Erlacherhof

The Erlacherhof is a city palace on the Junkerngasse 47 in the middle of Bern.

He was from 1745 to 1752 instead of two houses, one of which ( the Hoftstatt ) had once belonged to the family of Adrian I. Jacks Mountain, probably built by Albrecht Stürler for Hieronymus von Erlach. Since 1748 both the presumed builder and the client died, the construction in the wake of his son Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach and probably with the help of the sculptor Johann August Nahl ( the Elder ) was completed. On the pediments of the side wings Albrecht Friedrich left his father's monogram ( HvE ) attach.

In 1795 came the Erlacherhof to the large butcher Albrecht Hegi and to the merchant David Rudolf Bay and after the sinking of the Bernese patricians in 1798 it was the headquarters of the French General Guillaume Brune. In mediation, the time, the building served as a school house for the Matte district and was thereafter until 1831 the seat of the French Embassy. From 1848 to 1857, the offices of the Federal Council were housed here. Since then, the houses Erlacherhof parts of the Bernese municipality as Präsidialdirektion and city law firm, as well as the municipal hall and not least the seat of Bern's city president.

The Erlacherhof Berns is considered most representative patrician seat. In his 1732 published Deliciae urbis Bernae Johann Rudolf Gruner wrote:

" This year, Colonel Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach, Lord of Hindelbank, canceled his Sässhaus at the Junkerngasse in the paddock, the old boys mountain and Erlach house and build a magnificent palace there started with a precious terrace of high walls. "

It is the only house in the old town of Bern the Erlacherhof has a courtyard that is completed to Junkerngasse out of a magnificent iron railings. This courtyard, which should allow the start-up with a coach, a covered arcade is upstream, which was unusual for buildings of this type. The reason for this was the consistent enforcement of the Bernese legislation that demanded that each landowner must provide a covered, dry passage through the city. Through the vestibule leads into a large staircase with horseshoe staircase, which is surmounted by a gallery with free-standing columns. The ceiling painting represents the triumph of Cupid and is the painter Johann Ulrich Schnetzler attributed.