About this place
Straddling the old town's main axis, the Zytglogge began around 1218 as a squat gate tower guarding the western edge of Bern. As the growing city pushed its walls outward, the tower lost its defensive purpose and was reinvented, in turn, as a women's prison and then as the civic clock that gave it its Bernese name, meaning time bell. Gutted by the great fire of 1405 and rebuilt, it received in 1530 the astronomical clockwork of the master locksmith Kaspar Brunner, a mechanism that has driven its dials and animated figures ever since. The eastern face carries the famous astrolabe, a stereographic map of the heavens that tracks the zodiac, the phase of the moon, and the hours of sunrise and sunset, while just before each hour a golden Chronos, a crowing rooster, a jester, and a parade of Bern's beloved bears perform their brief mechanical ballet for the crowd gathered below.
Key facts
- 800 years — Roughly how long the tower has stood, making it the oldest monument in Bern
- 1530 year — Kaspar Brunner's clockwork was installed and still drives the tower today, without major breakdown
- 4 minutes — How long before each hour the golden figures begin their moving show
📍 Bim Zytglogge 3, 3011, Bern