I found this word, "reithalle", in a booklet about Wenkenhof park, in Basel (Riehen). It sounds like a French word, but I guess it's German.
Does anybody know its meaning? I've searched on the internet, couldn't find the exact meaning ("riding hall", maybe, but I'm not so sure...)
Thank you

It's mabe an Horses Hall .

http://images.google.ch/images?q=rei...N&hl=fr&tab=wi

Correct. It means a covered riding arena.

I use Mozilla as my browser, and have a couple of German-English dictionaries in my search bar. The following two links lead to pages where you can download those search tools: dict.cc en<->de and LEO de->en.

The dict.cc en<->de link gives "riding hall" and "indoor riding arena" as translations.

Though I am incapable of reading the simplest German sentence I find these dictionaries very helpful for following discussions on EF.

thank you all!
(I just realized it doesn't sound like a french word )

Be careful though, in Bern if someone talks about the Reithalle, they are referring to the scene where a lot of drugs are being sold

Not only in Bern. The Berner Reithalle has a bad reputation in the whole country, and its sorry sight welcoming tourists arriving in Bern by train (it's just next to the SBB Main Station) is a not entirely neglegible deterrent for potential visitors to the capital of the Switzerland. Fringe movement? Come on, gimme a break.

The Zuri one is rather nicer...


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A reithalle is an indoor arena, or sand arena
where you ride horses.

Wrong tense in some cases. If you read the post previous to yours you'll see that the Reithalle in Zürich is now a restaurant.

Not exactly. When people talk about "Reithalle" in Bern, they usually mean the Kulturzentrum Reithalle and not the people selling drugs outside of it. There are three bars and different concert venues in that building.

While I would normally not tell tourists to go there, it is not that dangerous and the concerts and parties can be quite good. Don't wear pin stripes or too much Prada, don't argue with the dealers and you should be fine.

I personally like the fact that apart from the pitoresque, and very neat (UNESCO world cultural heritage) old town, there is at least on place in Bern that is not over-organized, over-tidy (quite frankly, the place is mess, bit still works).

These days the authorities in Bern have followed Basel's lead and now make the druggies go to a special house nearby, across the car park, across the junction and near the river bridge. It's also very near the court house and prison. The Reithalle is "Under new management" and they are trying to encourage drug free entertainment for young people.

The original Reithalle were used to exercise horses in, during the cold winters. They are built like very large barns with high roofs. Recently a new one was built at the national horse center near Avenches.