Bümpliz-Oberbottigen is a ''Stadtteil'' (district) of the city of Bern, Switzerland. It is situated to the west of the city center and consists of the ''Quartiere'' (quarters) Bümpliz, Oberbottigen, Stöckacker, Bethlehem and Brünnen. As the most recently developed district of Bern, Bümpliz-Oberbottigen is an amalgamation of Bümpliz, a formerly independent suburban municipality, with rural hamlets such as Oberbottigen and Riedbach and modern highrise housing developments. The

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...

s of Gäbelbach, Tscharnergut and Stöckacker, a heritage from the 1960s and 70s, are a prominent part of Bethlehem's cityscape. The most recent quarter, Brünnen, was formally established in September 2008 as part of an ongoing major urban development programme.

Statistics

In 2006, the district had 31,343 inhabitants, 30% of which were foreigners, mostly South Eastern European nationals. This constitutes more than a third of Bern's entire foreign population. The apartment rents are the city's lowest, and 8.8% of the population received

social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

benefits in 2006, as compared to 4.6% in the city as a whole. With a surface area of 2,023 hectares, the district is the city's largest. It is a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

, home to 25% of the city's population but only the location of 9% of the city's workplaces.

History

The area of Bümpliz has been a center of habitation since about the 5th century BC, as indicated by the presence of La Tène and ''

Völkerwanderung The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...

'' burial grounds, as well as the remains of an extensive 1st century

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

at the site of today's St. Maurce church. In

medieval times In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire an ...

and under the

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for ...

, the dominion of Bümpliz – recorded as ''Pimpenymgis'' in 1016 and ''Bimplitz'' in 1235Dubler. – changed hands from the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

to the lords of Bern and then numerous times among the patrician families of Bern, who built several palatial residences in Bümpliz.Caviezel et al., 282. The

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Bümpliz, founded 1798 in the course of the Napoleonic reforms, experienced a swift growth as a suburb of Bern after the 1860s. Financial difficulties forced it to agree to a merger with Bern in 1919. The new district continued to grow, in particular after 1945 with the construction of large-scale housing developments and

satellite town Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are adjacent to a principal city which is the core of a metropolitan area. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities in that they have m ...

s (Tscharnergut 1958–67, Schwabgut 1965–71, Fellergut 1961–64, Gäbelbach 1965–68 and Kleefeld 1968–72). Ambitious plans to build a high-rise satellite city for 150,000 inhabitants had to be shelved due to the recession brought about by the 1973 oil crisis, and another plan failed in the 1990s due to the collapse of a bubble in the housing market. A much reduced development plan for the new Brünnen quarter was approved in a 1999 referendum. After lengthy court disputes, construction of the residential buildings and of the Westside shopping and leisure complex designed by Daniel Libeskind commenced in 2005. The area is planned to be fully developed in 2018.

Buildings of note

The '' Altes Schloss'' (Old Palace) of Bümpliz on Bümplizstrasse 91 is built on the site of a 10th-century Upper Burgundian royal court. A round tower, whose fundaments are visible in the cellar, was built by Peter II of Savoy in the 1260s. The current palace was built after 1488 by Rudolf von Erlach in the late medieval Romantic style and was partially adapted to the tastes of the Baroque by Franz Ludwig von Erlach in 1632. The moat was filled and the palace partially demolished in 1742; a modern extension was added in 1979-80.Caviezel et al., 285. Very close to the Old Palace, the ''

Neues Schloss The New Palace (german: Neues Schloss) is an 18th-century Baroque palace in Stuttgart and is one of the last large city palaces built in Southern Germany. The palace is located in the on the Schlossplatz in front of the Jubiläumssäule colum ...

'' (New Palace) – a singular work in Bernese architectural history – was built in 1742 by Albrecht Türler for Daniel Tschiffeli. It housed a boys' school in the 19th century and is now the civil registry office of Bern; all

civil marriage A civil marriage is a marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official. Such a marriage may be performed by a religious body and recognized by the state, or it may be entirely secular. History Every country maintaining a pop ...

s in the city are officiated in the palace's richly decorated great salon. The reformed church of Bümpliz, formerly a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Maurice, was rebuilt in 1666 after a fire by Abraham Dünz. It received extensions by Karl Indermühle in 1915 and 1924 as well as by Karl Indermühle in 1952. Also in Bümpliz, the Feller country estate, a 1730 construction, was reshaped in the

Classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

style in the 19th century, and is now embedded in the ''Fellergut'' highrise housing development. In Brünnen, the former lord's estate, a 1648 construction with 1765 extension by Niklaus Sprüngli, features painted wood carvings that are among Bern's best architectural sculptures from the

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

period.Caviezel et al., 287. In the rural landscape west of Bümpliz many significant works of traditional Bernese countryside architecture remain. The hamlet of Niederbottigen is among the best-preserved such settlements, including among others the ''Hochstudhaus'', a 1675 farmhouse displaying exceptionally fine craftsmanship, and the ''Hans-Franz-Nägeli-Haus'', a 17th-century High Baroque country estate in the center of the settlement. One of the area's first modern housing developments, the ''Morgenstrasse-Siedlung'' of 1943-44 in Bümpliz by Hermann Rüfenacht, is a testament to the Heimatstil-influenced wartime modern style in Switzerland. The Stapfenacker school, built 1930-31 by Karl Indermühle, is one of Switzerland's first schools in the Neues Bauen style. The ''Tscharnergut'' tower blocks, built in Bethlehem in 1958-65 as a car-free satellite town for 5,000 inhabitants, were among the country's first highrise housing developments. In 1965-68, they were complemented by the ''Gäbelbach'' development, Bern's most architecturally prominent work of large-scale housebuilding. It consists of three immense tower blocks inspired by Le Corbusier's Unités d'Habitation linked by an axis of community buildings.Caviezel et al., 288. Just south of Gäbelbach, the long-empty Brünnen field is currently being developed into an upmarket residential area. The new quarter's commercial and architectural centerpiece – the Westside complex by Daniel Libeskind – was opened to the public on 8 October 2008.

References

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Statistics

History

Buildings of note

References

Footnotes

External links