Flora Fountain (Florabrunnen)

History of the work

On a small rise in the Florapark, a semicircular roof rests on six columns with Ionic capitals. Beneath its vault a mosaic with gilded ornaments gleams, and below it stands a female figure in a long robe, holding a flower basket at her side: Flora. At the front, three lion heads spout water into a semicircular basin; a fourth supplies a small trough at the back. On the left of the stone pedestal is the signature „A. Heer“.

The fountain was created for the national exhibition that Bern hosted in 1914. Otto Roos designed the round temple, August Heer made the figure; during the exhibition the ensemble stood outside the Restaurant Studerstein. The city then bought it for 500 francs and in 1915 had it moved to the small rise then known as Oberhübeli. Like the Halenbrunnen in the Länggasse, it is made of reinforced artificial stone. As a possible model the building inventory names a Dresden fountain of 1906 on the Albertplatz.

The site was once part of a cemetery: the park formed the south-west corner of the old Monbijou burial ground, which the Bremgarten cemetery replaced in 1865. While the rest was built over, this corner was turned into a promenade in 1916 and named after the fountain. The fountain underwent a complete restoration in September 2016; it carries drinking water from the Energie Wasser Bern network.

August Heer, born in Basel on 7 June 1867 and died in Arlesheim on 7 March 1922, studied in Munich, Berlin and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He made monuments, tombs and portrait busts, for example of Albert Anker and Jacob Burckhardt. In 1914 he received a gold medal: according to the German-language Wikipedia at the National Exhibition for the Flora, according to SIKART and the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland at the national art exhibition. Otto Roos, born in Basel on 20 May 1887 and died there on 24 November 1945, was a painter and sculptor; in the winter of 1909/10 he studied with Aristide Maillol in Paris.

When you visit, look up: the golden mosaic stars shine beneath the roof.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Sulgeneckstrasse NN (Florabrunnen) · Wikipedia (de): Florabrunnen (Bern) · Wikipedia (de): Jakob August Heer · SIKART Lexikon: August Heer · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: August Heer · SIKART Lexikon: Otto Roos · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Otto Roos · Bau-Recherche Florabrunnen (Wikidata Q29651741) · Wikimedia Commons: Foto des Werks (Ansicht)