The Why and What of the Bears in Bern

Three of Bern’s bears enjoying the afternoon in the bear park enclosure. Bern, Switzerland. July 29, 2022.

If you wander through central Bern, in Switzerland, you might stumble on some bears.

Natural question: Why?

At least, that’s exactly the question I asked myself—and so I had to do a little research to get a verified answer.

The History of the Bears in Bern

Now, we all know that legend and history don’t always correspond, so let’s keep that in mind as we assess.

The story goes that, back in the 12th century, a duke killed a bear in a hunt in the area’s woods and then named the under-development city there after the animal: Bern.

Centuries pass.

Then some Bernese soldiers went off to battle and brought back—as spoils of war—with a bear and some other stuff. As you do.

More centuries pass.

In the 19th century, the city built a pit in which they put bears on display. Nothing I can find concretely explains why, though we can assume it seemed like a nice urban feature that harked back to the city name’s origins. Bears in a city named after bears, in a pit. Kind of like a zoo, but not really a zoo.

Anyway, the planners had good instincts about the interest of a bear pit. The Bern bears drew all kinds of visitors from all over the place, even including Lenin. (Yes, that Lenin).

Why Modern Day Bern Keeps Bears

Over the years, Bern renovated its bear pit, also known as the Bärengraben. Most notably, the city added gravel and sand to the concrete floor and allowed grasses and mosses to grow through it to make it more natural for the bears. Nevertheless, from the mid-19th century until the early 2000s, the bears lived in what was essentially a concrete enclosure—similar to a moat—in Bern’s old town.

The times, though, they were a’changin’. The bears’ living situation left a lot to be desired in the minds of more aware conservationists.

Responding to changes in public animal-welfare sentiment and with the notion to make the Bern bears a more attractive destination for tourists, the city closed the bear pit in the late 1990s to develop a new place for the Bern bears.

Today, the bears in Bern live in more of a bear park than a pit, which the city zoo oversees. Still close to the city center, the bears in Bern now meander across a hilly, grassy, 6,000 square-meter space with trees and shrubs; access to fresh and flowing water; and plenty of places to shelter from the world and the elements.

How to See the Bears in Bern

The bear park is a short walk or bus ride from the city center over one of the bridges (the scenic Niedeggbrüche) that cross the Aare River.

It’s open all year at no cost to visitors. If you’d like to visit when the animal keepers are on-site, though, you’ll find them there every day from 8 a.m. through to 5 p.m.

And if you’d like to really get the full Bern bear experience, you can book a guided tour or even a private tour through the zoo’s website.

The Bears Will Surprise You

So now you know (and so do I).

The first time I encountered the Bern bears, I hadn’t known a thing about them—so happening upon the bear exhibit in my wanderings came as a surprise along the lines of “woah—is that a bear lumbering along in that park over there?”

I’ve since gone back to spend a little more time watching the Bern bears enjoy themselves, as they truly do seem to do, in their verdant and rolling wonderland. And even when I go to Bern knowing that I’ll see them, they still surprise me. The city has done a wonderful job integrating its bears into the urban landscape. The bear park doesn’t feel like an enclosure or zoo exhibit at all.

And I’ll be back!