Fischergässli, Matte district

Those who want to escape the tourist crowds in the upper town should not miss to visit the lower town of Bern.
The locals call their quarters the Matte. Historically, the citizens of the upper town looked down on those of the Matte district, not only in a purely topographical sense, but above all in a social sense. Families who became rich through trade lived upstairs, small businesses settled down on the Aare, especially those that were to a certain extent disreputable: fishermen, butchers, tanneries, skinners. Heretics were drowned here in the Aare and ... well, there were probably brothels too. Giacomo Casanove is said to have enjoyed himself here. The Matte district had a bad reputation.
Today, the Matte Quarter is clean and tidy. Architecturally, you can still see and feel that the quarter has developed somewhat differently than the affluent upper town. The Matte is and remains the somewhat different Bern.