Small house of 1829 at Bolligenstrasse 141c

About the building

On the hill on Bolligenstrasse, on today’s grounds of the Waldau psychiatric clinic, a small two-storey house stands next to a large horseshoe-shaped building. This Stöckli (a small secondary dwelling) was built in 1829; who designed it and for whom has not been recorded. The City of Bern’s building inventory lists it under the name Ausserkrankenhaus and classes it as worthy of protection.

The house is rendered and carries a broken hipped roof. On the north side stands a polygonal stair tower with a pyramid roof. The south façade has five rectangular windows on each floor and is correspondingly bright, while the other sides have only a few windows. Banded corner pilaster strips, a string course between the floors and a cornice beneath the roof articulate the walls.

The small house took this articulation from its neighbour. The Althaus next door was built in 1745 to 1749 as a Tollhaus, an asylum for the mentally ill, to plans by Samuel Lutz under master builder Abraham Wild. It was extended with wings in 1768 to 1770 and in 1784/85, and received its present appearance in 1899 to 1901. In 1765 a council decision merged the house for the sick (Siechenhaus) and the asylum; from then on the complex was called Ausserkrankenhaus.

The Stöckli was renovated and converted inside in 1983 to 1985, in the same period as the Althaus. Both buildings stand in an open space that the heritage department describes as worth preserving. Standing in front of the south side, you can see how the small house repeats the Baroque forms of its large neighbour on a small scale.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bolligenstrasse 141C · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bolligenstrasse 141 (Althaus) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Waldau · Wikidata: Wohnstock (1829)