Across the terrifying statue of the Kindlifressenbrunnen devouring youngsters, younger ghosts are mentioned to hang-out like a misty night time. Stated to be the undesirable infants taken out of the town by means of the underground tunnels, they return to the scene of the crime.
In Bern’s Outdated City, on the bustling Kornhausplatz, looms a fountain so macabre it stops vacationers of their tracks. The Kindlifresserbrunnen, or “Baby Eater Fountain,” will not be a contemporary shock piece because it was sculpted in 1546 by Hans Gieng and has towered over the town ever since. The grotesque ogre atop the fountain devours a helpless toddler, whereas three extra terrified youngsters peer from a sack slung over his shoulder. He’s not merely hungry, but in addition ravenous, mythic, and maybe, haunted.
Learn Extra: Take a look at all ghost tales from Switzerland
The grotesque statue has lengthy puzzled historians. Was it a cautionary story, an historical anti-Semitic image, a grim illustration of Kronos the child-eating Titan, or perhaps a mad royal brother pushed to cannibalistic fury by envy? None of those theories totally clarify the disturbing permanence of the Kindlifresser. And the legend doesn’t finish on the statue’s base. Beneath this horrifying determine lies a deeper darkness, etched not in stone, however in whisper and shadow.
The Underground Tunnels round Kornhausplatz
Lengthy earlier than Bern’s medieval partitions rose round it, the positioning of the Kindlifresserbrunnen was an open meadow, bordered by monasteries. One for males, one other for ladies. There have been in truth many locations the place each nuns and monks lived and labored all through the town. In line with native legend, a hidden tunnel as soon as related the 2. However this passageway across the Kornhausplatz, locals say, was additionally used for a far grimmer function.
Learn Additionally: The Haunted Underground of Bern
Within the early days of the town, undesirable youngsters, these born in secret or disgrace had been led or left into the darkness of the tunnel, by no means to be seen once more. It’s mentioned that they had been the youngsters of the monks and nuns and people dropped at them in addition to people who had been dropped at them.
Over time, the tales grew: that the cries of those forsaken little ones echoed beneath the cobblestones, and that their spirits nonetheless lingered, trapped between life and demise.
The Youngsters Who Dance within the Mist
As Bern’s mist thickens and the bells chime midnight, these ghost youngsters are mentioned to emerge from the earth. For one fleeting hour, they’re not shadows. Locals converse in hushed tones of ethereal figures dancing within the swirling fog, their laughter mingling with the creak of previous shutters and the murmur of the river and round Kornhausplatz.
A nice, white mist wells up between the stones, spreads gently, quietly over the bottom, begins to billow, to undulate, gathers into tiny cloud formations, and dissolves once more into a skinny veil. And little by little, small human figures in flowing white attire emerge from it. Like white butterflies, they flutter up and down, touchdown now on this spot, now on that, searching for in playful play to catch each other, to flee.
Then, as the ultimate bell tolls one, they vanish—drawn again into the chilly stone beneath the ogre’s toes.
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References:
Geisterstadt Bern – SWI swissinfo.ch
Der Kindlifresserbrunnen | Märchenstiftung
