened the first line from the bear pit via the railway station to the Bremgarten cemetery. The cars ran on compressed air using the system of the French engineer Louis Mékarski. The air was compressed by machines on the Aare driven by the Matte power station and piped to the depot, where the cars were filled.

The compressed-air tram ran until 1901, after which the line was electric. In 1900 the gateway and linking blocks were raised by one and a half storeys; the house later served as the bear keeper's official residence. After the tram section to the bear pit closed in 1941 the depot became a car garage, and from 1971 to 1982 a store for the city theatre. What happened in between is not entirely clear: the German Wikipedia article on Bern's trams says the depot was given up after the end of the compressed-air tram and sold three years later.

In 1998/99 the building was extensively converted by Loosli + Partner. The head building was then fitted out as a tourism centre, and in the hall the ‘Altes Tramdepot’ runs a restaurant with its own brewery. In 2004 the boiler house was reconstructed.

If you look closely, you will see on the main front the motifs Anselmier borrowed from the tourism of his day. And a few steps away, the small waiting shelter of the first line still stands.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Grosser Muristalden 6 · Wikipedia (de): Druckluftstrassenbahn Bern · Wikipedia (de): Strassenbahn Bern · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Anselmier · Altes Tramdepot (Website des Betriebs) · Wikidata: Q106614394