Where to Stay in Basel, Kanton Basel-Stadt

What is Basel known for?

Basel is known for the density of its museums and for the Basel Minster at the centre of the old town. Basel counts its museums by the dozen. Kunstmuseum Basel, the Kunsthalle Basel, and the Museum Tinguely sit within a single small city, alongside the Museum of Cultures and the Jewish Museum of Switzerland.

Three city gates survive. The Gate of Spalen, the Gate of Saint Alban, and the Gate of Saint John still stand, and the Basel Paper Mill carries the name of an older industry.

What are the main landmarks in Basel?

Basel's landmarks are its museums and the three gates left from its walls. Basel Minster anchors the old town, and the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Kunsthalle Basel, and the Swiss Architecture Museum hold the art between them. The Gate of Spalen, the Gate of Saint Alban, and the Gate of Saint John hold three edges of the old city, and the Dreiländereck marks the corner where the Swiss border gives way to France and Germany.

Elisabethenkirche and the Basel Zoo remain.

What is the history of Basel?

Basel's history is the history of a walled river city that turned into a canton of its own. Stone first, then paper. The Gate of Spalen, the Gate of Saint Alban, and the Gate of Saint John survive from the wall, and the Basel Minster stands inside the same defended ground.

Paper made the working city, and the Basel Paper Mill is the piece of that trade the city kept. A university grew alongside it, and the Pharmaziemuseum Universität Basel keeps its old apothecary collection, while the Jewish Museum of Switzerland sits in the same streets. Then the canton split.

Basel-Stadt kept the city and two more municipalities, Basel-Landschaft took the countryside, and the arrangement still leaves Basel the capital of a half-canton rather than a full one. What the city collected stayed: the Basel Historical Museum, the Museum of Cultures, and the Skulpturhalle Basel all came out of that long habit.

Where is Basel?

Basel sits on the Rhine at the northern corner of Switzerland, where the river turns away from the Swiss Plateau and runs on toward the sea. The border is everywhere here. The Dreiländereck marks the point at which Swiss ground gives out and France and Germany take over, and the city has grown up against that line rather than away from it.

Kanton Basel-Stadt is small, three municipalities and no more. The Jura ridges stand not far off, and the Swiss Plateau opens behind the city.

What is the climate of Basel?

The Rhine sets the terms of Basel's weather. Warm air runs up the valley between the Jura ridges and the ground beyond the border through summer, and the city keeps that heat longer than the higher Swiss ground to the south. Winters are grey.

Cloud settles along the Rhine in the cold months, and what snow falls rarely lasts on ground this low. Spring comes early to the plateau.

How do you get to Basel?

Basel is the first Swiss stop for anyone arriving from the north, and the border is the reason. Three countries share the approach. Roads and rail cross into Kanton Basel-Stadt from France and from Germany close to the Dreiländereck, so an arrival here often begins on the far side of a frontier.

Water is the older route. Barge and boat still reach the city along the Rhine, the same line that carried its trade before any of the crossings existed.