Fischer Post Houses

About the building

On the north side of the Postgasse, just east of the buildings of the State Chancellery, stand two arcaded houses to which the street owes its name. Until 1798 it was officially called Hormatsgasse; in everyday use the new name only caught on some seventy years later. The two houses mark the start of an arcade that runs, with a short gap, down to the Postgasshalde.

They were built for Beat Fischer (1641–1698). He sat on the Grand Council from 1673 and in 1675 was granted the lease of the Bernese postal monopoly for 25 years. Through agreements with other members of the Confederation and with foreign states he made his post the largest postal business in the country and one of the fastest postal services in Europe. In 1680 Emperor Leopold I made him a knight of the Empire; in 1683 he bought the lordship of Reichenbach near Zollikofen. He had the houses built by Abraham Dünz between 1686 and 1694. Later Daniel Stürler gave house number 66 a new facade for his heirs.

The head office of the post was here until 1832. The „large office“ managed the whole network, with the post offices in Bernese territory, the border posts and the offices in Fribourg, Solothurn and Neuchâtel; the „small office“ handled the city's mail. The neighbouring Antonierhaus to the east held the saddlery and the coach house. Because the Fischer postmasters refused to swear an oath to the new government, the houses were confiscated in 1831 and passed to the city. The Minster parish set up a girls' school in number 64 and a boys' school in number 66, and Carl Diwy converted both into a school building in 1867–1869. Today they are used by a vocational school for the retail trade.

Each house stands on three round-arched arcades with massive piers. Number 64 has three storeys and six window bays; its only ornament is the date 1694, the year it was completed. Number 66 is half a storey taller, has five bays and, with its emphasised centre and banded corners, shows Régence forms. Under its arcade the doorway is worth a look: the grille above the door shows a fish, the family's emblem, between two post horns. Next to it a metal-clad shutter with a letter slot has survived. Classicist stair galleries were added in the shared courtyard in 1868, and in 1977 it was roofed over as a break hall. The houses are cultural property of national importance.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Untere Altstadt, alle Adressen (Liste ohne Einzelbeschreibung) · Wikipedia (de): Fischersche Posthäuser · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Fischer von Reichenbach, Beat · Wikidata: Q19362478