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Bears are ubiquitous in Bern, and they greet citizens and visitors from everywhere - both in name and in person.

While there are plenty of cities with self-explanatory names, many other cases are much more obscure, sometimes even as mysterious as Gioconda's smile.

An ordinary early 20th century middle class apartment joining the list of attractions, on par with any other attraction in the town or even throughout the country, is a question-raising phenomenon.

Ten distinct statues perched on fountains and lined up along a thoroughfare in the Old Town, the distance between the end statues being exactly a mile.

The Bachs were held in so high regard that local rulers wouldn't hire a court musician whose last name wasn't Bach!

The similarity between German words for "mountain" and "fortress" contributed to the name of the future castle.

The pinnacle of those achievements was translating the Bible into German vernacular - a deed that gave millions access to the sacred texts, thus ending their dependence on the official Church's interpretations.

Unless steeped in Christian culture, one can hardly imagine just how revered, not to say "worshipped", the former mistress of the Wartburg castle is throughout Europe

In his case, the fire within created a scientist of humanity, not a revolutionary reformer like a certain German monk who had lived more than 300 years earlier