Zähringen Foundations and Medieval Layout
Bern · Switzerland
- Audio guide
- 4 languages
- Offline
Walk the original axis of Bern to see how the Zähringen dynasty shaped the city's enduring linear structure. You will trace the path from the old city limits to the heart of the medieval settlement. This route reveals the precise geometry and defensive logic of a planned 12th-century town.
The walk
Zähringerbrunnen
A sixteenth-century tribute to Bern's founder featuring an armored bear and a cub.
Prison Tower
A Baroque gatehouse that evolved from a medieval defense point into a notorious men's prison.
Zytglogge
A medieval gate tower that evolved from a prison for 'priests' whores' into a masterpiece of clockwork.
Zähringerdenkmal
Zähringerdenkmal is an attraction in Bern, Switzerland.
Data: OpenStreetMap contributors and Google Places
More walks in Bern
8 walks
How a walk works
The guide starts talking when you arrive.
This page is the map and the itinerary. The app is the guide who walks it with you.
Pick a walk
Every stop is a real place, already in walking order.
Pocket your phone
Follow the line on the live map, or download the walk before you lose signal.
Listen as you arrive
On a narrated walk the story starts on its own at each stop, so your eyes stay on the place.
Free to install · Every city’s featured walk is free, start to finish.
A guide who talks
Narration at every stop, starting on its own as you arrive — phone in your pocket.
The route, followed
A live map with the turns called out, and a way back whenever you wander off it.
In four languages
English, French, Spanish and Arabic — the words and the voice, not just the labels.
Or build your own
Pick the places you actually want and the app works out the order to walk them in.
The unglamorous things
Toilets, pharmacies, cash points and water, without leaving the walk.
No signal needed
Download a walk before you go and it works under a souk roof or on a plane.
Picks up where you left off
Stop for lunch, come back tomorrow, and the walk is exactly where you left it.