Villa at Elfenstrasse 10

About the building

Elfenstrasse in Kirchenfeld has several villas from around 1900. Number 10 stands out for its restless, many-part shape. It was built in 1905 by the Bern practice Bracher & Widmer for F. Kern and mixes Heimatstil (the Swiss vernacular revival), Art Nouveau and neo-Baroque forms; the sculptural decoration draws on late Gothic. Wilhelm Bracher and Friedrich Widmer had founded their office in 1896, and the building inventory's quarter history counts them among the important Art Nouveau architects in Kirchenfeld.

Above a low base of grey-white limestone and granite rises a rendered building with cast stone and half-timbering. Hardly any opening is like another. On the street side there is a bay window with a round-arched double window on the left, and on the right a front block with an entrance loggia whose flat roof with a balustrade forms a terrace. Behind it a half-round tower with a curved spire rises above the main roof, and next to it stands a two-storey wing under a half-hipped roof, with half-timbering on the upper floor, a balcony and a triple window. On the south-east side, flower reliefs decorate a veranda bay. Around 1920 a plainer extension was added at the north-west corner.

The original enclosure also takes in the neighbouring house, Elfenstrasse 14, built by the same office. Look at the posts of the garden gate: their tops show abstracted Art Nouveau forms.

The house was sought after by diplomats early on. When the British minister Esme Howard was looking for a building for his legation around 1912, he considered Elfenstrasse 10 more suitable than Thunstrasse 50, which was eventually bought, according to Room for Diplomacy. Today, according to Wikidata, the villa belongs to Italy; Room for Diplomacy calls it the Italian residence. The chancery of the Italian embassy is in the neighbouring house, Elfenstrasse 14.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Elfenstrasse 10 · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Bracher, Wilhelm · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Quartiergeschichte Kirchenfeld-Brunnadern · Room for Diplomacy: Switzerland – Berne + Geneva · Ambasciata d'Italia Berna (Kanzlei Elfenstrasse 14) · Wikidata: Q117451497