Bern-Jura Railway administration building on Hochschulstrasse
The château-like office building at Hochschulstrasse 6 in Bern was built in 1876/77 for the Bern-Jura Railway and later housed the SBB general management.
- Address
- Hochschulstrasse 6
- Built
- 1876/77, wings 1901/02
- Architect
- Louis-Frédéric de Rutté; extension Ernst Hünerwadel
- Style
- French early Baroque (historicism)
- Today
- University of Bern
- Protection
- cultural property of national significance (KGS A), worthy of protection (Bauinventar)
About the building
On the Grosse Schanze above the Old Town, a row of public buildings lines the edge of the slope. The oldest administrative building of this quarter is the château-like house at Hochschulstrasse 6. Together with the building on the other side of Schanzenstrasse it forms a kind of gateway to the Länggasse district, and its silhouette can be seen from far away.
It was built after a competition among three invited architects by Louis-Frédéric de Rutté, as the headquarters of the Bern-Jura Railway. The dates differ slightly: the city's building inventory gives 1876/77, the GSK art guide 1876 and Wikidata 1877. At first it was a long, straight building. In 1901/02 Ernst Hünerwadel, working for the Jura-Simplon Railway, added two wings at the back, creating a U-shaped complex; the art guide dates these wings to 1901–1903.
The style follows the French early Baroque. Projecting corner and central sections with their own mansard roofs set crosswise divide the three-storey building. The ground floor is of banded sandstone, and above it the facade is mostly rendered. On the central section of the south side, with the main entrance, double columns, double pilasters and broad pilaster strips with lion heads follow one another from bottom to top. The sculptural decoration was made by Dino Laurenti.
The GSK art guide describes the house as the former headquarters of the Jura-Simplon Railway and the seat of the SBB general management; the entrance hall was restored in 1993–1995. Today it belongs to the University of Bern, and according to Wikidata the university archive is among its users. It is protected as a cultural property of national significance. When passing by, look for the lion heads on the top floor above the main entrance.
Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Hochschulstrasse 6 · KGS-Inventar / GSK Kunstführer: Ehem. Hauptsitz der Jura-Simplon-Bahn (KGS 00691), über Web Archive · Wikidata: Verwaltungsgebäude Bern-Jura-Bahn (Q19362480)
Buildings nearby
Main Building of the University of Bern90 mSupreme Court of the Canton of Bern120 mResidential and commercial building at Falkenplatz 22/24 and Hallerstrasse 1170 mFormer Bollwerk post office330 mHotel Schweizerhof350 mTraditionArtwork · 70 mNarcissusArtwork · 80 mAmong VulturesArtwork · 90 mClassification and address: Bauinventar © Amt für Kultur des Kantons Bern · Object sheet (PDF, German) · Wikidata. Found a mistake? Write to hallo@uebrig.ch.