Apartment house at Luisenstrasse 6

About the building

Luisenstrasse is part of the street grid set out for Kirchenfeld by the district plan of 1881. The planners aligned several streets on buildings of the Old Town; Luisenstrasse lies on the sight line of the Münsterplattform, the cathedral terrace. On this street the Bern master builder Friedrich Marbach put up an apartment house on his own account in 1896 – he was both client and builder. Other houses by him survive in the quarter and the city, for example at Hallwylstrasse 48 and, as an early work, at Erlachstrasse 19 in the Länggasse.

The house is a Renaissance Revival building under a converted mansard hipped roof. Its rendered facades are framed by jointed pilasters, flat cornices divide them horizontally, and tall windows with richly moulded surrounds and ornamental keystones above the lintels form the vertical axes. All these elements above the strong cellar base are of sandstone.

The street front has five window axes. In the middle a narrow bay projects, further marked by a balcony on the upper floor. The north side holds only the entrance with a simple canopy, while on the south a single-storey veranda spans both window axes. The dormers follow partly the sections of the facade and partly the individual window axes.

Its state of preservation is remarkable: outside, the house still shows its original condition, including the original windows. The sandstone was restored in 2013. The building is rated as worthy of protection and belongs to the Kirchenfeld building group.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Luisenstrasse 6 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Quartiergeschichte Kirchenfeld-Brunnadern · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Hallwylstrasse 48 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Erlachstrasse 19 · Wikidata: Q128597346