Käfigturm

About the building

Where Marktgasse meets Bärenplatz and Spitalgasse, the Käfigturm stands across the street. Trams and buses pass through its gateway, while the second arch, in the annex built against its south side, is for pedestrians. The tower is about 49 metres high to the knob of its weather vane. Its west side, facing those arriving, is more richly decorated with corner stones and pilasters than the east side.

Its roots go back to around 1256, when Bern received a second ring of walls under Savoyard protection and built a gate tower here. With the town's expansion in 1345 it lost its role as a fortification. After the Zytglogge burned in 1405, the prisoners were moved here; from then on the tower served mainly as a prison, hence its name, which means "cage tower".

The present building was commissioned by the Republic of Bern and designed by the master builder Joseph Plepp. The city's building inventory dates its construction to 1641–1644, the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland to 1638–1643. After Plepp's death in 1642, Antoni Graber took over the works. By then the tower no longer had any military value; it was meant above all as a sign of state authority in the townscape. Above the gateway is a coat-of-arms panel with two Bernese shields and the imperial eagle, carved in 1643 by the sculptor Johannes Hülscher. The same year appears in gold on the belfry below the spire.

In 1691 the clockmakers Jacob Hogg and Jakob Kuntz from Zofingen installed a clockwork with two dials. In 1886 a petition called for the tower to be demolished to ease traffic; the cantonal government refused. In 1897 the last prisoners moved to a new district prison. In 1902/03 the second arch was cut through the annex, and until 1977 the state archives stored court records here. The tower has been under federal protection since 1908 and was fully restored from 1977 to 1980.

Today the association Polit-Forum Bern, backed by the city, the canton and the Burgergemeinde of Bern, runs exhibitions and events on political topics in the tower and calls it the "Democracy Tower". Look up at the dark red clock faces and you will notice that they have only an hour hand.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Marktgasse 67 · Wikipedia (de): Käfigturm · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Joseph Plepp · Polit-Forum Bern · Wikidata: Q1588585