Former tram shelter at Grosser Muristalden 1A

About the building

Near the lower end of the Grosser Muristalden, close to the bear pit, stands a small timber building that many people walk past: a board-clad post-and-beam structure under a shallow gable roof. The gable field is made of sawn decorative boards, and small board finials sit along the roof edges and at the corners.

The little building was a shelter of Bern's first tramway. From 1 October 1890 it ran from the bear pit via the railway station to the Bremgarten cemetery, powered by compressed air. Wooden waiting shelters were put up at the time by the cemetery, by the Inselspital hospital and by the bear pit. The building inventory dates this one to around 1890 and attributes it, probably, to the Technisches Bureau Anselmier & Gautschi, with the Berner Tramway-Gesellschaft probably as client.

Behind the firm was the engineer Gaston Anselmier (1840–1909). He had founded it in Bern in 1866, planned roads, railways and river works, and played a leading part in the first tram line. The compressed-air tram ran until 1901; none of its vehicles survives. Together with the depot, this shelter is one of the few structures that still recall that period.

The inventory describes the long-overlooked little building as a picturesque part of the street furniture around the bear pit and the Nydegg bridge. It rates it as worth protecting, not least because, together with the old tram depot at Grosser Muristalden 6, it documents the early history of Bern's trams.

A detail to look for: the fretwork boards in the gable. Very close by, the former public toilet is another timber building from the same years.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Grosser Muristalden 1A · Wikipedia (de): Druckluftstrassenbahn Bern · Wikipedia (de): Strassenbahn Bern · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Anselmier · Wikidata: Q138840943