Kreuzgassbrunnen

About the building

Where Kreuzgasse crosses the main street of the old town, a fountain without a figure stands at the lower end of Kramgasse in front of house number 5. Instead of a statue it is crowned by a slender obelisk. It thus belongs to the group of Bernese fountains without figures that were made in the 18th and 19th centuries; behind it lies the guild house zum Affen.

The present fountain is already the fourth at this crossroads. A first, probably wooden fountain is mentioned in the city accounts before 1433; it probably stood at the top of today's Gerechtigkeitsgasse, near the judge's seat of the time. In 1520 it was followed by a stone fountain with an armed bear holding the Bernese banner. It was removed in 1646 and later set up again in front of the Aarberg gate. The third fountain was made from 1657 to 1659 by the Fribourg stonemason Dominicus Gall, now at the lower end of Kramgasse, with a Corinthian column, four spouts and an octagonal basin. It was taken down in 1778.

The present fountain of Solothurn limestone was built in the same year; Wikipedia gives 1778/79. Who designed it is not recorded in any account. Wikipedia attributes the design to Niklaus Sprüngli, who had been the Bernese master builder since 1770: his formal language matches works securely attributed to him, and a catalogue note of 1804 mentions a model of the fountain made by his own hand. It was carried out by a Master Reist and J. C. Wieser, who according to the accounts worked as sculptor and gilder.

The fountain is regarded as the original form of the Bernese obelisk fountain. It is a cultural property of national importance and, like the other old-town fountains, supplies drinking water from the Energie Wasser Bern network.

Standing at the crossroads, you can look for the site of the first fountain at the top of Gerechtigkeitsgasse and compare the path the location took over four centuries.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Wikipedia (de): Kreuzgassbrunnen · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Niklaus Sprüngli · Wikidata: Q19362501