Back in 1947 I was taken by my family to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. Being a six-year-old boy, I was more interested in things like trains and trams than in many of the tourist attractions we went to visit. So you will not be too surprised to learn of my special fascination with the Käfigturm.
This photo of the Prison Tower (Käfigturm) in Bern is used by courtesy of TripAdvisor.
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The photo shows a tram which has just passed through the arch of the tower and is proceeding along Marktgasse. Not surprisingly, in 1947 the trams were of an older design and they had full pantographs. The headroom inside the arch is limited, and so as a tram approached the tower from the other side, the pantograph would close up automatically and then, as the tram emerged on this side, the pantograph would open up again. At the age of six I was fascinated by this and I must have kept going on about it. So one day my father took me back to this point, which may not have been very far from our hotel, so that I could stand and watch the trams go through.
It was during that holiday that I was introduced to alphabet pasta, perhaps best known through a product called Alphabetti Spaghetti, but the shrinking pantographs were much more exciting.
Photo by Taxiarchos228 at the German language Wikipedia.
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The second photo shows the tower from the west and on this side there is a wide open space, across which the trams approach the archway. It was here that I liked to stand and watch them. The overhead wires slope downwards towards the portal and the pantographs would close up, so as to be able to pass safely through it.
The tower stands in the second line of city walls, more or less in the same position as the original 13th century gatehouse. However, this was demolished in the 17th century and the present tower was built. It was used for many years as a prison and this is the origin of its name.
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For a fuller history of the tower, see the Wikipedia article. You will find that the link takes you via a redirect, but do not be alarmed; this is a technical necessity. (Time to start muttering about the wonders of modern technology again.)
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