Villa at Muristrasse 15

About the building

Behind a strip of green, set back a little from the Muristrasse, stands an almost cube-shaped rendered house under a hipped roof whose eaves end nearly flush with the facade. At the south-west corner, facing the street, sits a richly articulated cylindrical oriel turret. It is the feature by which the house is recognised.

The villa was built in 1897/98 by Angelo Nottaris, who according to the building inventory was also the client. It belongs to a small group: together with the neighbouring houses Muristrasse 17, 17A and 19, which show very similar forms, it forms an almost symmetrical ensemble. A builder putting up several houses to the same pattern on his own account was nothing unusual in Bern’s outer districts in those years.

The most striking features are the elaborate and idiosyncratic window surrounds and hoods. Originally they matched decorative gables on the roof and a crest along the ridge. In 1941 the decorative gables were replaced by broad dormer structures. Above the banded ground floor, a profiled moulding between the storeys and a cornice divide the facades horizontally, while pilasters, with reliefs on the upper floor, stress the vertical. The windows are evenly spaced, and some parts of the facades project slightly. On the east side there is a veranda.

Because the neighbouring houses 17, 17A and 19 show very similar forms, the group reads as a unit from the street. Despite various alterations, the villa is considered essentially intact, and the building inventory lists it as worthy of protection. Standing on the Muristrasse, compare the oriel turret with the neighbouring house at number 19: the kinship between the buildings is easy to see.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Muristrasse 15 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Muristrasse 19 · Wikipedia (de): Liste der Kulturgüter in Bern/Kirchenfeld-Schosshalde (Nord) · Wikidata: Q128122766