Museum of Cultures Basel - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

With a heritage dating back over 300 years, the Natural History Museum Basel in Basel, Switzerland, houses wide-ranging collections primarily focused on the fields of zoology, entomology, mineralogy, anthropology, osteology, and paleontology. Its mission is to expand, conserve, explore, document, and communicate the over 7.7 million objects in its holdings, which are conceived as an “Archive of Life”.

Basel's medieval cathedral is situated on a hill high above the river Rhine which has been inhabited even before the Age of Romans. The Romans had a fortress on this hill. Excavations in this site show traces of settlements of 1st C BCE. it adds definition to the cityscape with its red sandstone architecture and colored roof tiles, its two slim towers, and the cross-shaped intersection of the main roof. The Swiss inventory of the cultural property of national and regional significance lists the

The Basel Town Hall is a 500-year-old building dominating the Marktplatz in Basel, Switzerland. The Town Hall houses the meetings of the Cantonal Parliament as well as the Cantonal Government of the canton of Basel-Stadt. The Great Council Chamber at one time featured a series of frescoes painted in 1522 by Hans Holbein the Younger, which have been lost. Fragments of the work as well as some of the initial drawings are kept in the Kunstmuseum.

The Martinskirche is an Evangelical Reformed church in the city of Basel. It stands on the northern end of the cathedral hill and is considered to be the oldest parish church in Basel. The church also serves as a historic concert hall and stage for numerous events. A bell in the Martinskirche traditionally rings in the Basel Autumn Fair on the opening Saturday.

Hardly another monument in the city of Basel has become such a symbol of the city as the Middle Bridge. Opened in 1226, it is one of the oldest Rhine crossings between Lake Constance and the North Sea. The Middle Bridge was initially used for local traffic, in conjunction with the development of the route over the Gotthard Pass as an international trade route, in the 14th century it gained significance as a crossing over the Rhine for international trade.

The historical museum Basel is housed in three separate buildings and ranks among the most important museums of cultural history on the Upper Rhine. The permanent exhibition spotlights Basel's historic identity at the crossroads between three cultures: Swiss, German and French. Several hundred historical accounts and artworks trace aspects of the city's history over the last thousand years.