Wash and bake house at Bolligenstrasse 133a

About the building

On the Waldau site on Bolligenstrasse stands a group of old buildings whose history goes back to the late Middle Ages. In 1491 Bern moved its house for lepers from Haspelgässchen to the Breitfeld in the parish of Bolligen; in the same year work began on the chapel, which was certainly complete by 1501. In 1598/99 the master of the leper house received a new residence, the Siechenschlössli, and in the 18th century the complex was considerably extended.

The wash and bake house, number 133a, belongs to this phase of expansion. It was built from 1762 to 1764, together with a second single-storey service building (no. 135a), to plans by Niklaus Sprüngli. With these two buildings the courtyard between the Siechenschlössli and the older smallpox house took on an almost closed form. In 1765 a council decision merged the leper house and the asylum; from then on the complex was called the Ausserkrankenhaus.

Sprüngli (1725–1802) was one of the leading Bern architects of the 18th century. He trained under the minster master builder Johann Jakob Jenner, lived in Paris from 1746 to 1755 and built, among other things, the Hauptwache (1766–1767) and the Hôtel de Musique (1767–1770) in Bern. He looked after many buildings for the authorities throughout Bernese territory, became stone master builder in 1770 and minster master builder in 1796.

The wash and bake house itself is a small, solidly built structure of a single storey under a mansard roof. Rusticated sandstone pilasters mark the corners, and the irregularly placed doors and windows have sandstone frames. Its importance lies less in the building itself than in its role as the eastern edge of the courtyard it forms with the Siechenschlössli (no. 133) and building no. 135. The heritage office rates it worthy of protection and counts it as part of the Waldau building group.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bolligenstrasse 133A · Wikidata: Q138978456 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Waldau · HLS: Sprüngli, Niklaus