Normally when we at JMO blog about locations, it’s not about a specific street.
Most streets you walk down because they’re on the map.
There are a few streets however, that you walk on because the street itself is famous – like Hollywood Blvd, or the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland.
And then there are streets you walk down because your name is on them.
For us – Gary and Dianne of JMO, Nägeligasse — a quiet, cobblestoned lane tucked into the heart of Bern’s UNESCO-listed Old Town — was very much the latter.
Because Nägeli isn’t just a street name. It’s a family name. Our family name.
And standing at the entrance to it for the first time was one of those travel moments that you just don’t fully plan for.
The Name on the Street
Nägeligasse takes its name from Hans Franz Nägeli of Bern, a prominent figure who served as the city’s SchultheiĂŸâ€”effectively its mayor—from 1540 to 1568. Nägeli was more than a civic leader. He was a military commander, a diplomat, and a central figure in Bern’s expansion during the 16th century. His leadership played a decisive role in campaigns that extended Bern’s influence into regions like Vaud, shaping the political landscape of Switzerland at the time.
He was a man of considerable local standing — the kind of person a city honors by attaching a name to a lane that will outlast everyone who ever walked it. And it has. The alley still carries his name today, quiet and unassuming, running just a few hundred meters through the medieval city center.
Naming a street after him in 1877 wasn’t just a nod to history—it was a recognition of a man whose decisions helped define the city itself.
And like many historic figures in Bern, Nägeli’s presence still feels close at hand. His story isn’t confined to books or plaques—it’s embedded in the streets, the buildings, and the quiet continuity of the Old Town.
What makes this particularly interesting for us at JMO (Gary and Dianne) is the family thread that connects us to this part of Switzerland. During COVID, we chased our ancestry back on both sides and found ancestors that had for centuries moved back and forth between nearby villages across what’s now the border between Switzerland and Germany.
Until one point…where our family trees merged.
What we found? Our common ancestor, Johann Wendell Nägeli, was born — and died — in Meiringen, a small Alpine village tucked into the Haslital valley roughly 60 kilometers from Bern. Meiringen is beautiful in the way that many Swiss mountain towns are. But it also happens to be the village nearest to Reichenbach Falls, where Arthur Conan Doyle famously sent Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty tumbling to their apparent deaths in 1891. The Aareschlucht (Aare) Gorge, a stunning carved limestone canyon that draws hikers from all over Europe, is right there too. Needless to say, Meiringen is not short on drama — fictional or geological.
So here you have it. A family line that stretches from a mountain village near one of literature’s most famous cliffs, all the way to a street sign in Switzerland’s capital city. That’s a pretty good story.
The Street Itself
Bern is one of those cities that rewards walking. Perfect for an urban hike. The covered arcades — called Lauben — run for miles through the Old Town, sheltering pedestrians from rain and snow with a practical elegance that has been there since the Middle Ages. Nägeligasse fits right into this rhythm. It’s narrow and unhurried. Sandstone buildings lean in from both sides. The pace slows the moment you turn onto it, and that feels entirely intentional.
What makes Nägeligasse memorable isn’t its size or even its history alone—it’s the way it connects.
It connects major squares within Bern’s Old Town.
It connects past and present through its namesake.
And, for some, it connects personal heritage to a larger story.
Standing there, it’s easy to imagine the layers overlapping—Hans Franz Nägeli navigating the politics of a growing city, generations of families carrying a shared name through Swiss valleys, and modern travelers weaving their own paths through the same streets.
The street sits within easy reach of everything that makes Bern worth visiting. A mere 5 minute walk from the train station with our hotel (Hotel Savoy Bern) in between. The famous Zytglogge clock tower is just steps away. The MĂ¼nster Cathedral looms beautifully overhead if you look in the right direction.
And then there’s the matter of Albert Einstein.
Just a short walk from Einstein’s apartment, Nägeligasse reminds you that history isn’t confined to one place or one story. It exists everywhere at once—sometimes in grand discoveries, sometimes in quiet streets, and sometimes in the names we carry with us.
And…back to Einstein.
Einstein lived and worked in Bern from 1902 to 1909, and his apartment at Kramgasse 49 — now a museum — is roughly a five-minute walk from Nägeligasse. Less than 400 meters, in fact. During the years he spent in that apartment, Einstein developed the Special Theory of Relativity. He was working as a patent clerk at the time. Not bad for a day job. Standing on Nägeligasse and knowing that Einstein’s apartment is practically around the corner puts you in some genuinely remarkable company, historically speaking.
Why It Matters
We talk a lot on this blog about finding reasons to go places. A beautiful landscape, a great meal, a piece of history worth seeing. All of those things are real and valid.
But finding a street with your family’s name on it? In a city where your ancestors lived and left their mark? That’s something else entirely. That’s the kind of travel that gets under your skin in the best possible way.
Gary and Dianne didn’t come to Bern specifically for Nägeligasse. They came because Bern is wonderful and Switzerland was calling. But Nägeligasse is the part of the trip that lingered. The part that got retold at dinner. The part that turned a great European city break into something that felt, at least for a few minutes on a cobblestone lane, deeply personal.
If you’re ever in Bern — and you should be — take the walk. Find the street. Look up at the sign.
And if your name happens to be on it, well. That’s just a bonus.
Journey Moore Often — because sometimes the map leads straight back to you.