Its length, slight curve and long line of Baroque façades combine to produce Bern's most impressive streetscape.

Several narrow alleys and passageways connect the Kramgasse to the parallel Rathausgasse in the north and the Münstergasse in the south.

Both sides of the Kramgasse are covered with Lauben, stone arcades that protect pedestrians from inclement weather.

In medieval times, it served as the city's marketplace, but after the Reformation the market stands were gradually replaced by stores.

Throughout the 19th century, residents complained about the waste, smell and noise associated with the Schaal, an open hall of butcher's stalls vis-à-vis the Simsonbrunnen.

[8] Local legend has it that a calf once flayed alive here still haunts the place of its death with frightful bleats.

[9] In the second half of the 19th century, the commercial significance of the Kramgasse waned as business moved to the newer, western part of the city[7] and the authorities shut down the many noisy cellar taverns.

[2] The city ditch (Stadtbach) running through the middle of the street since medieval times is now visible again through metal gratings.

[16] Between 1705 and 1745, the façades and parts of the interior of 72 of the street's 85 buildings were rebuilt in the Baroque style,[2] many of them by the noted architect Albrecht Stürler or his students.

At the eastern crossroads, the Kreuzgassbrunnen[17] was the model for all other obelisk fountains of Bern; it was built 1778–79 by Christian Reist and Johann Conrad Wiser.

[2] In the center, the Simsonbrunnen[18] was built in 1527 and decorated with a figure by Hans Gieng of Samson taming the lion in 1543.

[2] The Zähringerbrunnen[19] at the western end of the street is Bern's first figure-topped fountain, an interesting combination of historical tradition and heraldic personification.

41 features one of the few Humanist house mottoes that survived the 18th-century building boom; it reads: "What's most beautiful is highest justice, what's best is to be healthy, but what's most joyful is to attain what one desires.

81, in turn, has been characterised as a low-key masterpiece by Niklaus Sprüngli because of its tensely elegant, barely adorned façade.

[31] Bern's oldest cinema, the Capitol, is located on Kramgasse, as are a number of small theaters, mostly set up in the medieval cellars (Kellertheater).