Bern
Name
Bern
Nations
Switzerland (nation)
Descriptive Note Text
<Located on the frontier between German-speaking Alemannians and French-speaking Burgundians, its name may be derived from the German 'bär', a bear, which is its heraldic device and used on its civic seal since 1224. Founded by duke Berthold V of Zähringen in 1191, it became free imperial city after 1218. Site of important disputations between Catholics and reformers in 1528.> (Getty TGN)