What to see and do in Basel, 2025 Eurovision Song Contest host in Switzerland

With its exposed concrete, sharp lines and overhanging roof, the St Jakobshalle, an icon of 1970s Brutalism in Switzerland on the outskirts of Basel, will provide a stark contrast to the bright colours and flaming-piano pyrotechnics of the Eurovision Song Contest when it plays host to the event from May 10 to 17. Its cold concrete and unwelcoming facade is representative of why so many travellers heading south to Italy or onwards to the Swiss Alps speed through without giving the city a second glance. Basel’s industrial legacy still looms large. With a long history as a centre for textiles and chemicals industries, the city is often associated with an industrial skyline, grey highways and smoking chimneys. But Basel’s image is being redefined. The Rhine, a river once tainted by industry, is now clean enough to swim in. Yves Parrat, chemist with the local health department, says the water quality is regularly checked at three different points during the bathing season. The city has designated swimming areas, including near the Tinguely Museum. You can borrow waterproof bags from the tourist information centre if you want to take a dip in the river. First-time visitors to the city centre may be surprised by its medieval charm, with historic buildings that offer a window into the past. The striking, red-painted façade of the town hall stands out, while the view from the “Pfalz” terrace at the nearby cathedral (Basler Münster) provides a stunning panorama of the river where the Rhine bends eastwards towards Lake Constance. Basel is a global powerhouse in the pharmaceutical industry, and widely regarded as Switzerland’s architectural capital. According to the city’s marketing team, Basel and its surroundings boast 13 winners of the Pritzker Prize, a prestigious international award for architects. Surprising to many, Switzerland’s tallest building is not found in Zurich or Bern, the federal capital, but in Basel along the banks of the Rhine. Standing at 205 metres (673ft), Roche Tower 2, a twin-tower office complex for the pharmaceutical giant Roche, replaced the original Roche Tower as the country’s tallest building in 2022. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the complex is a stone’s throw from a riverside promenade and nestled near Basel’s historic workers’ housing estates. Novartis, Roche’s main competitor, has a campus that reads like a who’s who of international architecture. Alongside Herzog & de Meuron, architects including Frank Gehry, Richard Serra, Sanaa, and local firm Diener & Diener have left their mark on the city’s skyline. In Basel, industry, art, and architecture converge, and visitors will find a vibrant museum scene, with institutions such as the Swiss Architecture Museum. The city, Switzerland’s third most populous, is home to over 200,000 residents from nearly 170 nations. Art enthusiasts will find plenty to explore, including the Museum Tinguely, right next to Roche’s headquarters. The museum, designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta, celebrates the work of Jean Tinguely, a Basel artist known for creating huge machine sculptures from scrap metal whose sole purpose is to have no purpose. On Cathedral Hill, the Barfüsserkirche houses the Basel Historical Museum, offering a deep dive into the city’s cultural heritage at the crossroads of Switzerland, Germany and France. Just a short walk away, the opulent Kunstmuseum combines old and new architecture, with a 100 million Swiss franc (US$121.3 million) underground extension. The museum shows works by Old Masters such as Holbein, Rembrandt and Rubens, and modern icons such as Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Picasso, Lichtenstein and Warhol – an impressive collection made possible by generous sponsorship from the pharmaceutical and banking industries. For those with an industrial-romantic streak, Basel’s Dreispitz area just outside the city centre is a must-see. Once home to the city’s bonded warehouses, this now vibrant district hosts a dynamic mix of studios, universities, architecture firms and museums. Among them is the House of Electronic Arts (HEK), which explores the social impact of new media and digital art, and the Kunsthaus Baselland, which opened in 2024. It is a hidden gem that some Eurovision fans and travellers speeding past on the motorway might not expect to find.

What to see and do in Basel, 2025 Eurovision Song Contest host in Switzerland

Basel, about to host Eurovision Song Contest fans, boasts dazzling architecture old and new, art museums and a cleaned up River Rhine