Built on a narrow hill bordered on three sides by the river Aare, its compact layout has remained essentially unchanged since its construction during the twelfth to the fifteenth century.

The Old City is home to Switzerland's tallest minster as well as other churches, bridges and a large collection of Renaissance fountains.

The Zähringer leaders, although with no actual duchy of their own, were styled dukes by decree of the German king and exercised imperial power south of the Rhine.

To establish their position there, they founded or expanded numerous settlements, including Fribourg (in 1157), Bern, Burgdorf and Morat.

On the eastern end of the peninsula a small fort, called Castle Nydegg, was founded by Berchtold IV in the second half of the twelfth century.

A wood bridge was built over the Aare which allowed increased trade and limited settlements on the east bank of the river.

During the second half of the thirteenth century, the riverside foundation of Nydegg Castle was strengthened and connected to a new west city wall.

Bern was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites because of "an exceptionally coherent planning concept" and because "the medieval town...has retained its original character".

The bell tower was finally finished on the Münster (German: Minister or Cathedral), making it the tallest church in Switzerland.

[9] Of greater practical importance were the Quartiere, the four traditional neighbourhoods in which people of similar social and economic rank congregated.

They emerged in the late Middle Ages, overlap the Viertel boundaries and remain easily identifiable in today's cityscape.

[9] The central and oldest neighbourhood is the Zähringerstadt (Zähringer town), which contained the medieval city's principal political, economic and spiritual institutions.

Situated in the northeast and southeast of the Aare peninsula, the Nydeggstalden and the Mattequartier together constitute medieval Bern's smallest neighbourhood.

Workshops and mercantile activity prevailed in this area, and medieval sources tell of numerous complaints about the ceaseless and apparently nerve-wracking noise of machinery, carts and commerce.

The Matte area at the riverside features three artificial channels, through which Aare water was diverted to power three city-owned watermills built in 1360.

All of these walls, gates and earthworks were demolished in the nineteenth century ending with the destruction of Bern's greatest of its three guard towers, the Christoffelturm.

Only the four central streets were lined with residential houses in late medieval times, while the rest of the area was devoted to agriculture and animal husbandry.

[13] While the entire old town of Bern is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there are a number of buildings and fountains within the city that merit special mention.

At three minutes before the hour the figures which include a rooster, a fool, a knight, a piper, a lion and bears, put on a show.

The Zytglogge's exterior was repainted by Gotthard Ringgli and Kaspar Haldenstein in 1607–10, who introduced the large clock faces that now dominate the east and west façades of the tower.

[25] In 1770–71, the Zytglogge was renovated by Niklaus Hebler and Ludwig Emanuel Zehnder, who refurbished the structure in order to suit the tastes of the late Baroque, giving the tower its contemporary outline.

[27] The Parliament Building (German: Bundeshaus, French: Palais fédéral, Italian: Palazzo federale, Latin: Curia Confoederationis Helveticae) is built along the southern edge of the peninsula and straddles the location of the former Käfigturm wall.

This includes the Rütlischwur or the foundation of Switzerland in 1291 and figures such as William Tell, Arnold von Winkelried and Nicholas of Flüe.

The second theme is the fundamental principles that Switzerland was founded on; including independence, freedom, separation of government powers, order and security.

The final theme is the cultural and material variety of Switzerland; including politically (represented by Canton flags), geographically and socially.

The chapel, hospital and abbey were first mentioned in 1228 and at the time sat about 150 meters (490 ft) outside the western gate of the first city wall.

[38] Direct copies exist in Solothurn (1561), Lausanne (1585), Boudry, Cudrefin and Neuchâtel; designs influenced by the Bernese statue are found in Aarau (1643), Biel, Burgdorf, Brugg, Zürich and Luzern.

The root קרן Q-R-N (qoph, resh, nun) may be read as either "horn" or "ray of light", depending on vocalization.

[41] Interpreted correctly, these two words form an expression meaning that Moses was enlightened, that "the skin of his face shone" (as with a gloriole), as the KJV has it.

There are several interpretations of what the statue represents;[43] including that it is a Jew with a pointed Jewish hat[44] or the Greek god Chronos.