Bern Minster

Bern Minster tickets: which one to buy

The minster is free to enter and the tower has its own modest ticket, sold inside the west door. That is the whole decision for most visitors, because at 100.6 metres this is the tallest church tower in Switzerland and the climb is what people come for. Guided walks of the old town, a compact place wrapped in a bend of the river and listed by UNESCO, take in the minster along with the arcaded streets, the clock tower and the bear enclosure by the bridge.

The good ones stop at the west portal for long enough to look at it properly, which independent visitors rarely do. Tours aimed at families usually skip the tower, since 344 steps in a narrow spiral is a poor idea with small children. Combined city cards cover museums rather than the church, so there is nothing to bundle. If you are here for a single afternoon, the minster and the terrace behind it can be done properly in an hour.

Visiting Bern Minster: what to see

Construction began in 1421 and dragged on for centuries; the tower was only finished in 1893, which is why the upper stage looks crisper than everything below it. The building is a three-aisled hall without a transept, high and rather plain inside, because Bern turned Protestant in 1528 and the images were removed. That makes the one survival extraordinary. Over the main door, a Last Judgement of the 1490s keeps well over two hundred painted figures in place, the damned being herded off to the right in considerable detail, spared apparently because it was too public and too well liked to destroy.

Inside, late medieval stained glass survives in the choir, and the carved choir stalls of the 1520s show trades and everyday scenes. The largest bell in the country, cast in 1611 and weighing about ten tonnes, hangs in the tower and is passed on the way up. Behind the church a raised terrace looks down a considerable drop to the Aare and across to the wooded hills.

Bern Minster opening hours and the best time to go

The tower closes earlier than the church and shuts entirely in high wind, so do it first and look at the interior afterwards. Clear winter days give the alpine view that the postcards promise, with the Bernese Oberland peaks visible beyond the roofs; in summer haze the same view is often disappointing. The terrace behind the minster is a public park with chess sets, benches and a small lift down to the riverside district, and it is where residents sit in the evening.

The old town market runs on Tuesday and Saturday mornings on the squares nearby. Onion market day in the fourth week of November is the city's biggest annual event, beginning before dawn, and the streets around the church are impassable. Organ recitals are held at lunchtime in the warmer months. Bern is small enough that the station is a ten-minute walk away, and the bear park, the Einstein flat and the parliament building all sit within the same loop.