Villa at Thunstrasse 67

About the building

Thunstrasse runs east from Thunplatz past several villas by Henry Berthold von Fischer. Number 67 was built in 1903, like its neighbours for the Kirchenfeld building company. The house shows the forms of the Louis XVI style and, in the view of the heritage office, has kept its elegant original state remarkably well.

The smoothly rendered facades are framed by rusticated pilaster strips, and a narrow string course separates the two storeys. The rectangular windows have layered frames. The street side is in two parts: in the western part, a shallow three-light bay sits on the ground floor and serves as a balcony above. The eastern part projects like a pavilion and has its own mansard roof; instead of the usual gabled dormers it is decorated with a dormer under a curved hood topped by a pine cone.

The entrance on the side is marked by a semicircular porch. The western garden side ends in a triangular pediment with a round window in the centre. In front of the ground floor is a veranda, to which a round garden pavilion with a flat dome and fluted Ionic columns was added in 1904 – the detail to look for from the garden fence.

The plot is very large and still enclosed by its original fence; on one side it is lined by a row of plane trees. Later additions were a double garage in 1954 and a renovation in 1994. Von Fischer, trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, built almost nothing but villas; Wikidata also assigns the house to the Louis XVI style.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Thunstrasse 67 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Thunstrasse 68 (Fischer, mehrere Villen im Umfeld) · Wikipedia (de): Henry Berthold von Fischer · Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek: An architectural treasure chest – the work of Henry B. von Fischer · Wikidata: Q128793073