Apartment house at Seminarstrasse 22

About the building

The house at Seminarstrasse 22 looks like a villa but is an apartment building of two and a half storeys. It was built in 1906 to plans by the Bern architect E. Senften-Brönnimann; the client is also recorded as Senften-Brönnimann, resident in Adelboden. A year earlier he had built the villa at Seminarstrasse 18 right next door.

In both houses the basic form is a cube broken up with the same means. Unlike the neighbouring house, whose upper and roof floors are covered with decorative half-timbering, number 22 shows timber framing only on the knee wall and in the gables. The rendered building has toothed corner pilasters and window surrounds. The street side is marked by a veranda with round-arched openings, topped by a terrace, and a round masonry corner oriel. In the roof storey it passes over a corbel into a polygonal half-timbered top, crowned by a pointed cap with wrought-iron ornament.

The roof is rich too: the cross gables show open timber structures, and the dormers carry small hipped roofs with decorative linings and knobs. Fine wrought-iron railings in Art Nouveau style survive on the terrace and the entrance steps.

The best part is visible from the street. The fence stands on a base of polygonal masonry; its bars link a wavy band with evenly spaced flowers from which pendants hang. The city inventory counts the garden gate among the finest works of Art Nouveau in Bern: the artificial-stone posts are inventively decorated and the gate itself is masterfully forged. The house was altered in 1961, when garages were added on the west side. It is rated as worthy of protection.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Seminarstrasse 22 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Seminarstrasse 18 (Nachbarbau) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Kirchenfeld · Wikidata: Q138809400