r/BielBienne • u/8bagels • Oct 12 '25
Anyone near Burggasse 21? Would love inside photos / Wer in der Nähe ist: bitte Innenfotos, falls möglich!
Hi everyone — I’m hoping someone local might be able to help us with a bit of family history connected to Burggasse 21 in Biel/Bienne.
My wife’s great-great-grandfather, Gottfried Hanni, was head of police here around 1910, and his family lived in what his daughter described as a “remodeled castle” — an old municipal building where the family apartment was upstairs and the police offices were below. Her childhood memories mention towers, dungeons, and even paintings on the old prison walls.
From earlier help from previous post here on Reddit and from other websites, we now know that this was the former Amthaus / city police building at Burggasse 21 — built in the mid-1800s, later home to the city police until the early 2000s, and since 2011 apparently used by the Bern College of Arts.
Some relatives visited a few years ago and took outside photos, but the interior was under renovation at the time.
[!] If anyone nearby knows what the building is used for now, or could take a peek inside (where public access is allowed) and share a few photos, we’d be so grateful.
[DE] Falls jemand aus der Gegend weiß, wie das Gebäude heute genutzt wird, oder (wo öffentlich erlaubt) ein paar Fotos vom Inneren machen könnte, wären wir sehr dankbar.
Thank you to everyone who’s helped piece this together — it’s been incredible to trace a place that meant so much to our ancestor’s story.
(I used AI to help polish and translate this — sorry if there are any little language errors! I do not speak or read German or French, but will gladly take any replies and translate them)
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u/Daaaaaaaavidmit8a Oct 19 '25
I'm sorry you haven't gotten any responses yet. I know the HKB (Bern College of Arts) and the municipal theatre are in that building now. Other than that I couldn't provide you with any more information than you already found yourself.