Villette villas on Laupenstrasse

About the building

In the Villette district, on Laupenstrasse, three rendered houses stand in a shared line behind front gardens and tall trees. They were built around 1846/47 to a common plan, probably by Rudolf Stettler, and in the view of the city's heritage office form a classicist ensemble of remarkably uniform style that is unique in Bern.

The two outer houses are two-storey villas with flat, wide hipped roofs. On the street side each has a three-bay central section of sandstone crowned by a triangular pediment; towards the garden this section is wider and spans five bays. The eastern house, number 41, is called „Thurmau“. On the western one, number 49, pilasters flank the main door, reached by a double flight of steps, and a wooden veranda stands in the south-west corner.

In the middle stands the „Landhof“, number 45, a three-storey apartment house. The ground floor is of sandstone, the rendered upper floors are divided by sandstone corner strips and cornices, and the entrance sits in an aedicule, a frame of supports and pediment. It is considered one of the oldest rental buildings outside the Old Town. To the south lies a garden terraced with sandstone walls, with paths laid out in a cross and a garden house. Behind number 49, by contrast, an English landscape garden was created rather than a French one.

Today the „Thurmau“ is the home base of the Galerie Kornfeld; as early as 1980/81 the firm had a single-storey gallery extension built in the garden. The Landhof and number 49 were altered in 1903 and have been protected since 2008 and 1996 respectively, the garden of number 49 since 1998. The group's name speaks of a „Turmbau“, while the building inventory calls the eastern house „Thurmau“. From the street, look for the classicist fountain in the front garden of number 41.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Laupenstrasse 41 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Laupenstrasse 45, 45A · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Laupenstrasse 49 · Wikipedia (de): Galerie Kornfeld Auktionen · Wikidata: Villette-Villen (Q29651748)