In the capital city of Bern, Switzerland

 "Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo style of architecture." -- Ernest Hemingway

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(in the de facto capital of Switzerland, referred to by the Swiss as their "federal city") In the west-central part of the country, the city of Bern is found along a narrow loop of the Aare River. The existence of the ancient castle of Nydegg, guarding a crossing over the Aare, is said to have led Berthold V, duke of Zähringen, to establish Bern in 1191 as a military post on the frontier between the German-speaking "Alemanni" and the French-speaking inhabitants of Burgundy. After the extinction of the Zähringen dynasty (in 1218), Bern became a free imperial city. Gradually it extended its power by acquiring surrounding territory, becoming an independent state that in 1353 entered the Swiss Confederation, which it soon began to lead. After a devastating fire ravaged the predominantly wood-built town in 1405, Bern was rebuilt with sandstone. Although much of the surrounding metropolis has since been modernized, the city center (Old Bern) remains intact from that period. Bern’s flag-festooned, cobbled center, rebuilt in distinctive grey-green sandstone after the 1405 fire, is an aesthetic delight, with six kilometers (~4 mi.) of covered arcades, cellar shops and bars, and fantastical folk figures frolicking on 16th-century fountains. From the surrounding hills, visitors are presented with an equally captivating picture of red roofs arrayed on a spit of land on the Aare River bend. A powerful force since medieval times, the thriving Swiss "capital" is now an appealing city of museums and collections. The Historical Museum and the Collection of the Bern Museum of Fine Arts house the art and architecture of millennia. The Einstein House and the Paul Klee Center showcase the work of two of Bern's famous former inhabitants. In short, Bern seduces and surprises at every turn. Its museums are excellent, its drinking scene dynamic, and its locals happy to switch from their famously lilting dialect to textbook French, High German, or English – which all tends to suggest that there’s far more to Bern than government bureaucracy.