Huguenot Trail
Part of the Huguenot Trail runs through Lyss. It is hard to imagine that the largest shipwreck in Swiss history took place here.
As a memorial to the hardships and tragedy endured by the Huguenots, this historic path was inaugurated on September 16, 2017.
Lyss Shipwreck
Huguenots and Waldensians on the Run
In 1598, King Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes, granting Protestants (Huguenots) in France religious tolerance and ending the Wars of Religion in his kingdom. However, in 1685 Louis XIV revoked the edict. Protestants were forbidden to practice their faith and barred from leaving the country unless they converted to Catholicism. Nevertheless, tens of thousands fled to Protestant lands, crossing the Swiss Confederation from Lake Geneva through to Schaffhausen and onward into Germany. Under French pressure, the Duke of Savoy also expelled Calvinist Waldensians from the Alpine valleys of Piedmont.
Geneva, as a Protestant stronghold, and Bern, the largest transit region on the escape route from Lake Geneva to Schaffhausen, played a crucial role in transporting and provisioning the refugees.
Aarberg served as an important waystation on the river route from Bern to Brugg. In 1687, Landvogt Victor von Erlach, Pastor Niklaus Ulrich, and Pfrundvogt Georg Kistler were responsible for refugees’ care, housing them at the inns “Zur Krone” and “Zum Falken” or with private families.
The Aare between Aarberg and Büren
Until the Jura water corrections (1868–1891), the Aare did not flow into Lake Biel but directly to Büren. The 1568 wooden bridge at Aarberg still bears witness to its former breadth. Between Aarberg and Büren, the Aare spread across a network of channels, frequently overflowing its banks in floods and carving new paths through the deposited sediment. The entire landscape was shaped by the untamed river and its fertile floodplain.
Since the opening of the Hagneck Canal in 1878, the “Äärli”—as locals affectionately call the remaining old course of the Aare—winds through a rewilded, leafy riparian forest. The Huguenot Trail follows this former riverbed, once plied by thousands of refugees in search of an unfamiliar new home.
This stretch near Lyss is particularly marked by the tragedy of September 5, 1687, when 111 Huguenots drowned.
The Shipwreck of September 5, 1687
On September 5, 1687, two boats lashed together—carrying 137 Huguenot refugees—sailed from Aarberg toward Büren. Just above the Lyss bends, one vessel struck a submerged tree trunk in the shallow Aare and broke apart. As passengers attempted to clamber into the second boat, it too capsized and sank.
Of the 137 refugees on board, 111 perished and 26 were rescued. Fifteen bodies were recovered immediately and laid to rest in Lyss. The Bern government ordered all magistrates along the Aare to search for other victims, record their descriptions, and ensure them a dignified burial. It remains unknown how many more bodies were eventually recovered. Personal belongings and valuables were sent to Bern for identification and eventual return to heirs.
Responsibility for the disaster was placed upon the inebriated boatmen—only one of whom survived and fled. Undoubtedly, however, both vessels had been dangerously overloaded.
Dangerous Journeys
Rivers and lakes were, until the 19th century, the most important—but by no means safe—transport routes for goods. Flat-bottomed boats known as “Weidlinge” were used on these waterways; they featured a shallow draft, raised bow and stern, straight sides slanted outward, and measured around 13 meters in length on the 17th-century Aare. They offered room for only a handful of passengers, and purely human transports—such as troops or refugees—were the exception rather than the rule.
“Shipwreck – Just a Moment, Look”
This memorial, with its enigmatic title, commemorates the Huguenot refugee shipwreck of September 5, 1687. In 2017, Biel artist Gianni Vasari (b. 1949), together with his Cuban-born colleague Humberto Ocaña (b. 1979) and asylum-seekers from the nearby Kappelen-Lyss collective shelter, created the installation for the inauguration of the Aarberg–Lyss Huguenot Trail.
Inn “Weisses Kreuz”
Most of the 26 survivors were housed “at the inn” in Lyss, where they stayed and were fed for up to twelve days. Others returned to Bern to report the disaster to the authorities. That inn was almost certainly the 16th-century Gasthaus zum Weissen Kreuz. The present hotel building dates from 1779, was expanded in the 19th century, and remodeled with an extra floor in 1914.
Old Church of Lyss
Lyss’s former parish church traces back to a 7th-century predecessor. Its current form dates to 1672–1675. The tower was removed in 1940 and replaced by a roof-mounted belfry. The adjoining cemetery was decommissioned at the end of the 19th century.
Fifteen victims recovered immediately after the 1687 shipwreck were buried here; the remaining bodies drifted downstream, some of which were later recovered and interred at various locations. A memorial stone from the Dauphiné—home region of most passengers—was erected in 2017 to honor those who perished.
Shipwreck Memorial
A short distance from the accident site stands the memorial by Gianni Vasari and Humberto Ocaña, unveiled on September 16, 2017, commemorating the tragedy.
Images
- The town of Aarberg
- Huguenot Trail monument
- Shipwreck memorial stele
- Approximate wreck site
- Memorial and stele together
- Weisses Kreuz inn
- Old Church of Lyss
