“Kopflos” at Casinoplatz is my favourite piece of art in the city’s public space. It was created in 1986 by local artist Luciano Andreani who has also built the nearby “Wasserspeier” and a couple of other art pieces around the city. The green step on Casinoplatz has become a humble but eye-catching landmark known by each and every Bernese.

Much has been speculated about the Simpsonesque four toes on each foot. The artist has a simple answer to that: The piece of wood he used to build the 400-kilo bronze sculpure was too small for five toes. Andreani was not happy about this and thought about starting anew – but the audience was delighted about that genius detail. So the four toes stayed.

Andreani also has a simple explanation for the sculpture’s name “kopflos” (headless). “The head of the sculpure is my own head”, he says. So if he gave the sculpure a head, he would lose his own – and that would be very dangerous, right? Makes perfect sense.