Old Schützenhaus (Bern)

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The old rifle house in Bern, demolished in 1862 (around 1850)
The old rifle house in Bern (around 1860)
The old rifle house in Bern (around 1840)
Schützenhaus and Zielstatt in Bern (1638)

The old rifle house on the site of today's Kleeplatz in Bern was the third municipal rifle house in Bern . The house was demolished in 1862.

history

A first rifle house, built in the 15th century, stood on the Hirschenhalde until 1616, below the former orphanage (today the police station). At the beginning of 1530, Antoni Noll sold the so-called “Noll'sche Matte” (today Schützenmatte) located outside the third curtain wall to the city ​​of Bern for the construction of a new shooting range. Later, the master tailor and councilor Lienhard Tremp and Jakob Schwytzer donated large sums for the construction of the new rifle house. The roof paid for the authorities. We can see from the minutes of the council that a master Andres was commissioned with the construction. A crossbow stand should definitely be kept on the new firing range. With the construction of the baroque ski jumping facility , the second shooting range had to give way. The master stone and minster master craftsman Daniel Heintz the Younger (1574–1633) was commissioned in 1622 to build a new, third rifle house, slightly offset using the building materials from the old house. It came northeast of the outer Aarbergertor to stand parallel to the ski jumping facility. The shooting took place on the target instead of heading north. The rifle house was used by the Schützen Society, which was dissolved in 1799, and by the Reismusketen-Schützengesellschaft .

Diplomatic guests were gladly invited to the Schützenhaus. Christoph von der Pfalz (1551–1574), son of the Palatinate Elector Friedrich the Pious, won a pair of trousers in 1568 and donated a sable fur as a gift in return . The French Ambassador Blaise Méliand let on behalf of the King of France, the Schützengesellschaft 1639 the amount of 800 Cross thicknesses for the manufacture of Dauphin -Bechers forward, and two years later his successor Jacques Le Fèvre de Caumartin donated hundred louis for making the Anjou-cup. In September 1641, the authorities ordered that the cups should actually be exported, as the donor's wishes had not been met by then.

After the French invasion of 1798, the rifle house was used as a military hospital by the French occupying forces until 1802. With the construction of the Central Railway to Bern, the Schützenmatt was expropriated in 1855 and the third Schützenhaus demolished in 1862. A new shooting range was then built together with the field riflemen and city riflemen in Wylerfeld and put into operation in 1866.

construction

Johann Rudolf Gruner described the third rifle house in 1732 as a large shooting house, although only wooden, which rests on high wooden studs, below which a cool fountain rises in a cave . The house followed an early modern type, as we know it for rifle houses in southern Germany and Switzerland: on the ground floor there is a kitchen and storage space and a shooting arbor attached to it . The first floor protrudes, accessible via an outside staircase, encompassing the ballroom. Outwardly, the Berner Schützenhaus resembled a late Gothic manorial summer house with the half-hip roof and the helmet bars . In front of the rifle house was the so-called second Kreuzgassbrunnen , which was moved here in 1667. This figure fountain from 1520 showed a bear venner with the city banner, similar to the Zähringer fountain on Kramgasse.

Furnishing

Old rifle house, etching by Johann Ludwig Nöthiger (1747)

The small shooting bell from 1571, made by the Bormio- born bell-maker Franz Sermond, has been preserved in the equipment of the second rifle house. The little bell is decorated with a bear frieze, which shows a bear excerpt from musket shooters with city ​​vendors , rifle vendors and drummers. Two beam heads with the Bern coat of arms and the puzzle inscriptions " SITTERALDA " and " SITGOTTWILKOMENIRHERRE " have also been preserved. However, it is not clear whether these come from the second or third rifle house. A stone slab with the coat of arms of the Schützengesellschaft and the inscription "God is the strongest over me MDXL " (1540) was unfortunately destroyed in 1849.

literature

  • Rudolf von Fischer (ed.): 250 years of the Reismusketenschützen-Gesellschaft Bern 1686–1936. Bern, 1936.
  • Manuel Kehrli et al .: The Reismusketen-Schützengesellschaft of the City of Bern. Founded in 1686. Bern, 2009. (Contents)
  • Heinrich Türler : files on the shooting scene , in: New Berner Taschenbuch on the year 1902, Bern 1901, pp. 295–307. on-line
  • René Wyss: The old parlor and shooting companies of the city of Bern , in: Berner Taschenbuch on the year 1854. online

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gruner 1732, p. 417. online
  2. ↑ The following inscription is attached to the edge of the bell: AS OFTEN MAN ME LVTEN THVT RVF ICH HER ZV DEN SCHVTZEN / GVT 1571 , Bernisches Historisches Museum, inv. No. 601.
  3. ^ Bernisches Historisches Museum.

Web links

Commons : Altes Schützenhaus Bern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 46 ° 57 '6.4 "  N , 7 ° 26" 30.9 "  E ; CH1903:  600250  /  200077