Bern

Capital of Switzerland, a modern city with a picturesque old town enclosed within a meander of the Aare river. It is in Bern that the German physicist Albert Einstein developed his theory of relativity.

The German-born physicist Albert Einstein developed his theory of relativity, one of the foundations of modern physics, in the heart of Bern's old town (on the second floor of Kramgasse 49, 200 metres from the famous Clock Tower).

As a "Federal City", Bern is a very cosmopolitan city with a rich social and cultural life. Its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Founded in 1191 by Duke Bertold V of Zähringen, who died without an heir, Bern was made a "free city of the Empire" by Emperor Frederick II in 1218, which enabled it to join the young Swiss Confederation in 1353 and become one of its principal members.

Destroyed by fire in 1405, the town was completely rebuilt in molasse, which still gives it some of its appearance today.

In the loose union of the Swiss Confederation before the birth of the federal state in 1848, Bern was characterised by aggressive imperialism: it invaded and conquered Aargau in 1415, the Vaud region in 1536, and other small territories, becoming the largest city-state north of the Alps and a major European power.

Occupied by French troops in 1798 during the wars of the French Revolution, it was then stripped of many of its territories, and today the only trace of this imperialist past remains the French-speaking Bernese Jura, purchased from the Bishopric of Basel in 1815.