Bern’s big five

It’s a pub quiz question that often stumps participants: What is the capital of Switzerland? Well, the correct answer is there isn’t technically, officially, a capital as the country is a confederation of 26 cantons, each with a certain level of autonomy.

But there is a de facto Swiss capital and while some believe that’s Zurich or Geneva, it’s actually Bern, which may only be the country’s fifth-most populated city but is the seat of the Federal Government and Parliament. Rather like Canberra in relation to Australia’s larger cities, Bern has a good deal to offer if you know where to look. Here are five highlights.

THE ROSE GARDEN

Many Swiss — and tourists in the know — swear Bern is the country’s most photogenic city ,and it’s hard to argue when you’re admiring the view from the terrace of the Rosengarten. This elevated public park overlooks the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Old Town of Bern, around which loops the Aare River, a jade-hued waterway that gushes with snowmelt in spring and summer, when locals go for a swim.

In the distance, above the handsome mansions and churches of the historic quarter, you’ll make out various peaks, some sporting white powder in all seasons (the closest alpine pistes for skiers are about 40km from Bern). This terrace and the rest of the Rosengarten were remodelled in the early 20th century, having initially been the site of a cemetery.

More than 200 types of roses bloom here, and there are varieties of irises, azaleas, rhododendrons and cherry trees by groomed lawns that host communal picnics and yoga for the people of Bern.

THE BARENPARK

For one of the most extraordinary urban spectacles anywhere in the world, head down towards the Aare, where you’ll have a chance of seeing European brown bears roaming on the river’s leafy slopes. Bears have been Bern’s emblem since it was founded in the 12th century and they feature on flags, souvenirs and landmarks across the city.

A trio of live, growling bears — dad Finn, mum Bjork and daughter Ursina — reside in Bern’s modern 5000sqm bear pit. Tourists cluster on the ledges overlooking the pit. The bears often shelter inside their enclosures — particularly during the icy northern winters — or seek summer shade amid the trees by the river, but if you’re lucky, you’ll get a clear shot of them pacing, prowling and eating apples and other goodies left by the rangers.

THE OLD TOWN

From the Barenpark, you can cross into Bern’s walkable central core via the Nydeggbrucke, a bridge built over the Aare in the 1840s when Bern emerged as the “Federal city” of Switzerland. The Bundeshaus, the Swiss Parliament, is among the elegant neoclassical buildings in the heart of Bern, but much of the city’s finest architecture was birthed in the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, including the Gothic-style cathedral, which has the highest church spire in Switzerland, and the Zytglogge, a 12th-century gate tower that was part of the original city walls.

Added later to the tower were its huge timepiece and astronomical clock, which spring into action every hour with a musical performance featuring a parade of miniature allegorical characters, crowing roosters and dancing bears. The clock and its elaborate mechanical workings inspired Albert Einstein, who lived about 200m away on Kramgasse, a thoroughfare lined with shops, cafes and restaurants. Einstein’s former home is now a museum in his honour.

ARTS AND CULTURE

Creativity pulses through Bern, where ornately decorated fountains are liberally sprinkled about, museums showcase a diverse selection of art, and independent studios and galleries nestle beneath the arcades flowing through the old town. Bern is a vibrant university city and stages numerous festivals throughout the year, including August’s Buskers Bern, which sees live musicians, acrobats and puppeteers performing on cobbled streets and alleys sprinkled with food and drink stalls.

Symphony orchestras, ballet dancers, jazz, pop and rock stars regularly grace the city’s indoor concert venues, including the Bern Theatre. It was seeing a Verdi recital in Bern that stirred a young violinist and artist Paul Klee (1879-1940), who has a museum and cultural centre dedicated to him on the city’s eastern outskirts. Housed in a stylishly curving building by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the Zentrum Paul Klee displays more than 4000 of the artist’s paintings and also hosts contemporary plays and music.

SCENIC ADVENTURES

The city is part of the wider canton of Bern, which is the second-largest Swiss canton behind Graubunden. It encompasses some of the country’s most photogenic and dramatic scenery, with everything from pastoral fields and foothills to the jagged peaks of the Bernese Oberland, where the mighty Jungfrau summit soars 4158m.

Hundreds of kilometres of marked hiking trails thread through the canton of Bern, with several knitting together the city’s bucolic outskirts and other memorable ones in Interlaken, Switzerland’s adventure capital. That’s an hour’s train ride or drive from Bern, and gorgeously located between two lakes. From Bern, you can also be in Zurich in an hour by train (or 90 minutes by road). Even closer, a half-hour ride from Bern station, is Neuchatel, a beautiful lakeside city in the French-speaking west of the country. Regular trains link Bern to Lucerne, Basel and Geneva, and international services also stop here, with Milan and Berlin among the destinations.

+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Globus and Switzerland Tourism. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication.

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+ You spend a morning in Bern and enjoy a guided walking tour here on Globus’ nine-day Best of Switzerland tour. Running on dates from May to October 2026, it costs from $5589 per person (based on double occupancy). It begins in Zurich and features overnight stays there and in St Moritz, Lugano, Zermatt and Lucerne. See globus.com.au

+ For more information on visiting Bern, see bern.com

+ To help plan a trip to Switzerland, see myswitzerland.com