Bern Historical Museum, Bern, Switzerland

The Bern Historical Museum is the second largest historical museum in Switzerland. It was designed by the Neuchâtel architect André Lambert and built in 1894. Since it was initially conceived as the Swiss National Museum (which the city of Zurich was later chosen to host), the architect took as his model various historic castles from the 15th and 16th centuries. An extension to the original museum building was completed in 2009.

The museum contains collections related to the history of Bern from prehistoric times to the present and other artefacts on permanent display from Asia, Oceania, America and Egypt. One of the most remarkable items in the collection is the Muri statuette group, a group of six Gallo-Roman bronze figurines.

Over the museum's entrance is a glass mosaic, 'The Age of History', featuring the figures of Poetry and History, made in 1900 by the Swiss painter Léo-Paul Robert.

First conceived as a temporary exhibition in 2005, the Einstein Museum became a museum dedicated to the life and work of Albert Einstein, who developed the Relativity Theory while living in Bern. The house where he lived (Einsteinhaus) in this period is also open to the public, but is located elsewhere in the city and charges separate entry fees.

References:

Wikipedia

Museums in Switzerland

User Reviews

Cindy Peng (6 months ago)
The museum is huge! We spent 2 really nice afternoons there and still haven’t been able to finish it yet. Great activity for a gloomy day alone or with company! (Could be really empty during the weekdays, and it gets a bit scary when no one is in the room with all the historically looking mannequins

Ognian Dimitrov (7 months ago)
We spent about 2 hours in the museum. The museum itself has a historical and archaeological part dedicated to the creation and history of Bern. There is also a small Egyptian museum, as well as a museum of cultures from Southeast Asia. The museum is interesting and well arranged, I recommend it.

eperke kiss (8 months ago)
Lovely place in Bern, I really like it!

caroline eghagha (9 months ago)
This museum is a two in one. There's the history museum and there's the Einstein museum and they are both really good. I discovered so much about Einstein's childhood. The objects in the other part were amaźing to see like the manual tooth drill

Flávia Mobili (9 months ago)
Really nice museum with many different things about Einstein. The first floor you can see a few Egyptian artifacts, the second floor is dedicated to Einstein and the third floor is 20th Century of Bern. To me Einstein's museum was the best, it has different galleries and it isn't completely restricted to his life. For example you can read a bit about other famous Jewish scientists. The entrance is a super cool effect with mirrors and you have many videos and documents.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

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Historic Site of the week

Cesis Castle

German crusaders known as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword began construction of the Cēsis castle (Wenden) near the hill fort in 1209. When the castle was enlarged and fortified, it served as the residence for the Order's Master from 1237 till 1561, with periodic interruptions. Its ruins are some of the most majestic castle ruins in the Baltic states. Once the most important castle of the Livonian Order, it was the official residence for the masters of the order.

In 1577, during the Livonian War, the garrison destroyed the castle to prevent it from falling into the control of Ivan the Terrible, who was decisively defeated in the Battle of Wenden (1578).

In 1598 it was incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Wenden Voivodship was created here. In 1620 Wenden was conquered by Sweden. It was rebuilt afterwards, but was destroyed again in 1703 during the Great Northern War by the Russian army and left in a ruined state. Already from the end of the 16th century, the premises of the Order's castle were adjusted to the requirements of the Cēsis Castle estate. When in 1777 the Cēsis Castle estate was obtained by Count Carl Sievers, he had his new residence house built on the site of the eastern block of the castle, joining its end wall with the fortification tower.

Since 1949, the Cēsis History Museum has been located in this New Castle of the Cēsis Castle estate. The front yard of the New Castle is enclosed by a granary and a stable-coach house, which now houses the Exhibition Hall of the Museum. Beside the granary there is the oldest brewery in Latvia, Cēsu alus darītava, which was built in 1878 during the later Count Sievers' time, but its origins date back to the period of the Livonian Order. Further on, the Cēsis Castle park is situated, which was laid out in 1812. The park has the romantic characteristic of that time, with its winding footpaths, exotic plants, and the waters of the pond reflecting the castle's ruins. Nowadays also one of the towers is open for tourists.

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