Bern Schweiz Switzerland Suisse
1906
Created in 1906 by Emil Cardinaux, this vibrant poster is often credited as the very first Swiss travel poster, designed to lure tourists aboard the Swiss Federal Railways (S.B.B.). It showcases a panoramic view of Bern's red rooftops and the winding Aare river, dominated by the Zähringerbrunnen statue in the foreground. This statue depicts the city's founder in armor standing on a bear—a clever visual pun, since 'Bär' means bear in German and sounds like Bern! The multilingual text at the bottom welcomes German, English, and French speakers, kicking off a golden age of railway advertising that made Switzerland a tourism powerhouse.
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