Federal Palace of Switzerland
Domed seat of the Swiss parliament above the Aare, open for free guided tours and gallery visits.
The Federal Palace closes the south side of Bundesplatz in Bern and houses the two chambers of the Swiss parliament together with part of the federal government. The complex grew in three stages: Friedrich Studer's west wing was finished in 1857, an east wing followed in 1892, and Hans Wilhelm Auer's central Parliament Building, begun in 1894, was inaugurated in April 1902. Auer used stone from every part of the country and employed Swiss artists throughout, presenting the building as a portrait of the federal state.
Beneath the copper dome, which rises about sixty-four metres, a domed hall carries the Latin motto Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno and a monumental group of the three founding confederates. The National Council chamber is dominated by Charles Giron's large landscape painting The Cradle of the Confederation, while the smaller Council of States chamber is panelled in wood. Guided tours take in both chambers, the dome hall and the lobby; a terrace behind the building looks south over the Aare towards the Alps.
Highlights
- Copper dome about 64 metres high over the central hall
- National Council chamber with Charles Giron's Cradle of the Confederation
- Stone and craftsmanship drawn from every Swiss canton
- Free guided tours and public galleries during parliamentary sessions
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