House at Münstergasse 30

About the building

The façade of Münstergasse 30 differs clearly from the Baroque fronts of many of its neighbours. Its windows are grouped in rows and stepped like a pyramid towards the top; on the third floor there is a three-light mullioned and transomed window. Apart from the arcade arch on the ground floor, which was renewed in the early 19th century, the house is regarded by the art guide of the Society for the History of Swiss Art as an excellently preserved late Gothic town house.

It was built in 1569–70 for Jakob Tillmann. Wikidata, by contrast, gives 1670 as the year of construction, which fits neither the late Gothic building style nor the other sources. Towards the courtyard the house has a façade with coupled windows and a round newel stair in a tower. From the stair tower a gallery leads across the courtyard to a small wing with a privy and kitchen on the Ehgraben, the narrow ditch between the backs of two rows of houses that once took waste water and refuse.

In 1920 the courtyard was built over on two floors and the interior fittings were removed. The late Gothic framework of the house survived, with plank ceilings on wall beams and curved brackets. On the third floor, according to the art guide, a transverse plank ceiling without a supporting beam spans 5.4 metres. During the conversion of 1987–89 the roof space was converted, the façade carefully repaired and the mullioned window on the second floor reconstructed. The unclad eaves were also restored; they correspond to those of the late medieval façade.

The house is listed as cultural property of national importance. It lies in the Lower Old Town, where, according to the building inventory, Münstergasse and Postgasse are among the lanes that show most vividly the picture of a late medieval town of craftsmen and burghers; the old town is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. Look at the stepped rows of windows: they show what a Bernese street front looked like before the Baroque rebuilding of the city.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: KGS-Inventar / GSK Kunstführer: Münstergasse 30 (KGS 9110), archivierte Fassung · Wikipedia (de): Liste der Kulturgüter in Bern/Innere Stadt (Ost) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Untere Altstadt, alle Adressen · Wikipedia (de): Ehgraben · Wikidata: Q19362494