Basel Minster

The Evangelical-Reformed Church of the Canton Basel-Landschaft is a Reformed cantonal church in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, which does not include the eponymous city. In 2004 it had 113,537 members and 35 parishes and 65 ordained clergy. Member of the Schweizerischer Evangelischer Kirchenbund. Women ordination is allowed.

Basel-Münsterhügel is the site of an Iron Age (late La Tène) fort or oppidum, known as Basel oppidum, constructed by the Gaulish Rauraci after the battle of Bibracte in 58 BC. It the site of Basel Minster, in the Swiss city of Basel. The fort was abandoned or destroyed shortly after its construction, before the end of the 1st century BC, with the Roman conquest of the Alps and the establishment of the province of Gallia Belgica. By the early 1st century AD, there was a small vicus on the hill built on top of the ruins of the oppidum, possibly the origin of the name Basilia, from a toponym villa Basilia "estate of Basilius". In the mid-3rd century, the ruined oppidum was rebuilt as a Roman castrum, fortified with an encircling wall in c. 270. The vicus was abandoned, and the hill served as part of the Roman fortifications of the Rhine against the advancing Alamanni throughout the 4th century. The name Basilia for the Roman fortification is first mentioned in 237/8, and is named by Ammianus Marcellinus as a base used by Valentinian I in his campaign in Gaul in the 360s. The castle was abandoned after the death of Flavius Aetius in 454 and was probably once again in ruins by the 6th century, when the Alamannic settlement was established that would grow into the medieval city of Basel. The first Basel cathedral was built on the site in the early 9th century (replaced by an early Romanesque structure in c. 999–1025, and by the current late Romanesque church in the 12th century). The site was excavated by Furger-Gunti in the 1970s. There is an older undefended La Tène site at Basel Gasfabrik, not far from the oppidum, which was abandoned after the fort was completed.

The Museum of Cultures in Basel (German: Museum der Kulturen Basel) is a Swiss museum of ethnography with large and important collections of artifacts, especially from Europe, the South Pacific, Mesoamerica, Tibet, and Bali. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Natural History Museum Basel (German: Naturhistorisches Museum Basel) is a natural history museum in Basel, Switzerland that houses wide-ranging collections focused on the fields of zoology, entomology, mineralogy, anthropology, osteology and paleontology. It has over 7.7 million objects. It was established as a natural history collection in 1821.The museum is a heritage site of national significance.Here, the mummy of Anna Catharina Bischoff is kept and examined. It was found in 1975 during excavations in the Barfüsserkirche Basel. The skeleton of Theo the Pipe Smoker was found 1984 near the Theodorskirche in Kleinbasel.

Founded in 1961, the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig (Basel Museum of Ancient Art and Ludwig Collection) is one of the many museums in the Swiss city of Basel and a heritage site of national significance.The museum is devoted exclusively to the art of ancient civilizations from the 4th millennium BC to the 7th century AD. The only one of its kind in Switzerland, the museum shows works of art from the Mediterranean region, predominantly from the period from 1000 BC to 300 AD. A central position is occupied by the collection of Greek vases and sculptures and the Ancient Egyptian section. Further objects are from the Near East and Cyprus.

Basel ( BAH-zəl); also known as Basle ( BAHL); (German: Basel [ˈbaːzl̩] (listen); French: Bâle [bɑl]; Italian: Basilea [baziˈlɛːa]; Sutsilvan: Basileia; other Romansh: Basilea [baziˈleːɐ] (listen)) is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zürich and Geneva) with about 175,000 inhabitants. The official language of Basel is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local Basel German dialect. Basel is famous for its many museums, including the Kunstmuseum, which is the first collection of art accessible to the public in the world (1661) and the largest museum of art in Switzerland, the Fondation Beyeler (located in Riehen), the Museum Tinguely and the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is the first public museum of contemporary art in Europe. Forty museums are spread throughout the city-canton, making Basel one of the largest cultural centres in relation to its size and population in Europe. The University of Basel, Switzerland's oldest university (founded in 1460), and the city's centuries-long commitment to humanism, have made Basel a safe haven at times of political unrest in other parts of Europe for such notable people as Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Holbein family, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and in the 20th century also Hermann Hesse and Karl Jaspers. Basel was the seat of a Prince-Bishopric starting in the 11th century, and joined the Swiss Confederacy in 1501. The city has been a commercial hub and an important cultural centre since the Renaissance, and has emerged as a centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the 20th century. In 1897, Basel was chosen by Theodor Herzl as the location for the first World Zionist Congress, and altogether the congress has been held there ten times over a time span of 50 years, more than in any other location. The city is also home to the world headquarters of the Bank for International Settlements. The name of the city is internationally known through institutions like the Basel Accords, Art Basel and FC Basel. In 2019 Basel was ranked the tenth most liveable city in the world by Mercer.

The Basel Massacre was an anti-Semitic episode in Basel, which occurred in 1349 in connection with alleged well poisoning as part of the Black Death persecutions, carried out against the Jews in Europe at the time of the Black Death. A number of Jews, variously given as between 300 and 600 (according to contemporary Medieval chronicles) or 50 to 70 (according to some modern historians) were burned alive, after being locked in a wooden structure built on a nearby island in the Rhine. Jewish children were apparently spared, but forcibly baptized and sent to monasteries. The event occurred on January 16.

Kunsthalle Basel is a contemporary art gallery in Basel, Switzerland. As Switzerland's oldest and still most active institution for contemporary art, Kunsthalle Basel forms a vital part of Basel's cultural centre and is located next to the city's theatre, opposite the concert house Stadtcasino, and in the same building as the famed Restaurant Kunsthalle. Curators and directors of the museum have included Jean-Christophe Ammann, Peter Pakesch, and Adam Szymczyk. In November 2014, Los Angeles-born Elena Filipovic was appointed director. The museum also hosts the library of Basler Kunstverein, which holds 30,000 items related to contemporary art, and a photo archive of the museum's history and past exhibits.

The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a heritage site of national significance.Its lineage extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet, which included a collection of works by Hans Holbein purchased by the city of Basel and the University of Basel in 1661, which made it the first municipally owned and therefore open to the public museum in the world. Its collection is distinguished by an impressively wide historic span, from the early 15th century up to the immediate present. Its various areas of emphasis give it international standing as one of the most significant museums of its kind. These encompass: paintings and drawings by artists active in the Upper Rhine region between 1400 and 1600, and on the art of the 19th to 21st centuries.

The Basel Historical Museum (German: Historisches Museum Basel) is one of the largest and most important museums of its kind in Switzerland and a heritage site of national significance. It opened in 1892. The museum is divided into three buildings within the city of Basel: the Barfüsserkirche, Haus zum Kirschgarten and Musikmuseum.

The Blue and The White House (Blaues und Weisses Haus) are two town mansions in the city of Basel. The semi-detached baroque mansions on the Rheinsprung 16 and 18 in Basel, also known as “The Reichensteinerhof” and “The Wendelstörferhof”, were built by the architect Samuel Werenfels for the brothers Lukas and Jakob Sarasin between 1763 and 1775. “The White House” belonged to Lukas (1730 – 1802) and “The Blue House” to his younger brother Jakob (1742 – 1802). The two patricians had a manufactory for silk products. Descendants of them were the founders of the Bank Sarasin & Cie. in Basel. The still mainly original interiors of the mansions were executed by highly skilled craftsmen. The stucco ceilings were made by Johann Martin Frohweis and the faience stoves were delivered by the Frisching Faience Manufactory. The numerous sopraporte were painted by German artists. The two mansions were bought by the canton and the city of Basel in 1942 and in 1968. Nowadays, they are the seat of the Department for Economy, Social Welfare and Environment.

The S AM Swiss Architecture Museum (German: S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum) is an architecture museum in Basel (Switzerland). Through its program of temporary exhibitions and events, it contributes to international debates on architecture and urban development as well as related socio-political aspects. In addition, the museum issues publications and holds special events in conjunction with the exhibitions. Its premises are located within the Kunsthalle Basel.