Granary at the Brünnengut

About the building

On the meadow east of the Baroque garden at the Brünnengut stands a small wooden granary. It rests on a timber sill frame and is built as a plank-and-post structure with sturdy posts and braces. A hipped roof covers it, and the upper storey projects a little beyond the lower one on all sides. The two storeys are framed separately.

The building did not originally stand here. According to the city's building inventory it was the granary of the Bümpliz parsonage and stood west of it on the land that supported the parish. When the parsonage was demolished in 1986, the granary was moved to the Brünnengut; the inventory entry for the building group, however, puts a question mark after the parsonage. The builder was probably the parish of Bümpliz. The granary is dated to the second half of the 18th century; Wikidata gives the year 1800.

It belongs to a type already known in the 17th century. Unlike many granaries, however, it has no outside galleries, and the upper floor is reached from inside. The inventory counts it among the last examples of its kind from the time when Bümpliz was still a farming village and lists it as worthy of protection. It describes its present site as rather makeshift.

The Brünnengut itself is a former country estate with a manor house, a farmhouse, a pavilion and a French garden with box hedges. The granary completes the ensemble mainly when seen from a distance.

A detail: note the upper storey projecting all round above the sturdy corner posts.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Brünnenstrasse 8B · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Brünnengut · Wikidata: Q114411288