Baumgarten Country Estate

About the building

On Bolligenstrasse in the east of Bern, the first thing you notice is a long wall of large sandstone blocks. It encloses the former Baumgarten country estate, a small group of buildings with a manor house, a Stöckli (a small secondary house), an oven house, a farmhouse and a granary. The ensemble is listed as cultural property of regional importance; the city's heritage office values above all how little it has changed over time.

The manor house (No. 10) was built around 1740 to 1750. The city's building inventory attributes the design to the master builder Johann Paulus Nater, and the Historical-Topographical Lexicon of the City of Bern also names him as the possible builder. According to the lexicon, it replaced an older manor house from the 17th century. The two-storey house is five window bays wide and three deep and has a strongly bent hipped roof. On the entrance and garden sides the three central bays project slightly; they are worked entirely in sandstone, while the other walls are rendered. Above the door the string course curves into a shallow arched hood. On the ground floor the windows have straight lintels, upstairs segmental arches. In front of the entrance the drive forms an oval.

In 1844/45 the house was extended to the south-east, according to the lexicon to plans by Friedrich Studer. The roof was converted around 1920, and in 1957 a garage with an open garden hall was added. During the renovation of 1957/58, the lexicon says, the earlier appearance was restored. The classicist fountain with neo-Gothic decoration in front of the south-west side also dates from 1845.

The outbuildings are just as worth a look. The two-storey Stöckli (No. 8) with a mansard roof is built into the boundary wall and has a wooden gallery on columns facing the yard. Next to it is an oven and wood house with an oval trough in a round-arched niche. The farmhouse (No. 12) of 1690 has a masonry ground floor and a half-timbered upper floor; an inscription with the date is carved above the barn door. The granary (No. 12A) from the end of the 18th century originally stood north-east of the farmhouse. When the Baumgarten Ost housing estate was built in 1987, it was moved in one piece to its present site.

A detail to look for: at the entrance to the farmhouse, the street wall steps back in a semicircle, and two stone gateposts mark the way in.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bolligenstrasse 8, 8A, 10, 10B · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bolligenstrasse 12 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bolligenstrasse 12A · Historisch-Topographisches Lexikon der Stadt Bern: Baumgarten · Wikipedia (de): Liste der Kulturgüter in Bern/Kirchenfeld-Schosshalde (Nord) · Wikidata: Q29651697