A walk through the ages in Biel

Bilingualism in Biel is evident every where you turn swissinfo.ch

The town of Biel has been giving itself a facelift as part of its preparations to host Expo.02.

A beehive of workers scurry about, erecting temporary buildings on Biel’s lakeshore for Switzerland’s national exhibition, Expo.02. Biel is one of four towns in western Switzerland preparing to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors to the exhibition, which begins in mid-May.

But efforts to spruce up the town are not limited to the lakeshore. Road works and scaffolding mark much of Biel’s urban landscape. It’s clear Biel wants to remain a tourist destination long after Expo’s departure.

“We realised that a lot of changes now underway make the town nicer, for example, we are taking care of some of the town’s traffic problems,” says Samuel Kocher, head of tourism for Biel and the “Three Lakes Region”.

Changing people’s minds

“The long-term benefit of Expo has nothing to do with the hardware, the things we build. The Expo structures will disappear,” Kocher adds. “But there will be a change in the software, in people’s minds.”

The local authorities have seized the opportunity provided by Expo to complete the transition from an economy driven by industry to one they hope will be dominated by the services sector.

The paradox is that it is Biel’s industrial heritage that makes it attractive for visitors. The displays in the Omega museum provide ample evidence of the importance of watchmaking to the town in the past and present. The Swatch company, which makes the Omega brand, has its headquarters in the town.

The art and history Museum Neuhaus is housed in the buildings of a former printing factory. A revolving strip of fabric connects the three floors of the permanent exhibition dedicated to Biel’s most important industries of the past; textiles, wire and watchmaking.

“In the beginning was the watch…enabling factories to be built,” a former mayor of Biel once said.

By crossing the street to the Schwab archaeology museum, visitors take a giant step from Biel’s industrial history back to its prehistoric past. On display is an important collection of Stone and Bronze Age artefacts, as well as Celtic objects, excavated in the region about 150 years ago.

Prehistoric lake dwellers

The 19th century archaeologist and museum founder, Friedrich Schwab, made a key contribution to our knowledge of prehistoric lake dwellings, which once dotted the shores of lakes Biel, Murten and Neuchatel.

“This is an outdated representation of a lake dwelling,” says archaeologist and museum curator, Madeleine Betschart, pointing to a model of a prehistoric village.

“We now believe these people erected their houses on the shore and not directly over the water as displayed,” she continues, “but it’s interesting to see how the idea still strikes a chord today, since the organisers of Expo.02 have taken the same approach by creating floating platforms [built on the shore or over the water].

“The Expo sites wouldn’t have the same appeal if they were built completely on land,” she adds.

Sadly, Betschart has yet to receive the funding to carry out the renovations necessary to put the archaeological treasures in the modern light they deserve.

She has to channel her creative and innovative energies into temporary exhibits, which interpret life as it once was in the region.

Archaeological guide

Under her leadership though, the museum has published an archaeological guide (in German and French) to Biel, which takes visitors on a tour of the well-preserved medieval town centre.

The cobblestone streets are closed to motorised traffic, and those with a little fantasy can easily turn the clock back centuries.

The townsfolk and council once used to gather in a semi-circle or “ring” in the square with the same name to vote or pass judgement on suspected criminals.

There are wall murals and lovely wrought iron signs throughout the old town and a head-turning sculpture of an angel and female devil atop a fountain on Obergasse. A closer look at the decorative house facades lining the same street reveal the town’s split German and French character. Biel is one of Switzerland’s few bilingual towns.

The houses on the northwest side of the street are Burgundian, or French, in style – those opposite are similar to buildings in the old town of German-speaking Bern, complete with a covered passageway.

No town represents Switzerland’s multicultural diversity and industrial heritage better than Biel.

by Dale Bechtel