Hollanderturm (Bern)

The Holländerturm, sometimes translated as the Dutch Tower, is one of the lesser-known towers of Bern’s historic fortifications and a good example of the many small pieces of the city’s defences that have survived among later buildings. It is a stop for visitors who like to look for details beyond the main sights, such as the Zytglogge, the Bern Cathedral and the Käfigturm, and it adds to the picture of Bern as a fortified town.

Bern’s defences developed in stages. The first town, founded at the end of the 12th century on the peninsula in the loop of the Aare, was protected by the river on three sides and by a wall and gate on the open side. As the city grew, new walls and gates were built further west, and the earlier gates, among them the Zytglogge and the Käfigturm, were absorbed into the town. In the 17th century, the city built a ring of modern bastions and ramparts to counter the improved artillery of the age, and the names of the Grosse Schanze and Kleine Schanze, now parks and a university site, come from this period. Over the 19th century most of the walls were demolished to make space for the railway and for growth, and only a few towers and fragments of wall survived. The Holländerturm belongs to this surviving group.

Details of the tower’s origin and name are not widely published, and the story that connects the name to a former owner with Dutch ties is a tradition rather than a documented fact, so treat any single explanation with caution. What can be said is that the tower is one of the remnants that give the Old Town and its surroundings their layered character, and it is an example of how Bern reused its defensive structures for other purposes over time. The exterior can be seen from the street. The interior is generally not open to visitors, so it is a sight rather than a place to enter.

Seen as part of a walk, the tower fits in with other remnants of the city’s history: the old gate towers, the bastion parks, the lanes and steps of the lower town and the bridges. Together they show the stages of development of the city from a river-protected medieval town to a modern capital. For visitors with limited time, the main towers are the priority, but those with an interest in fortifications may enjoy tracking down the smaller ones as well.

The tower suits people interested in military and urban history, architecture lovers and walkers who like to find less-visited corners of a city. It takes only a few minutes to see and combines easily with the Käfigturm, the Zytglogge and the Old Town’s arcades.