Pfeiferbrunnen, Renaissance fountain in Spitalgasse, Old City of Bern, Switzerland
The Pfeiferbrunnen is a painted stone statue of a standing bagpiper on a fountain pillar, set in front of Spitalgasse 21. He wears a blue tunic with gold trim, a red garment over his shoulders and red breeches above white stockings; a small brown pouch with a flap hangs at his waist. The tan bagpipe rests under his left arm, three wooden pipes rising above his shoulder and one pointing down, and a sword hangs at his left side. A grey bird with a long neck and open beak stands at his right foot.
Created by master sculptor Hans Gieng between 1545 and 1546, this fountain originally stood in front of Gasthaus zum Kreuz before being relocated to its current position at Spitalgasse 21 in 1919.
The fountain's design draws inspiration from Albrecht Dürer's 1514 woodcut depicting a bagpiper, representing the important role of traveling musicians and minstrels in medieval Bern's social life.
Operated and maintained by Energie Wasser Bern, the fountain continues to provide drinking water to residents and visitors while serving as a functional piece of urban infrastructure at 542 meters elevation.
A parchment on the tree trunk at the statue's foot once recorded the privilege of 3 September 1507, by which Bern recognised the Pfeiferbruderschaft, the pipers' brotherhood, as a guild-like body with a monopoly for travelling musicians. The inscription was illegible by the 1870s and was replaced in 1874 with the words Der Pfyffer Freiheits Brief 1507.
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