Around the terrifying statue of the Kindlifressenbrunnen devouring children, young ghosts are said to haunt like a misty night. Said to be the unwanted babies taken out of the city through the underground tunnels, they return to the scene of the crime.
In Bern’s Old Town, at the bustling Kornhausplatz, looms a fountain so macabre it stops tourists in their tracks. The Kindlifresserbrunnen, or “Child Eater Fountain,” is not a modern shock piece as it was sculpted in 1546 by Hans Gieng and has towered over the city ever since. The grotesque ogre atop the fountain devours a helpless infant, while three more terrified children peer from a sack slung over his shoulder. He is not merely hungry, but also ravenous, mythic, and perhaps, haunted.
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The grotesque statue has long puzzled historians. Was it a cautionary tale, an ancient anti-Semitic symbol, a grim representation of Kronos the child-eating Titan, or even a mad royal brother driven to cannibalistic fury by envy? None of these theories fully explain the disturbing permanence of the Kindlifresser. And the legend doesn’t end at the statue’s base. Beneath this horrifying figure lies a deeper darkness, etched not in stone, but in whisper and shadow.
The Underground Tunnels around Kornhausplatz
Long before Bern’s medieval walls rose around it, the site of the Kindlifresserbrunnen was an open meadow, bordered by monasteries. One for men, another for women. There were in fact many places where both nuns and monks lived and worked throughout the city. According to local legend, a hidden tunnel once connected the two. But this passageway around the Kornhausplatz, locals say, was also used for a far grimmer purpose.
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In the early days of the city, unwanted children, those born in secret or shame were led or left into the darkness of the tunnel, never to be seen again. It’s said that they were the children of the monks and nuns and those brought to them as well as those that were brought to them.
Over time, the stories grew: that the cries of these forsaken little ones echoed beneath the cobblestones, and that their spirits still lingered, trapped between life and death.
The Children Who Dance in the Mist
As Bern’s mist thickens and the bells chime midnight, these ghost children are said to emerge from the earth. For one fleeting hour, they are no longer shadows. Locals speak in hushed tones of ethereal figures dancing in the swirling fog, their laughter mingling with the creak of old shutters and the murmur of the river and around Kornhausplatz.
A fine, white mist wells up between the stones, spreads gently, quietly over the ground, begins to billow, to undulate, gathers into tiny cloud formations, and dissolves again into a thin veil. And little by little, small human figures in flowing white dresses emerge from it. Like white butterflies, they flutter up and down, landing now on this spot, now on that, seeking in playful play to catch one another, to flee.
Then, as the final bell tolls one, they vanish—drawn back into the cold stone below the ogre’s feet.
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References:
Geisterstadt Bern – SWI swissinfo.ch
Der Kindlifresserbrunnen | Märchenstiftung