Overview of Bern, the capital of Switzerland
The city of Bern was founded in the 12th century and reached its current size in the 18th century, with a history of 800 years. Some of the original wooden buildings in the old town of Bern were destroyed by many fires in the Middle Ages, and were later rebuilt into stone structures. They are still intact: gravel-paved carriageways, long arches connected to each other on both sides of the streets, red tiles The ancient houses with white walls, the colorful fountain columns in the street with their own allusions, the 16th-century bell tower and the late Gothic cathedral built in 1421 make Bern look antique and retain the style of the Middle Ages. Now the main streets have been classified as pedestrian zones, and the environment is very quiet. The old town of Bern has been listed among the world's cultural cities by UNESCO.
Switzerland did not have a fixed capital for a long time. On November 28, 1848, Bern was designated as the capital of the Swiss Federation, becoming the seat of the federal government and the national political and diplomatic center. The federal government and the Federal Parliament are located in the copper-green Federal Building on the north bank of the Aar River. This is a large palace-style building complex built of granite. It was built from 1852 to 1857; the left and right wings of the building are the offices of the federal ministries. Building, under the central dome are the conference halls of the two houses of the Federal Parliament; the building was expanded from 1894 to 1902, and was repaired again in 1993, and electronic voting devices were added.
Due to citizens' objections to noise and terrain, Bern has not built a large airport. It has only a small airport with routes to major cities in Western Europe. Bern has highways to all parts of the country and is also the largest airport in the country. One of the railway hubs.
After World War II, Bern’s machinery, instrumentation, electrical appliances, pharmaceuticals, textiles, food, construction and printing industries developed year by year, but they were all small and medium-sized enterprises and did not occupy an important position in the Swiss economy. It is mainly an administrative and banking center, but it is also a cultural and tourist city. There is one of the oldest universities in the city, the University of Bern, which was founded in 1834 and is famous for its research on cosmic rays. In addition, it also has history, natural history, art, and weapons. As well as numerous museums of different types, Bern is also home to the Universal Postal Union and the International Railway Transport Agency.
Historically, many revolutionary activists lived in Bern. Engels went to Bern in the autumn of 1848 to guide the Swiss labor movement. Lenin also stayed in Zimmerwald and Kuntal near Bern from September 1914 to early 1916, and wrote many articles exposing the opportunist traitors of the Second International. The famous physicist Einstein visited Bern While working at the Federal Patent Office, he studied physics in his spare time and published his astonishing work "The Theory of Relativity". Bern is proud of this and still retains Einstein's residence (which has been turned into a museum).
The city of Bern is located in the west center of Switzerland. It was designated as the capital of Switzerland in the 1848 Federal Constitution, also known as the "Federal City". It is also the capital of the state of Bern, with an area (including suburbs) of more than 230 square kilometers. The urban area has a population of 124,000 and is 550 meters above sea level. It is located at a natural bend of the Aare River, a tributary of the Rhine River. The rapid river water surrounds the old city of Bern from three sides, forming a peninsula. Legend has it that in order to name the city, the ruler at the time The Duke of Zalingen decided to go out hunting and named the city after the first beast he shot. As a result, he killed a bear, so he named the city after the word "bear". The name Bern is derived from the German word "bear". Later, the pronunciation of the word bear in German was "Bayer", which later gradually became "Bern". "Bear" naturally became the city emblem of Bern, and then became the symbol of the state of Bern. Some ancient buildings in the city of Bern are still on the There are still sculptures of bears. There is also a bear garden near the Niederger Bridge on the east bank of the Aar River, where some bears are fed for tourists to watch.