The Zytglogge, Bern's Clock Tower
For almost 500 years, a hand-wound clock in the heart of Bern's Old Town has been putting on a show of bears, a rooster and a jester every hour.
A gate, a prison, then a clock
The Zytglogge stands at the mouth of Kramgasse in Bern's Old Town. Its name, Swissinfo explains, joins the local words Zyt, meaning time, and Glogge, meaning clock. It is one of the city's best-known landmarks, and its story starts long before it held a clock.
Sources disagree on when it was built. Switzerland's national tourism office says it went up in 1191 as the western gate of what was then a smaller city, making it as old as Bern itself. The Swiss federal inventory of cultural property gives 1218 to 1220, and Swissinfo describes the original tower simply as dating from the 13th century.
The federal inventory describes that first tower as the main gate of Bern's western fortifications: a shell about 19.5 m high, with walls up to 3 m thick, left open on the side facing the city.
Before it kept time, the tower had other jobs. Bern's tourism office lists it as a fortified guard tower, a prison, a lookout and a fire watchtower. Swissinfo reports that in the 1300s its upper part held women convicted of relations with clergy. In the 13th and 14th centuries, according to the federal inventory, the open side was walled up, a roof was added, and three prison floors were built inside.
Fire, and a new identity
A great fire swept Bern in 1405. According to Bern's official tourism site, the tower was rebuilt afterward and took on a new identity, first as a watchtower for spotting fires and then as the city's clock tower. The federal inventory dates the first clock in the tower to that same period, after the fire. Swissinfo, by contrast, says the 13th-century gate already had a simpler astronomical clock, so the start of timekeeping here is another point on which sources differ.
Its clock was not just a convenience. Switzerland Tourism notes that from the 16th to the 19th century, other clocks in Bern were set by the Zytglogge, making it the city's official reference for time.
The building kept changing. Four corner turrets and a tall spire were added between 1467 and 1482, then removed when the new clock went in between 1527 and 1530. A late Baroque renovation in 1770 and 1771 reshaped the arches, the oriel that holds the figures and the spire, and a complete restoration followed from 1981 to 1983.
Kaspar Brunner's 1530 mechanism
The clockwork that still runs the tower was built by the Nuremberg clockmaker Kaspar Brunner, who according to Swissinfo spent three years on it. It began operating in 1530, around the time of the Reformation. Swissinfo suggests Bern wanted the clock to show off its wealth and its independence from the Catholic Church, which until then had held a near monopoly on public timekeeping.
Remarkably, the mechanism is still fully mechanical and runs without electricity. The federal inventory notes that the clock is signed by Kaspar Brunner and dated 1530, and that its pendulum is weighted with a mortar ball of about three hundredweight. A team of four takes turns cranking up its weights by hand, and it must be wound at least once every 27 hours.
That schedule leaves no room for error. Swissinfo tells of the time a team member forgot he had swapped shifts with a colleague who was on holiday. The clock stopped, and neighbors phoned straight away to ask what had gone wrong.
The astronomical dial
The tower also carries an astronomical clock, or astrolabe. It shows far more than the hour: the phase of the moon, the date, the day of the week, the current sign of the zodiac and the times of sunrise and sunset.
Bern's tourism office explains that the dial is a model of the sky with the Earth at the center, so the sun, moon and stars appear to circle around it. Frescoes of five planetary gods from Roman mythology decorate the wall above it.
Look at the main dial as well. During a 1930 renovation, the painter Viktor Surbek added the mural that frames it. In 1610 the tower also gained copies of paintings by Gotthard Ringgli telling the legend of Bern's founding.
See also: tonight's moon phase on OnlineClock.app.
The hourly show
The real crowd-pleaser is the parade of mechanical figures. Switzerland Tourism advises gathering about five minutes before the hour, because the performance begins early.
A rooster, crowing with the help of a bellows, opens the show. A jester rings his bells, a procession of armored bears circles, and Chronos, the figure of time, turns his hourglass and waves a scepter with each strike. Swissinfo notes that the bears circle as many times as the hour being struck, so at 11 o'clock they go around 11 times. A golden lion's head watches from beside Chronos.
Finally, the golden Hans von Thann, high on the tower, strikes the hour on the bell. Sources differ on his age: Swissinfo says he was added in the 18th century, while the federal inventory lists him among the original 1530 figures, along with the hourglass man and the rooster. The inventory dates the bear procession to 1610 and the jester to 1642.
According to Swissinfo, all the figures move together only at midday, so noon is the best time to see the complete performance.
Visiting the Zytglogge
Anyone can watch the hourly show for free from the street, but the clockwork inside is visited with a guide. Bern Welcome runs 60-minute tours starting at 2:15 p.m., in German, French and English, with groups capped at 19 people and 130 steps to climb. Tours run daily from April to October and on Saturdays the rest of the year, with extra daily tours between Christmas and New Year, and booking ahead is recommended.
The tower is surrounded by other history. The whole of Bern's Old Town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, and a short walk down Kramgasse, at number 49, is the apartment where Albert Einstein lived. Bern's tourism office says Einstein lived in the city from 1903 to 1905 and developed his theory of relativity there, with 1905 as his most productive year. The apartment is now a small museum.
See also: what time it is in Bern right now on OnlineClock.app.
Questions people ask
Where is the Zytglogge?
At the mouth of Kramgasse in the Old Town of Bern, Switzerland, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
When does the Zytglogge show start?
Shortly before each hour. Switzerland Tourism recommends arriving about five minutes before the hour, and all the figures move together only at noon.
How old is the Zytglogge clock?
The mechanism by Kaspar Brunner has been running since 1530. The tower itself is older, though sources date it differently: 1191 according to Switzerland Tourism, or 1218 to 1220 according to the Swiss federal inventory.
Can you go inside the Zytglogge?
Yes, on a guided tour run by Bern's tourism office. Tours last about an hour and show the working clockwork.