Hasli, Ethological Station

Wohlenstrasse, Hinterkappelen

Dedicated to behavioral research as an ethological station, the Hasligut for a long time benefited from its major seclusion and simultaneous proximity to the city. Not even all the native people of Bern are aware of the site's existence. And what much fewer people still know is that the Hasli also houses the university's oldest building.

The Hasli comprises three buildings: the manor house from the seventeenth century (top right), an agricultural building from the eighteenth century (top left) and the more recent barn. The estate itself is already on record in the fifteenth century as the property of the Münchenbuchsee commandery of the Order of the Knights of St. John that until 1466 operated a ferry across the Aare here. It is thanks to pure coincidence that the renowned Bernese scholar Albrecht von Haller spent his childhood in the manor house so that the university can claim to have been resident here for a while...

After being damaged by a fire, the house and barn were renovated for use as the Ethological Station in 1973-74.