Steffisburg

Steffisburg is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. On 1 January 2020 the former municipality of Schwendibach merged into it. It is first mentioned in 1133 as Stevensburc and was formerly known by its French name Steffisbourg. The area has been inhabited since the Neolithic era and remained occupied during the Bronze Age, traces of a Roman site were found at Schwabis, and early medieval graves have been discovered at Zelgmatte and Klosterhubel. By the High Middle Ages the whole Zulgtal, including Steffisburg, was owned by the local Freiherr von Heimberg family. In 1480 the Bernese Schultheiss Heinrich Matter built the Grosse Hochhus on the ruins of the Stevensburc castle, and a brewery opened in 1809, followed by a second in 1818. The municipality covers about 14.81 square kilometres and had 15,991 residents in December 2020.