House at Klaraweg 8

About the building

On the Obstberg, east of the Aare, Klaraweg crosses Bantigerstrasse. At Klaraweg 8 stands a rendered house from 1895, set in a garden under trees. The architect is unknown; the City of Bern building inventory records F. Barth as the client. The house is rated worthy of protection and belongs to the Obstberg building group. Like Liebegg or Laubegg, the Obstberg takes its name from a former country estate; such estates shaped the area before it was built up.

It has two and a half storeys over a square plan and a hipped roof with a truncated ridge. Sandstone elements organise the façades: pilaster strips with visible joints, a string course and a crowning cornice, and window surrounds designed differently on each floor. On the north-west side the staircase projects in the middle; on the south-east side there is a side projection and a corner veranda. The steep gables of these projections carry arched boards with cut-out ornament.

The heritage office sees the house as an early example of the historicism that was already taking up forms of the Heimatstil, the Swiss vernacular revival. The cast-iron parts are carefully made: the delicate brackets of the small canopy and the railings of the stair and the terrace.

In the south corner of the plot, numbered 8A, stands a small garden house from 1896, lightly built of wood. House, garden and garden house together form an outdoor space of heritage interest. The surrounding district was almost entirely built up between 1890 and 1914; the first houses were the brick buildings of master builder Jakob Glur on nearby Obstbergweg.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Klaraweg 8, 8A · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Obstberg · Wikidata: Q138850670