#Tourism #Beautiful place of #Switzerland #Bern

The city of Bern was founded in 1191 and grew rapidly, projecting its power ever further. After conquering Vaud in 1536, Bern extended from Lake Geneva to Aargau, comprising a third of the present territory of Switzerland. The canton of Bern is situated in north-western Switzerland, providing a bridge to the French-speaking area to the west. Switzerland itself lies in the middle of Europe, between France to the west, Germany to the north, Austria to the east and Italy to the south. Bern is the second-largest Swiss canton in terms of area and population. It stretches from the Jura mountains across a broad central plain to the Alps and borders 11 other cantons. The city of Bern, the capital, is Switzerland’s foremost road and rail hub. Three of the country’s other large urban centres - Zurich, Basel and Lausanne - can be reached in an hour by car or train. Geneva is less than two hours away. Over one million people, or 12 per cent of the Swiss population, live in the canton of Bern, making it the second-most populous canton after Zurich. Over half the population lives in the cities of Bern, Biel, Burgdorf, Interlaken and Thun and their adjacent communities. Bern is a bilingual canton. German and French are both official languages under the Swiss constitution. There are a number of bilingual towns and villages but in most places the official language is either German or French. Eighty-five per cent of the population have German as their mother tongue, 10 per cent speak French, 3 per cent Italian and 3 per cent English. The canton of Bern is a miniature Switzerland. All three of the country’s main landforms – the Alps, the Plateau and the Jura - were formed here over the passage of time. The canton features a variety of habitats, from towns and farmland to lakes and mountains. The canton brims with glaciers, aquifers, streams and rivers. Nearly 13,000 kilometres of waterways (about a fifth of the Swiss total) can be found here. The Aare, Switzerland’s longest river, rises in the Grimsel area and flows through the canton of Bern’s three large lakes (Lake Brienz, Lake Thun and Lake Biel).
Places of Bern
Bear-#park, Bern-#Bears, Bern-#bridge, Bern-#Cathedrals, Bern-#cathedral-#façade
Bern-city-#landscape, Bern-#clock-tower-centre, Bern-#einstein, Bern-#Einstein-museum
Bern-#fountians, Bern-#government, Bern-#Gurten-#mountain, Bern-#Museum-of-art
Bern-#Old-town, Bern-#Paul-klee-#museum, Bern-#Rose-#garden, Bern-scenic
Bern-#Street-fountains, Bern #ancient-fountains, Bern-trips-#interlaken
Bern-lucerne, Bern-thun, Bern-einstein-haus, Bern-aare-river
Bern-#granary-kornhaus, Bern-botanical-garden, Bern-the-#french-church
Museum-bern, Bern-#markets, Bern-#Biel, Bern-#Tower-clock
Bern-#fribourg, Bern-#Murten