Bern

The city of Bern or Berne (German: Bern, pronounced [bɛrn]; French: Berne [bɛʁn]; Italian: Berna [ˈbɛrna]; Romansh: Berna  [ˈbɛrnɐ] ; Bernese German: Bärn [b̥æːrn]) is the de facto capital of Switzerland, referred to by the Swiss as their (e.g. in German) Bundesstadt, or "federal city". With a population of 140,634 (November 2015), Bern is the fifth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 36 municipalities, had a population of 406,900 in 2014. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000. Bern is also the capital of the Canton of Bern, the second most populous of Switzerland's cantons.

The official language of Bern is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the Alemannic Swiss German dialect called Bernese German.

In 1983 the historic old town in the centre of Bern became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bern is ranked among the world’s top ten cities for the best quality of life (2010).

Etymology

The etymology of the name Bern is uncertain. According to the local legend, based on folk etymology, Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, the founder of the city of Bern, vowed to name the city after the first animal he met on the hunt, and this turned out to be a bear. It has long been considered likely that the city was named after the Italian city of Verona, which at the time was known as Bern in Middle High German. As a result of the find of the Bern zinc tablet in the 1980s, it is now more common to assume that the city was named after a pre-existing toponym of Celtic origin, possibly *berna "cleft". The bear was the heraldic animal of the seal and coat of arms of Bern from at least the 1220s. The earliest reference to the keeping of live bears in the Bärengraben dates to the 1440s.

Berné

Berné (Berne in Breton) is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in northwestern France.

Population

Inhabitants of Berné are called Bernéens.

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Bern, Netherlands

Bern (formerly sometimes "Beern", "Berne", or "Beerne") is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is located in the municipality of Zaltbommel, about 10 km south of the town Zaltbommel.

Bern used to lie south of the Meuse River, in the municipality of Herpt en Bern. The river was dammed close to Bern around 1900 (see Afgedamde Maas), and a new channel was dug south of the village, the Bergsche Maas. In 1958, the administrative borders were changed to account for this new situation, and Bern moved from the province of North Brabant to Gelderland, and to the municipality of Kerkwijk.

According to the 19th-century historian A.J. van der Aa, there used to be a castle in Bern, with a large tower and surrounded by walls. One of its owners, Fulco of Bern, made the castle into an abbey of the Premonstratensian order in 1134. It was inaugurated by the 25th bishop of Utrecht, Andreas of Cuyk. The abbey suffered during the Iconoclasm in 1566, and was almost completely burnt down in 1589 during the siege of Heusden by the Spanish army. It was never rebuilt, and in the middle of the 19th century, little remained of the Abbey of Bern.