St. Florian

History of the work

At the fire station in the Forsthaus at Murtenstrasse 98 stands a stainless steel sculpture depicting Saint Florian. The Bernese metal sculptor Housi Knecht made it in 2016. On his website he lists it among his well-known projects as “St. Florian der Schutzpatron” (St Florian the patron saint), a sculpture for Bern's professional fire brigade.

The station was still new at the time. The city had held an architectural competition for it in 2006; on 22 September 2014 the keys were handed over to the fire brigade. The building is 111 metres long and 35 metres wide, and the training tower is about 35 metres high. The previous new building for the fire brigade, the depot on Viktoriastrasse, was about 80 years older. Security director Reto Nause justified the new location at the time by its proximity to the motorway: from here, he said, the whole city could be reached within a few minutes. Since then, the department for fire service, civil protection and neighbourhood affairs has also worked under one roof.

Housi Knecht, whose real name is Hans Knecht, was born in Bern in 1951. At 20 he emigrated to Australia, but came back and opened his first studio in Bern's old town in 1971. The Swiss art lexicon SIKART lists him as a metal sculptor who makes fountains, reliefs and action art. He became known, among other things, for bears and cats in steel, often combined with water and light. In 2008 he showed sculptures in the Sphinx hall on the Jungfraujoch. Since 2014 he and his wife have run the Schlössli Rubigen as an art and culture park.

In his list of projects Knecht explicitly calls the saint a patron, and the work is dedicated to the professional fire brigade. Passing along Murtenstrasse, you see the stainless steel figure in front of a building made entirely for emergency work: on the ground floor is the large hall for the first fire engine.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Housi Knecht: Bekannte Projekte · Housi Knecht: Über mich · SIKART: Housi Knecht · Stadt Bern: Referat Stadtbaumeister Thomas Pfluger, Schlüsselübergabe Stützpunkt Forsthaus West, 22. 9. 2014 · Stadt Bern: Grusswort Gemeinderat Reto Nause, Schlüsselübergabe Stützpunkt Forsthaus West, 22. 9. 2014 · Plattform J: Housi Knecht auf dem Jungfraujoch (2008) · Wikimedia Commons: Edelstahlplastik Heiliger Florian (Housi Knecht 2016)