Villa at Elfenstrasse 20

About the building

Elfenstrasse in the Kirchenfeld district is lined with villas, many of which now house embassies and residences. Number 20 is a clearly structured, strictly symmetrical, roughly rendered building with a mansard hipped roof. The Bern architect Albert Gerster designed it in 1907 for F. Fellenberg. The street façade was built broadly to the plans, but the details were simplified throughout.

The façade rests on a base of roughly dressed limestone. Bands of render separate the window bays from each other. In the middle a narrow central section with three closely set bays projects slightly, crowned by a triangular pediment with a horizontal oval window framed by a sculpted sash. In front of the entrance stands a porch of cast stone with a richly framed cartouche; it carries a small balcony with a curving wrought-iron railing. All windows have flat arches at the top and only hinted keystones. The side fronts are simpler, and the extensions there look rather restless.

One detail only strikes you at second glance: the wrought-iron gate in the boundary wall lies exactly on the axis of the front door, and its two curved leaves repeat a shape that recurs throughout the building. The enclosure of the plot dates from the time of construction.

In 1928 the Republic of Poland acquired the property. Today the villa is the residence of the Polish ambassador, and a new building in the garden houses the consular section. The history of the Polish legation in the Second World War is linked to the place: a group around the envoy Aleksander Ładoś obtained forged passports of Latin American states, mainly Paraguay, for Polish Jews, among them people in the Warsaw Ghetto. Around 4000 such passports were delivered. A memorial plaque at the entrance recalls this rescue effort. The city building inventory lists the villa as worthy of protection.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Elfenstrasse 20 · Wikipedia (de): Villa Elfenstrasse 20 · swissinfo.ch: Wie ein polnischer Gesandter in Bern hunderte Juden rettete (10.8.2017) · Wikidata Q128877580