Moses Fountain on Münsterplatz
In front of the Minster stands Moses with the Ten Commandments. His finger points at the ban on making images, while he himself stands on a column as a painted figure.
- Artist
- Nikolaus Sporrer
- Year
- 1791
- Material
- Stone, painted
- Location
- Münsterplatz
- Access
- Free, around the clock
The Mosesbrunnen is younger than most of the Old Town's figure fountains. A fountain with a figure of Moses already stood here in 1544. The present fountain, however, dates from 1791. The figure is by the sculptor Nikolaus Sporrer from Konstanz; the trough and column were probably designed by Niklaus Sprüngli.
Rays instead of horns
On his head, Moses has two bundles of rays of light. They go back to a passage in the Bible: when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, his face shone. A Hebrew word in this passage was long also understood as "horned". That is why many old figures of Moses have horns. In Bern they are rays, arranged a little like horns.
The ban on images, of all things
In his left hand Moses holds the two tablets with the Ten Commandments. With his right he points at the second commandment: you shall not make yourself an image. That fits Reformed Bern, where the images were removed from the Minster in 1528. It is still a little paradoxical, because Moses himself is a brightly painted figure.
Good to know
The fountain stands on Münsterplatz, a few steps from the Minster's main portal with the Last Judgement. It was restored around 1951 and in 2014/2015. The fountain gives drinking water.
Photos from people in Bern
Nearby
Roof gargoyle30 mMain portal of Bern Minster / Last Judgement50 mSamson Fountain (Simsonbrunnen)60 mMusica with Harp70 mAdd a photo
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The main portal of Bern MinsterArtThe figure fountains of the Old TownArtArt in Bern: the mapMapData: Kultur Stadt Bern (open data “Kunst im öffentlichen Raum”), © OpenStreetMap contributors. Text: Richard Červenka, Bärn Kit. Found a mistake? Write to hallo@uebrig.ch.