Villa at Kirchenfeldstrasse 90

About the building

A few steps from Thunplatz, behind an old garden gate, stands a pale rendered villa under a mansard roof. It was built in 1901. The design came from the Bernese architect Henry Berthold von Fischer (1861–1949); the client was the Kirchenfeld building company. According to the quarter history of the city's building inventory, this company had ready-to-move-in villas built in the new Kirchenfeld district and only then looked for buyers, in order to speed up the sale of building plots.

The house follows the Louis XVI style. Rusticated pilaster strips frame the facades, the base is made of limestone slabs, and all window surrounds and architectural details are sandstone. Towards the street a three-bay central projection with a triangular pediment steps forward; in the pediment sits an upright oval window inside a laurel wreath. On either side, one window bay has a ground-floor bay window. The garden side has four bays: panels link the windows into vertical bands, draperies decorate them between the ground and first floors, and in the centre an open stair leads up to two French windows.

On the roof, six symmetrically placed chimneys with brick caps catch the eye. On the street, the gate posts with plant-shaped finials survive from the time of construction. The large, park-like garden also contains a small triumphal arch carried by two pairs of Ionic columns.

Von Fischer had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and opened his own office in Bern in 1894; he built almost nothing but villas. Kirchenfeldstrasse 90 belongs to the Thunplatz villa ensemble, which is listed as a cultural property of national importance; Wikidata records the individual building as a cultural property of cantonal or local importance. In 2014 the house received a step-free entrance, a new stair to the attic floor and restored windows; in the same year it was placed under protection by contract.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Kirchenfeldstrasse 90 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Quartiergeschichte Kirchenfeld-Brunnadern · Wikipedia (de): Liste der Kulturgüter in Bern/Kirchenfeld-Schosshalde (Süd) – Villenensemble Thunplatz, KGS-Nr. 738 · Wikipedia (de): Henry Berthold von Fischer · Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek: An architectural treasure chest – the work of Henry B. von Fischer · Wikidata: Q139407005