Kantonalbankgebäude Bern, Bank building on Bundesplatz, Bern, Switzerland

The Kantonalbankgebäude is a monumental building on Bundesplatz in Bern, erected from 1867 by architect Johann Caspar Wolff as the Gesellschaftshaus Museum. Its facade carries a row of over-life-size attic statues of eight Bernese historical figures, designed by Robert Dorer and made by Ludwig Keiser and Heinrich Rudolf Meili, donated by Theodor Zeerleder in 1871.

The building was constructed in 1867 as a Museum Society House by architect Johann Caspar Wolff and originally served cultural and assembly purposes. Between 1903 and 1906, it underwent major renovations and was transformed into the headquarters of Bern Cantonal Bank.

The building once served as a social hub where people gathered on the ground floor for reading and conversation, while the upper floor hosted concerts, lectures, and formal events. This role shaped it as a cultural meeting point for the city until the early 1900s.

The building faces Bundesplatz, where the ground floor once held a reading circle; the entrance is reached from the square side. The eight attic statues stand above the main cornice, so step back across the square to see them. The 1924 copies replaced the 1871 originals in the same positions.

The eight attic statues were donated by Theodor Zeerleder, designed by Robert Dorer and carved by Ludwig Keiser and Heinrich Rudolf Meili. Sources disagree on the order and identity of the figures: Berchtold Weber's Historisch-Topographisches Lexikon der Stadt Bern lists them differently from the 1934 Berner Woche.