Trinkwasserpumpwerk Brunnmatt

The basement of this old house houses a historic spring water pumping station. Although water had been flowing to the medieval town via the Stadtbach as early as the 13th century, this was merely service water, which also powered water wheels. From its earliest days, the city of Bern had always been on the lookout for new sources of drinking water. A plentiful spring was located in Brunnmatt, to the west of the city. There was, however, a problem: it lay lower than the city.
After several failed attempts, it was first succeeded in 1585 in pumping the spring water from Brunnmatt 15 metres upwards, from where it could then flow to the city and supply the local fountains with drinking water.

The Brunnmatt pumping station is now a small museum.
Its ground floor houses an intact historic drinking water pump.
As early as the 16th century, the spring water from Brunnmatt was pumped from here to the town situated higher up.
The building and facilities have been rebuilt and renovated several times over the years.

The museum consists of three elements:

-The Giroud pump from 1881 in the front room is driven by a Girard turbine in the rear room using water from the Stadtbach and Warmbächli streams. With the aid of an electric motor, we can run the system for demonstration purposes

-We explain how the original 16th-century pump works using a video based on old reconstruction drawings

-Two large display boards tell the story of the plant and the town’s drinking water supply