The Passing of the Transient (Angel)

History of the work

The southern end of the covered urn wall beside the crematorium in the Bremgarten cemetery bears a sgraffito with an angel. Albert Lindegger, known as Lindi, made it in 1959 together with a counterpart at the northern end that shows a couple. Both parts share the title 'Das vorüberziehende Vergängliche' (The passing transient). The lexicon SIKART counts sgraffito among the techniques Lindegger mastered and lists the crematorium commission among his works.

The Bremgarten cemetery opened on 29 December 1864 as a replacement for the Monbijou cemetery; at the time it lay far outside the town in open fields. Cremation was promoted by a cooperative whose founding the city's cemetery brochure dates to 1888, while the heritage inventory gives 1887. It had the crematorium built in 1907/08 and extended in several stages with urn halls. According to the city, cremations now account for about 90 per cent of burials in Bern.

Lindegger, born in Bern in 1904 and died in Bellinzona in 1991, was a painter, draughtsman and cartoonist. Besides his newspaper work he took on commissions for public buildings. His list of works names, for Bern, murals in the Marzili teachers' college (1952), in the cantonal police directorate (1959) and in the Haus des Sports (1964). According to Wikipedia, his sgraffiti on exterior walls are now given special protection when buildings are renovated for energy efficiency.

Since March 2026 the place has been livelier than before: the restaurant 'La Vie' has opened in two converted urn halls of the complex. The angel is best seen from the path along the urn wall; walk on to the northern end to see the matching couple.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Stadt Bern: Kunstwerke im öffentlichen Raum (opendata.swiss) · SIKART: Lindi (Albert Lindegger) · HLS: Lindi · Wikipedia (de): Albert Lindegger · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Weyermannsstrasse 1 (Krematorium) · Stadtgrün Bern: Der Bremgartenfriedhof – Ein Spaziergang mit Geschichten (2023) · Wikipedia (de): Bremgartenfriedhof · Keystone-SDA/swissinfo: Bern betritt mit Friedhofsrestaurant „La Vie“ Neuland · Südostschweiz: Restaurant in umgebauter Berner Urnenhalle nimmt Betrieb auf · Wikimedia Commons: Foto