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Basel
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Basel (, also Basle , , , , ) is Switzerland's third most populous city (165,529 inhabitants (2006); 731,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel Switzerland's second-largest urban area as of 2004.
Located in north-west Switzerland on the river Rhine, Basel functions as a major industrial centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The city borders both Germany and France. The Basel region, culturally extending into German Baden-Württemberg and French Alsace, reflects the heritage of its three states in the modern Latin name: "Regio TriRhena". It has the oldest university of the Swiss Confederation (1460).
Basel is German-speaking. The local variant of the Swiss German dialects is called Basel German.
AccordsThroughout history, Basel has seen the conclusion of numerous accords.
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Timeline
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1349 The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland is rounded up and incinerated, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague.
1377 A sermon by a German monk states "the game of cards has come to us this year" and prohibitions against cards are issued by John of Castile and the cities of Florence and Basel.
1897 First Zionist Congress convenes in Basel, Switzerland.
1954 UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) is formed in Basel, Switzerland
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Encyclopedia
Basel (, also Basle , , , , ) is Switzerland's third most populous city (165,529 inhabitants (2006); 731,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel Switzerland's second-largest urban area as of 2004.
Located in north-west Switzerland on the river Rhine, Basel functions as a major industrial centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The city borders both Germany and France. The Basel region, culturally extending into German Baden-Württemberg and French Alsace, reflects the heritage of its three states in the modern Latin name: "Regio TriRhena". It has the oldest university of the Swiss Confederation (1460).
Basel is German-speaking. The local variant of the Swiss German dialects is called Basel German.
AccordsThroughout history, Basel has seen the conclusion of numerous accords. In 1499 Treaty of Basel was signed, ending the Swabian War, and two years later Basel joined the Swiss Confederation. In 1795, two separate peace treaties between the revolutionary French Republic on the one hand and Prussia and Spain on the other brought about the collapse of the First Coalition and the cessation of fighting in the French Revolutionary Wars. In more recent times, on September 3, 1897, the World Zionist Organization held its first congress in Basel under the leadership of Theodor Herzl; this Jewish umbrella organization would later play an instrumental role in the creation of the state of Israel. Because of the Balkan Wars the Second International held an extraordinary congress at Basel in 1912. In 1989, the Basel Convention was opened for signature with the aim of preventing the export of hazardous waste from wealthy to developing nations for disposal.
TransportThe first-class location and the transportation infrastructure make Basel the top logistics center for Switzerland. Basel’s airport is set up for airfreight; heavy goods reach the city and the heart of continental Europe from the North Sea by ship along the Rhine. The main European routes for the highway and railway transportation of freight cross in Basel. The outstanding location benefits logistics corporations, which operate globally from Basel. Trading firms are traditionally well represented in the Basel Region.
Basel has Switzerland's only cargo port, through which goods pass along the navigable stretches of the Rhine and connect to ocean-going ships at the port of Rotterdam.
EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is operated jointly by two countries, France and Switzerland. Contrary to popular belief, the airport is located completely on French soil. The airport itself is split into two architecturally independent sectors, one half serving the French side and the other half serving the Swiss side; there is a customs point at the middle of the airport so that people can "emigrate" to the other side of the airport.
Basel has long held an important place as a rail hub. Three railway stations — those of the German, French and Swiss networks — lie within the city (although the Swiss (Basel SBB) and French (Basel SNCF) stations are actually in the same complex, separated by Customs and Immigration facilities). The largest goods railway complex of the country is located just outside the city, spanning the municipalities of Muttenz and Pratteln. The new highspeed ICE railway line from Karlsruhe to Basel will be completed in 2008 while phase I of the TGV-Est line, opened in June 2007, has reduced travel time from Basel to Paris to 3 1/2 hours.
Basel has an extensive public transportation network serving the city and connecting to surrounding suburbs. The green-colored local trams and buses are operated by the BVB. The yellow-colored buses and trams are operated by the BLT Baselland Transport, and connect areas in the nearby half-canton of Baselland to central Basel. The trams are powered by overhead lines, and the bus fleet is mix of electric and conventional fuel-powered vehicles. The BVB also shares commuter bus lines in cooperation with transit authorities in the neighboring Alsace region in France and Baden region in Germany. The Regio-S-Bahn Basel, the commuter rail network connecting to suburbs surrounding the city, is jointly operated by SBB, SNCF and DB.
Within city limits, five bridges connect greater and lesser Basel, from upstream to downstream:
- Schwarzwaldbrücke (built 1972)
- Wettsteinbrücke (current structure built 1998, original bridge built 1879)
- Mittlere Brücke (current structure built 1905, original bridge built 1225 as the first bridge to cross the Rhine River)
- Johanniterbrücke (built 1967)
- Dreirosenbrücke (built 2004, original bridge built 1935)
A somewhat anachronistic yet still widely used system of ferry boats links the two shores. There are four ferries, each situated approximately midway between two bridges. Each is attached by a cable to a block that rides along another cable spanning the river at a height of 20 or 30 yards. To cross the river, the ferryman orients the boat around 45° from the current so that the current pushes the boat across the river. This form of transportation is therefore completely hydraulically driven, requiring no outside energy source.
Industry and trade
An annual Federal Swiss trade fair (Mustermesse) takes place in Kleinbasel on the right bank of the Rhine. Other important trade shows include "BaselWorld" (watches and jewelry), Art Basel, Orbit and Cultura.
The Swiss chemical industry operates largely from Basel, with Novartis, Syngenta, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Clariant, and Hoffmann-La Roche headquartered there. Pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals have become the modern focus of the city's industrial production. Some of the chemical industry's most notable creations include DDT, Araldite, Valium, Rohypnol and LSD.
UBS AG maintains central offices in Basel, giving finance a pivotal role in the local economy. The importance of banking began when the Bank for International Settlements located within the city in 1930. Basel's innovative financial industry includes institutions like the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Responsible for the Basel Accords (Basel I and Basel II) , this organization fundamentally changed Risk Management within its industry.
Basel has Switzerland's tallest building, Basler Messeturm.
Quarters Basel is subdivided into 19 quarters (Quartiere). The municipalities of Riehen and Bettingen, outside the city limits of Basel, are included in the canton of Basel-City as rural quarters (Landquartiere).
| Quartier | ha | Quartier | ha |
|---|
| Altstadt Grossbasel (central Grossbasel) | 37.63 | Altstadt Kleinbasel (central Kleinbasel) | 24.21 | | Vorstädte (Suburbs) | 89.66 | Clara | 23.66 | | Am Ring | 90.98 | Wettstein | 75.44 | | Breite | 68.39 | Hirzbrunnen | 305.32 | | St. Alban | 294.46 | Rosental | 64.33 | | Gundeldingen | 123.19 | Mattäus | 59.14 | | Bruderholz | 259.61 | Klybeck | 91.19 | | Bachletten | 151.39 | Kleinhüningen | 136.11 | | Gotthelf | 46.62 | City of Basel | 2275.05 | | Iselin | 109.82 | Riehen | 1086.10 | | St. Johann | 223.90 | Bettingen | 222.69 | | | | Canton of Basel-City | 3583.84 |
ArchitectureThe red sandstone Münster, one of the foremost late-Romanesque/early Gothic buildings in the Upper Rhine, was badly damaged in the great earthquake of 1356, rebuilt in the fourteenth and fifteenth century, extensively reconstructed in the mid-nineteenth century and further restored in the late twentieth century. A memorial to Erasmus lies inside the Münster.
Basel is also host to an array of buildings by internationally renowned architects, such as the Beyeler Foundation by Renzo Piano, or the Vitra complex in nearby Weil am Rhein, composed of buildings by architects such as Zaha Hadid (fire station), Frank Gehry, Alvaro Siza Vieira (factory building) and Tadao Ando (conference centre). Basel also features buildings by Mario Botta (Jean Tinguely Museum and Bank of International settlements) and Herzog & de Meuron (whose architectural practice is in Basel, and who are best known as the architects of Tate Modern in London). The city received the Wakker Prize in 1996.
Heritage sitesBasel features a great number of heritage sites of national significance. These include the entire Old Town of Basel as well as the following buildings and collections:
Churches and monasteries: Basel Münster, [St. Albankirche, Kirche St. Antonius, the former Barfüsserkirche, Elisabethenkirche, Klingentalkirche, Leonhardskirche, Martinskirche, Pauluskirche, Peterskirche, Alt Katholische Predigerkirche, Johanneskirche, Theodorskirche (with Early Middle Age gravefield), the Synagogue (1867), the former Kartause (later an orphanage) and the Kleines Klingental (formerly a Dominican monastery).
Secular buildings: Haus zum Raben, Dompropstei (Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig|]]), Goldener Sternen, Seidenhof (with a monument to Rudolf von Habsburg), Kleiner Kirschgarten, Im Vogelsang housing estate, Bruderholzschulhaus, Safranzunft, Schloss Gundeldingen, Brunschwilerhaus, Holsteinerhof, Spiessho], City Hall, Geltenzunft, Haus Auf Burg (with Paul Sacher), Domhof, Schönes Haus and Schöner Hof, Zerkindenho, Wildtsches Haus, Blaues Haus (Reichensteinerhof), Weisses Haus (Wendelstörferhof), Sandgrube, Bischofshof, Ramsteinerhof, Hohenfirstenhof, Haus zur Mücke, Wohnhaus für alleinstehende Frauen (1928), Feuerschützenhaus, Spalenhof, Lohnhof, Gate of Saint Alban, Gate of Saint John, the city walls with the Letziturm and the inner wall tower, Gate of Spalen, the Hoffmann-La Roche premises, Bürgerspital (1940-45), Basel Badischer Bahnhof with fountain (1913), Basel SBB railway station(1907), Mittlere Rheinbrücke, Fischmarktbrunnen.
Archaeological sites: Gallo-Roman settlement on the Gasfabrik premises, Alemannic burial fields Gotterbarmweg and Kleinhüningen, early medieval buildings Schneidergasse 2-16.
Museums, archives and collections: State Archives of Basel, Swiss Economic Archives, University library, Antikenmuseum, Art Museum and engravings cabinet, Museum of Contemporary Art, Gallizianmühle, Natural History Museum (with Rütimeyer library), Museum of Cultures, Kirschgartenmuseum, Historical Museum, Jewish Museum, Basel|Jewish Museum]], Music Museum, Sport Museum, Sculpture Hall, Anatomical Collection, Stadt- und Münstermuseum (Kleines Klingental), Gewerbemuseum, Pharmazie-Historisches Museum, Caricature and Cartoon Museum.
EducationBasel hosts Switzerland's oldest university, the University of Basel, dating from 1459. Erasmus, Paracelsus, Daniel Bernoulli, Leonhard Euler, Jacob Burckhardt, and Friedrich Nietzsche worked here. More recently, its work in tropical medicine has gained prominence.
Basel is renowned for various scientific societies, as the Entomological Society of Basel (Entomologische Gesellschaft Basel, EGB), which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005.
Basel counts several International Schools, including the International School of Basel, the Minerva School and the Rhine Academy. Many expatriate workers and their children come to Basel due to the large presence of pharmaceutical companies, and the majority of those children come to study at the international schools of Basel.
PoliticsGeo-politically, the city of Basel functions as the capital of the Swiss half-canton of Basel-Stadt, though several of its suburbs form part of the half-canton of Basel-Landschaft or of the canton of Aargau (or of France or Germany).
EnergyBasel is at the forefront of a national vision to more than halve energy use in Switzerland by the year 2050. In order to research, develop and commercialise the technologies and techniques required for the country to become a '2000 Watt society', a number of projects have been set up since 2001 in the Basel metropolitan area. These including demonstration buildings constructed to MINERGIE or Passivhaus standards, electricity generation from renewable energy sources (including a hot dry rock geothermal energy project which caused significant tremors), and vehicles using natural gas, hydrogen and biogas.
Notable people from Basel- Karl Barth (1886-1968), Reformed Protestant theologian
- Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) mathematician
- James Bernoulli (1654-1705), mathematician
- Johann Bernoulli (1667-1748), mathematician
- Peter Birkhäuser (1911-1976), painter
- Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897), professor in history, theology, philosophy
- Arthur Cohn (1927- ), film producer
- Erasmus (c1466-1536), biblical scholar, humanist, theologian
- Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), mathematician
- Roger Federer (1981- ), tennis player
- Katy French (1983-2007), model and socialite
- Jakob Emanuel Handmann (1718-1781), painter
- Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826), poet & author
- Albert Hofmann (1906-2008), chemist, inventor of LSD
- Ana Ivanovic (1987), female tennis player, winner of the 2008 French Open
- Lucius Munatius Plancus (c.87 BC - c.15 BC), city founder
- Joachim Meyer (c. 1537?-1571), fencer and author
- Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998), religious philosopher
SportBasel has a reputation in Switzerland as a successful sporting city. The football club FC Basel continues to be successful and in recognition of this the city was one of the venues for the 2008 European Championships, as well as Geneva, Zürich and Berne. The championships were jointly hosted by Switzerland and Austria.
Basel features a large football stadium, a modern ice hockey hall and an admitted sports hall.
The largest indoor tennis event in Europe occurs in Basel every October. The best ATP-Professionals play every year at the "Swiss Indoors".
CultureBasel has a reputation as one of the most important cultural cities in Europe. In 1997, it contended to become the "European Capital of Culture". In May 2004, the fifth EJCF choir festival opened: this Basel tradition started in 1992. Host of this festival is the local Basel Boys Choir.
The carnival of the city of Basel (Basler Fasnacht) is a major cultural event in the year. The carnival is the biggest in Switzerland and attracts large crowds every year, despite the fact that it starts at four in the morning (Morgestraich) and lasts for exactly 72 hours, taking in various parades.
For more information see also
Basler Zeitung ("Baz") is the local newspaper.
Basel is host to the Basel Tattoo, started by the Top Secret Drum Corps.
MuseumsThe Basel museums cover a broad and diverse spectrum of collections with a marked concentration in the fine arts. They house numerous holdings of international significance. The over three dozen institutions yield an extraordinarily high density of museums compared to other cities of similar size and draw over one million visitors annually.
Constituting an essential component of Basel culture and cultural policy, the museums are the result of closely interwoven private and public collecting activities and promotion of arts and culture going back to the 16th century. The public museum collection was first created back in 1661 and represents the oldest public collection in continuous existence. Since the late 1980s, various private collections have been made accessible to the public in new purpose-built structures that have been recognized as acclaimed examples of avant-garde museum architecture.
See also
Chronological table| Year | Event |
|---|
| < 58 BC | Rauracian (Celtic) agglomeration on the Rhine | | 58 BC | Exodus of the Helvetians and Rauracians (Battle of Bibracte) | | 44-43 BC | Lucius Munatius Plancus founds the Roman colony Colonia Raurica, that will later become colonia Augusta Raurica | | 12 BC | The oppidum of Basel is one of the supporting points for the Roman troops during the campaigns of Tiberius against the Rhaetians | | 1st century | Occupation of the Agri Decumates (southern Germany); the Roman fortified place of Basel becomes a vicus. | | 3rd century | Alemanni invasions. The Roman Vicus of Basel becomes again a fortified place |
External links- *
- : Overview of museums in Basel or basel museums
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