Kellerkino Simon Schwendimann

A heavy wooden door set flush into the sandstone facade leads down into the Kellerkino. Unlike the grand cinemas on the main avenues, this theater occupies a narrow, vaulted cellar typical of Bernese Old Town architecture. Simon Schwendimann opened this space in nineteen seventy-one, dedicating it to independent and art-house films that larger theaters ignored. It remains one of the smallest cinemas in Switzerland, keeping the same intimate, underground atmosphere that drew its first patrons in during the early seventies.