23 Museums to Explore in Basel City

The Basel Museum of Ancient Art is the only Swiss museum devoted exclusively to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean region. The permanent exhibition contains ancient art mainly from Egyptian, Greek, Italic, Etruscan and Roman cultures. Located in the heart of the city of Basel, the museum is a place where the ancient world is regularly cast in a new light.

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.

The Music Museum is located in Basel, Switzerland, and houses the country's largest collection of musical instruments. The museum is one of three components of the Historisches Museum Basel. It presents five centuries of music history with three areas of emphasis: the history of music-making in Basel; concerts, choral music, and dance; parades, festivals, and signals.

The Swiss Museum for Paper, Writing and Printing of Basel preserves and actively shares with visitors the ancient techniques that have allowed the collection and diffusion of ideas and knowledge throughout the centuries. The museum is located in a carefully restored building that began its life as a paper mill 500 years ago. It is a heritage site of national significance.

Basler Messeturm is a 32 story skyscraper in Basel designed by renowned architects Morger & Degelo & Marques and is an unmistakable landmark of the city with its green-tinted glass and metal structure. It was constructed in the year 2003 and is one of the renowned attractions in Basel.

The cartoon museum in Basel is the only museum in Switzerland dedicated to cartoons and caricatures. It has a collection of almost 3,400 original works and its curated, thematic and/or monographic exhibitions of original art, it has gained the position of a competence centre for the art of the satirical drawing.

This prestigious museum, which frequently holds major temporary exhibitions, is home to a substantial number of masterpieces. Pride of place is given to paintings and drawings from the Upper Rhine and the Netherlands dating from the 15-17C. You will, in particular, be able to admire the largest collection in the world of works by the Holbein family

The Beyeler Foundation or Fondation Beyeler with its museum in Riehen, near Basel, owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, which features modern art and tribal art. The Beyeler Foundation museum includes a space for special exhibitions staged to complement the permanent collection.

The Jewish Museum of Switzerland shows one of the best collections of Judaica in central Europe. It exhibits valuable items depicting religious and everyday life and aims to introduce the Jewish history of Basel and the region. Tombstones dating from the Middle Ages and contemporary documents, Hebrew books printed by the famous Basel printing houses, and mementos of the Zionist Congresses enrich the collection.

Kunsthalle Basel is dedicated to exhibiting, discussing, and reflecting on the art of the present. It was founded in 1872. Kunsthalle Basel is well known for its presentation of thought-provoking new artworks and display methodologies, as well as for its wide range of public programs that include artist talks, performances, and film screenings.

The Schaulager is a world-famous cultural institution and art center near Basel, Switzerland. Housed in an iconic building, the Schaulager is primarily a conservation center for the artworks belonging to the collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation. It includes works by some of the world’s most important modern and contemporary artists. The institution functions as a mix between public museum, art storage facility and art research institute.

The mill from the 16th century lies in the heart of the Merian Gardens. Even though flour is no longer produced here, the water-powered wheel is still in use. The impressive gearing mechanism can be seen inside the mill, and it is easy to imagine how wheat, rye, or millet was ground here in past centuries. A small exhibition with historical pieces tells the story of milling from the bronze-age to modern-day industrial production.

This museum is housed in the historical rooms of the former Klingental Dominican convent and features original medieval sculptures from Basel Cathedral, a 17th-century model of the city, and the history of the convent itself. It houses the collection of original sculptures from Basel Minster , which were replaced by copies during restoration work. The museum also houses a model of the city of Basel as it looked in the 17th century and a model of the Klingental monastery in the 16th century.

The Gegenwart, also known as Museum für Gegenwartskunst, is a separate branch of the Kunstmuseum Basel, exclusively dedicated to contemporary art. the gallery is housed in a former factory building, not far from the main home of the Kunstmuseum. It has collections of contemporary art of both the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation. In addition to classic media such as painting and sculpture, it also collects video art.

The Museum der Kulturen Basel ranks among the leading ethnographic museums in Europe. The impressive collections including artifacts of world renown reflect the vast and varied scope of human ways of life. It shows its collection several times a year. Three permanent and various special exhibitions are concerned with the here and now. They provide various changes of perspective and allow visitors to see the world from a different angle, where the familiar all of a sudden takes on a new meaning.

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”.

The Pantheon Basel in Muttenz is a forum for classic car owners and those interested in a museum on the subjects of cars and mobility on the road. The owner of the Pantheon is Pantheon Basel AG, a 100% subsidiary of Musfeld AG. It was one of the key attractions and also is an awesome place for car lovers.

Situated directly on the Rhine, the Museum Tinguely, built after plans by the Ticinese architect Mario Botta, houses the greatest collection of works by Jean Tinguely, one of the most innovative and important Swiss artists of the 20th century. The permanent exhibition presents a survey of his oeuvre spanning four decades. Special exhibitions show a wide range of artists and subjects including Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters who influenced Tinguely significantly and so more.

The museum embodies a scientific collection from the 1920s that has survived to the present day and is unique in Switzerland. Here - where Erasmus once came from Rotterdam and Paracelsus - you can discover old remedies and medicines, scales and weights, arts and crafts, herbal books, amulets, magnificent ceramic vessels, entire laboratories, and pharmacies. A sight not only for experts but also for laymen. It is one of the unique attractions in this area and it is worth visiting.

The Swiss Fire Brigade Museum in Basel shows the history of fire fighting. The exhibits, which also include permanent loans from the Basel Historical Museum, dating back to the 13th century. The focus of the collection is on fire services in Basel-Stadt. It is maintained by the Basel professional fire brigade, the oldest in Switzerland, in their premises called “Lützelhof”. However, the museum is not a state-run company and is not run as a separate department in the cantonal administration.