Erlacherhof

About the building

Walking down Junkerngasse, you find a gap in the closed row of houses at number 47. Behind an arcade and a wrought-iron gate lies a courtyard framed by the palace and its two side wings. A forecourt of this kind, once meant for carriages to drive into, is unique in Bern's old town. The arcade in front is unusual for this type of building; it is explained by the Bernese rule that property owners had to provide a covered passage along the street.

The client was Hieronymus von Erlach; according to the city, the plans were drawn by Albrecht Stürler, while other sources call Stürler only the probable architect. The palace was built from 1745 to 1752 on the site of two older houses, one of which had once belonged to the family of Adrian von Bubenberg. It follows the French model of a town house between courtyard and garden. Because both client and architect died in 1748, Hieronymus' son Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach completed the building, probably with the help of the sculptor Johann August Nahl the Elder. At his request, the pediments of the two side wings carry his father's initials: "HvE".

In 1795 the family sold the house to the master butcher Albrecht Hegi and the merchant David Rudolf Bay. After the fall of the old Bernese republic in 1798 it served as headquarters of the French general Guillaume Brune, later as a school for the Matte quarter and, until 1831, as the seat of the French embassy. In 1832, when the city authorities were already based here, cartridges were discovered in the Erlacherhof that a group of patricians had procured against the new liberal cantonal government; the members of that commission were charged with high treason. From 1848 to 1857 the palace was the seat of the Federal Council.

Since 1857 the city administration has again used the Erlacherhof. The mayor's office, the presidential department and the city chancellery work here, and the city government meets here every week. Behind the house lies a raised garden terrace above the Aare valley. Its present garden, with box-edged beds, two rows of globe maples and an oval fountain basin, was laid out in 1979 after older pictures.

From the courtyard it is worth looking up: the initials "HvE" in the pediments recall the client, who did not live to see his palace finished.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Untere Altstadt (alle Adressen) · Stadt Bern: Erlacherhof · Wikipedia (de): Erlacherhof · Reto Bleuer: Die Erlacherhof-Verschwörung, Blog des Schweizerischen Nationalmuseums (2025) · Wikidata: Q1355223