Guide · The clock tower

Bern clock tower tour: climbing inside the Zytglogge

Crowds watch the figures from the street every hour. The tower tour takes you behind the dial, among the gears and up the spiral stairs to a view over the rooftops.

Check availabilityfrom $33 · cancel at no cost

Editorial team, walkingtourbern.comUpdated October 21, 20267-minute read19 sources

The tour that goes with it Bern: Zytglogge - Tour through the Clock Tower 4.8 (803 reviews) 1 hour from$31per person Check availabilityFree cancellation up to 24 hrs before

In brief

01What it is: A 1-hour guided visit inside the Zytglogge, from $31, rated 4.76 from 803 reviews.
02What you see: The clockwork, the figures up close and the astronomical clock on the tower's east side.¹
03The climb: About 130 steps up a spiral staircase to a lookout platform.
04The show: From the street the figures perform every hour on the hour.²
05Booking direct: Bern Welcome's public tour costs CHF 25.00 for adults, on set days that change by season.³ ⁴

What the tower tour includes

This Bern clock tower tour takes you inside the Zytglogge for 1 hour with a guide who speaks German, English, French or Italian. The group climbs about 130 steps on a spiral staircase to a lookout platform, studies the clockwork and follows the figure show step by step until the rooster crows. Each date runs in one or two languages, and you name yours when you book. Inside the narrow rooms the group stays close to the guide, so questions come easily.

The listing dates the tower to the 1300s, and the visit is as much about machinery as about history. On the Zytglogge tour in Bern you stand among the gears and the apparatus of the old clock and watch the figurines from close by.¹ The astronomical clock and the musical mechanism date from 1530, and those parts made the tower famous.⁵ Seen from inside, the hourly show outside suddenly makes mechanical sense.

Booked on GetYourGuide, the tour starts from $31, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before and the choice to reserve now and pay later. Its 803 reviews at 4.76 outnumber the 713 of Bern Welcome's 90-minute Old Town walk. The record gives no meeting point, so check your booking confirmation for where the guide waits before you set out. Keep that confirmation handy on your phone, along with the language you chose.

Inside the tower

From the street to the lookout

Before the hour

The rooster crows

The show opens just before the hour turns.⁶
On the hour

Bears and Cronos

Bears dance, the jester strikes early, Cronos turns the hourglass.⁶
Inside

The clockwork

You examine the gears and apparatus of the old clock.¹
Up close

The figures

You watch the figurines from close by.¹
About 130 steps

The lookout

A spiral staircase ends at a viewing platform.
East side

The astrolabe

The astronomical calendar clock on the tower's eastern face.¹

A tower that changed jobs

The Zytglogge was not built to tell the time. Over the centuries it served as a fortified tower, a prison, a watch tower and a fire watch before it finally became a clock tower.⁷ The listing for Bern Welcome's Old Town walk calls it the 13th-century Clock Tower. Standing under its arch today, among shops and tram wires, you have to imagine it as an edge of the medieval town. The guide fills in the gaps between those roles as you climb.

The great fire of 12 May 1405 started in today's Brunngasse, destroyed 650 wooden houses and killed over 100 people.⁸ After it, the Käfigturm took over the functions of the destroyed Zytglogge and served as a prison from then on.⁹ New houses had to be built of stone, so sandstone has shaped the streets around the tower ever since, and the arcades were also built after the fire.¹⁰ That stone look is what the UNESCO listing now protects.

The tower also marks a line on the map. Bern Welcome divides the Old City at the Zytglogge: the lower part runs down to the Matte, the upper part out to Bollwerk-Hirschengraben.¹¹ Close by, at the end of Kramgasse, the Zähringerbrunnen shows an upright bear with a cub at its feet eating grapes.¹² Look for both on your way in, because they frame the tower from the east. The bear on the fountain is also a handy landmark for meeting friends.

Direct prices

Bern Welcome's public tower tour by ticket type

CHF

Prices of Bern Welcome's public Zytglogge tour, which lasts 1 hour with at most 19 people.³

Compare

GetYourGuide listing or the tourist office

What matters	GetYourGuide listing	Bern Welcome public	Bern Welcome private
Length	1 hour	1 hour	1 hour
Price	from $31	CHF 25.00 per adult	CHF 300.00 per tour
When	By availability	Set days by season	All year
Group size	Not stated	Up to 19	Your own party
Cancellation	Free up to 24 hours	See the office	See the office

Listing terms from GetYourGuide; public and private prices, dates and group size from Bern Welcome.⁴ ³ ¹³

Pick your visit

Tower tour, Old Town walk or on your own

This page's pick

Zytglogge tour

Inside the clock tower

Length: 1 hour
Rating: 4.76
Price: from $31

See this option

Bern: 90-Minute Stroll Through the Old Town

Passes the tower

Old Town walk

From the station

Length: 90 minutes
Guides: IT, EN, DE, FR
Price: from $33

See this option

Self-guided

Audio tour

Starts at the Zytglogge

Valid: 365 days
Rating: 4.40
Price: from $13

See this option

Decision helper

Which way into the tower suits you

Pick the line closest to your plan

I want to see the gears I only want the show I want a view over the roofs I am booking for a big party I want the whole Old Town

Zytglogge tour

1 hour inside, with the clockwork and figures up close.

Watch from the street

The figures perform every hour on the hour.²

Zytglogge tour

About 130 steps lead to the lookout platform.

Private tour

Bern Welcome charges CHF 300.00 for 1 hour.¹³

Old Town walk

90 minutes from the station, with the tower among its sights.

The astronomical clock, known as the astrolabe, and the musical mechanism dating from 1530 have made the tower particularly famous.

Bern WelcomeSource 5

The figure show outside, every hour

You do not need to book anything to see the best-known part. Every hour on the hour people gather in front of the tower for a puppet show of bears, a jester, a golden rooster and Cronos, the god of time, ringing in the new hour.² It is short and busy, so the people in the front row are usually the ones who came early and waited with patience on the cobbles.

Bern Welcome describes the order: just before the hour a crowing rooster opens the show, the bears dance in a circle, the jester strikes the hour too early, Cronos turns his hourglass and the gilded knight Hans von Thann strikes the bell.⁶ The office gives no exact minute for the start, so come a little before the hour and choose a spot where you can see both the dial and the figures above it.

Above the entrance, the astronomical clock shows the current sign of the zodiac, the phase of the moon, the times of sunrise and sunset, and the date.¹⁴ Give it a few quiet minutes once the crowd thins. The dial rewards a slow look as much as the figures do, and a guide on the tower tour will explain how to read it before you see the mechanism behind it. Phones up, look for the moon phase first; it is the easiest part to read.

Checklist

Before you climb

Bring

Flat shoes for the spiral stairs
Your booking with the chosen language
A camera for the lookout

Timing

Reach the tower a little before the hour
Tell the guide if someone avoids stairs
Free cancellation until 24 hours before

Cost calculator

What the visit costs your group

Choose how many people come along to see the total for each option.

Zytglogge tour1 hourfrom $31 Old Town walk90 minutesfrom $33 Audio tourSelf-guidedfrom $13

People 2

Total from$62

per head from $31

Check availabilityfree cancellation

Each total takes the lowest adult price GetYourGuide shows for a Bern listing, times your group size, at the European Central Bank's rate of the day; checkout shows what you actually pay.

Video

Inside the Bern Clock Tower - Part I

Until you tap play, the video stays unloaded.

Booking with the tourist office instead

Bern Welcome runs its own Zytglogge tour, also 1 hour long, with the meeting point at the tower on Kramgasse.¹⁵ ⁴ Adults pay CHF 25.00, seniors and visitors with disabilities CHF 20.00, and children aged 6 to 16 pay CHF 12.00, with at most 19 people in a group.³ Tours run in German, French, Italian or English, and bilingually if enough people ask.³ ¹⁶ Booking direct means paying the office's own terms rather than GetYourGuide's.

The public dates follow the season. In August and September the tour ran on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 13:15 and on Sunday at 1:00 pm; in October it runs on Tuesday and Thursday at 3:15 pm and on Saturday at 1:15 pm.⁴ For other months, check the office's calendar or book the GetYourGuide listing, whose starting times depend on availability. Outside those slots, the listing is the simpler way to fix a date.

A private Zytglogge tour costs CHF 300.00 for 1 hour and runs all year from the same meeting point.¹³ Combined with an Old Town stroll it costs CHF 390.00 for 120 minutes or CHF 460.00 for 180 minutes.¹⁷ For a large family or a group of friends that can make sense; for a couple or a solo traveler, the group tour costs far less and shows the same clockwork. Ask the office about languages when you book a private date.

What the climb is like

The way up is a spiral staircase of about 130 steps, so the tour suits anyone who manages ordinary stairs at an easy pace. The rooms inside are compact, and the clock room feels tucked away from the busy street below. Go in comfortable flat shoes, keep bags small, and expect to stand for much of the hour while the guide explains each part of the machine. There is no lift mentioned anywhere in the tour details, so plan for the stairs.

At the top the reward is the view. Bern Welcome describes the rooftops, terraces and alleyways of the old town spread out below and, on a clear day, the peaks of the Bernese Oberland on the horizon.¹⁸ Bring a camera with a wide lens if you have one, and give yourself a moment to trace the main streets you walked up from the station. Morning light from the east tends to suit the photos over the roofs.

Small children may find the stairs long, though they often enjoy the figures more from close by than from the crowded street. If anyone in your party dislikes heights or narrow stairs, they can watch the hourly show outside while the rest of you climb, and you can meet again under the arch once the bell has rung.² The arch under the tower makes an easy place to regroup afterwards.

Fitting the tower into your day

The tower stands where the Old Town walks cross, so it slots easily into a day on foot. Bern Welcome's 90-minute walk lists the Zytglogge and its show on the hour among its sights and starts from the Tourist Information at the station. Book that walk for the overview and the tower tour for the inside story, ideally on the same day while the names are fresh. Seeing the gears after the walk makes the figures far easier to follow.

The self-guided audio and reading tours sold on GetYourGuide also begin at the Zytglogge, with a link sent right after booking and access valid for 365 days. That makes the tower a natural first stop if you would rather explore alone after the guided climb, with the story of the clock still in your head as you move on. The audio version also suits travelers who prefer to stop wherever they like.

People gather in front of the tower before every hour, so arrive a few minutes early for a clear view of the show and book the tower tour for another time of day.² The address is Bim Zytglogge 3, 3011 Bern, and the tourist office's tours meet on the Kramgasse side.¹⁹ ⁴ From there the arcades lead downhill towards the Einstein House and the Minster. A coffee under the arcades nearby fills the wait for the next hour.

Your Old Town hour