Each story is rooted in real local history and landmarks
A child exploring the hills above Thun discovers a glittering gold-inlaid battle axe in an ancient grave. The axe whispers stories of trade routes stretching from Lake Thun to faraway Mycenae and the warm Mediterranean Sea, taking the child on a 3,700-year journey to meet the Bronze Age chieftain who once wore six golden torques around his neck.
A child gets lost in Thun's old town and stumbles onto the Hochtrottoirs of the Obere Hauptgasse, where the sidewalk runs along the rooftops. Climbing from street level to the elevated walkway, each level reveals a different century of the town's history -- from the 12th-century covered arcades below to the bustling modern cafes above, in a street found nowhere else in Switzerland.
Marquard Wocher invites a curious child to help him sketch the 360-degree panorama of Thun from a precarious rooftop in the summer of 1809. Together they capture every detail of daily life below -- market vendors, washerwomen by the Aare, soldiers at the Waffenplatz -- creating a painting so vivid that the child can step inside it and walk through 1809 Thun.
The abandoned Bluemlisalp paddle steamer, rusting alone in the Kander delta since 1971, is awakened by a child's whispered wish on a moonlit night. The old ship takes one last ghostly voyage across Lake Thun, revisiting the elegant Belle Epoque days of 1906 when it was the grandest vessel on the lake, before dawn brings the promise of restoration and a second life.
Schloss Thun's Rittersaal echoes with the footsteps of a ghostly knight from the Zaehringen era, trapped inside the 14-metre-high hall since Duke Berchtold V died without heirs in 1218. A child visiting the museum must solve a riddle hidden in the walls of the massive keep before the knight can finally cross the hall and find peace beneath the gaze of the Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau.
A child discovers that the wooden sluice bridges of Thun hide a secret: at midnight, when the turquoise Aare rushes through the gates, the ancient sluice keeper appears and teaches river surfing to anyone brave enough to ride the standing waves. Together they surf through moonlit Thun, past the Baelliz island and under the covered bridges, learning the river's rhythms.
A child boards a boat at Thun and sails across the Thunersee, passing castles and caves at every stop. As the journey unfolds, a different alpine legend comes to life at each landing, culminating in a meeting with the Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau personified as ancient guardians who explain why Thun has stood as the gateway to their realm for five thousand years.
Young Louis-Napoleon arrives at the Waffenplatz in the 1830s, homesick and uncertain about his future in exile. A local child befriends the awkward young Frenchman and shows him Thun's secret corners -- the castle turrets, the river bridges, the alpine panorama -- not knowing that this shy military student will one day become Emperor of France.
Your child becomes the illustrated hero of the story.
Choose from local stories or 170+ other themes.
A personalized illustrated story ready in minutes.
Your child as the main character in a story set right here.
Swiss Stories require a free account. Trial stories use other themes.