The nicest city in Switzerland!
Related pages:
Basel Fasnacht - a terrific carnival
Baselbiet - countryside and towns
The nicest Swiss city of them all. It has beautiful buildings in the Market and Cathedral Squares in particular, a wide river with quirky little ferries, excellent trams, fine restaurants and bars, and a magnificent carnival Fasnacht, which unfortunately in recent years has become a victim of its own success.
Reputedly founded by the Roman senator Munatius Plancus, from 1032 the city was part of the Germanic Empire, later being ruled by a prince bishop, from which the city derives its symbol - a bishop's crozier. Fifty years later the city was surrounded by a wall but the whole lot burned in 1185 - in 1356 an earthquake destroyed part of the city! 1,2,3
The first bridge - wooden of course - was built across the Rhine in 1225 cementing the city's importance for trade.
The University of Basel is Switzerland's oldest university, founded in 1460 and in 1471 the emperor conferred on Basel the right to hold two fairs - the Autumn Fair is still held annually and is very popular throughout the three countries, due to Basel's location so close to the borders with France and Germany. Nowadays the lovely Xmas Market is equally popular - the best in the region.
Basel became part of the Swiss Confederation, originally only the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, founded on 1 August 1291, in 1501, and is the smallest Swiss canton. Every year there are big celebrations on August 1st, Swiss National Day. In 1990, we went into the city to the Rhine the evening before where there is a huge firework display. In later years, living in Münchenstein, we can see the fireworks in Basel from our house!
In 1529 Basel joined the Protestant Reformation, begun by Martin Luther in 1517. after an iconoclastic riot in the city when works of art in the churches were destroyed. The city became a centre for printing of reformational books - paper had been made in Basel since the fifteenth century and the influx of religious refugees boosted the city's economy, most notably in the silk trade and eventually silk weaving which eventually led to the establishment of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, so important to the city today.4
The city has several notable buildings. The cathedral goes back to the early part of the ninth century, though there is little of this left. The present late Romanesque/Gothic cathedral was built in the eleventh century, though there are fourteenth century restorations after the earthquake of 1356 destroyed vaults, spires and the crypt. With the completion of the cloisters and the two towers of St Martin and St George in the fifteenth century the cathedral was complete.
The beautiful Rathaus (town hall) in Marktplatz was built 1503-7 and recently restored.
Barfusserplatz, around the old Barfüsserkirche, was once the site of a Franciscan Monastery. Barfüsser translates as "bare-footed", another name for the Franciscan monks. Their monastery was first built here in 1250, a larger one replacing it around 50 years later. In 1529, when Basel joined the Reformation, it became the property of the city. The monastery was eventually demolished in 1843 but the city was undecided for many years about what to do with the church. Eventually it was restored and in 1894 opened as the city's Historical Museum.
To the west of Barfüsserplatz is the Lohnhof on an elevated site, a collection of historical buildings. The late Gothic Leonardskirche is here, parts of it dating back to the 11th century.
Basel has a really good Christmas Market. Traditionally it is held in Barfusserplatz, around the old Barfüsserkirche, now the Historisches Museum. Now there is a second at the cathedral in Münsterplatz.
The Xmas market fills the square in front of the former Barfüsserkirche and the passageways around it, a very traditional location for a fair.
There are all kinds of stalls and some traders occupy the same spot year after year. Though we did notice in 2019 that a couple of regular traders were no longer there.
We always have sausage and glühwein at the "Singing Moose" café in Barfüsserplatz - it has a proper name but that's what we always call it for the mechanical singing moose above the entrance. There used to be just one but a few years ago Mrs Moose appeared alongside Mr!
