Einsteinhaus

The apartment where modern physics was born, the Einsteinhaus on Bern's Kramgasse preserves the modest flat where Albert Einstein lived during the years of his greatest breakthroughs. It is a small, intimate museum in the heart of the arcaded old town.

Einstein moved to Bern in 1902 to work as a clerk at the Swiss federal patent office, and he and his wife Mileva rented rooms on the second floor of Kramgasse 49. It was here, in 1905, that he produced the astonishing series of papers now called his annus mirabilis, or miracle year, including the special theory of relativity and the famous equation relating mass and energy, work carried out in his spare time far from any university laboratory.

The apartment has been restored to something close to its appearance in Einstein's day, with period furniture, family photographs and documents that evoke the everyday domestic life behind the revolutionary science. A floor above presents his biography and achievements in more detail, tracing his path from the Bern patent office to worldwide fame and his later years.

The setting itself is part of the appeal. The Kramgasse is one of the finest streets of Bern's medieval centre, lined with sandstone arcades, painted facades and historic fountains, only steps from the Zytglogge clock tower. Admission to the museum is charged and its rooms are compact, reached by a staircase, so it makes a quick but resonant stop rather than a lengthy visit. For anyone drawn to the history of science, standing in the very rooms where relativity took shape is a quietly powerful experience, and it adds an unexpected intellectual dimension to a stroll through one of Europe's best-preserved old towns.