There was already a chapel in the 12th century, when Bern was still a branch of Köniz. In 1276, this was separated from Köniz and a larger church was built. In 1405, there was a major fire in the city, which was used as an opportunity for a new, more representative building. Finally, in 1421, the foundation stone for today's cathedral was laid. The cathedral was built around the existing parish church so that services could be held for as long as possible. Work began with the choir, then the side aisles and finally the west building. In 1489, the bells could be hung in the new tower. In 1528, construction had to be interrupted because of the Reformation. It was not until 1571 that the decision was made to continue construction, during which the central nave was vaulted and the tower was completed up to the lower octagon. Construction of the tower was interrupted in 1596 due to the death of the then master builder. The completion of the same was not tackled until 1889-93. When it was completed, the cathedral tower became the highest church tower in Switzerland at 100.6m. The history of the bells is not shown in full as it is very extensive. The swinging cathedral chimes have a history that begins in the old Leutkirche. The bells transferred from this church to the cathedral were today's Burgerbell, the Silberbell, the western firebell and a Nonnebell. In 1506 a new large bell was finally cast, which weighed around 10t and was made by Hans Zehnder. 10 years later this broke again and was replaced by Jerg zu Strassburg. The eastern fire bell and a small midday bell were also added during this time. In 1583 the outstanding casting of today's midday bell was finally completed, which now hung next to the former midday bell. In 1611 the new large bell was also cast. In 1734, the old poor sinner's bell was replaced by the current cast bell. In 1763, the prayer bell was replaced by Samuel Maritz. In 1883, this prayer bell and the old midday bell were sacrificed in the pursuit of a purely harmonic ringing and two new bells were cast by Rüetschi. The important Burger bell was also almost replaced by a fis° bell, as at that time its weight was still given as 6.5t, which was of course massively exaggerated. Recently, new motors and controls were installed on almost all bells, which also adjusted the ringing angles here and there and the ringing now sounds much nicer than before. In the video, you can hear the festival ringing with the Burger bell instead of the poor sinner's bell, which has the same tone. Data on the ringing: Disposition: e° gis° cis' (cis') e' gis' Bell 1 00:00 Large bell Tone: e° +3 Weight: 9'940kg Ø: 2'470mm Year cast: 1611 by Abraham Zehnder and Peter VII. Füssli Bell 2 Midday bell Tone: gis° +-0 Weight: 6'395kg Ø: 2'120mm Year cast: 1583 by Franz Sermund Bell 3 Sermon bell Tone: h° +0.5 Weight: 3'322kg Ø: 1'682mm Year cast: 1883 by Rüetschi Bell 4 Burger bell Tone: cis' +7 Weight: 3'850kg Ø: 1'725mm Year cast: 1403 by Gebr. Kupferschmied Bell 5 Poor sinner's bell Tone: C sharp' +4 Weight: 2,300 kg Ø: 1,510 mm Cast in: 1734 by S. Steimer, E. Zehnder and J. Rihs Bell 6 Prayer bell Tone: E sharp' Weight: 1,428 kg Ø: 1,265 mm Cast in: 1883 by Rüetschi Bell 7 Hugo or silver bell Tone: G sharp' Weight: 770 kg Ø: 1,060 mm Cast in: ca. 1356 06:39 Festive ringing Many thanks to Felix for permission and to the tower keeper Daniela for opening the tower. Visit my Instagram channel for impressions of my tours: / glockentv.schweiz