Basel, Switzerland is all about the art – museums and fine Michelin fare excite the senses
- The Swiss cultural capital is known around the world for its association with art, and the city’s many museums show that this reputation is well earned
- Michelin-star fare and architecture old and new complement the encyclopaedic array of works that adorn gallery walls
For a small city of around 180,000 people, Basel has a remarkably high international profile.
Its location, at the junction of the Swiss, French and German borders, certainly makes the city popular for business, and the annual Baselworld – that bling fest of watches, gems and jewellery – attracts global attention.
The older part of the town climbs up a hill that sits in a loop of the Rhine, looking as if lifted from an idealised Advent calendar or Brothers Grimm fairy-tale illustration. Basel long prospered from trade along the river as well as from control of one of the few permanent bridges across it. This funded a large cathedral, covered the hilltop with substantial mansions and supported Switzerland’s oldest university, founded in 1460.
That income also funded the acquisition of a substantial art collection by the Amerbach family, printers and lawyers, which included 15 works by celebrated German artist Hans Holbein the Younger, who painted the portraits of scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam, England’s King Henry VIII and many other Renaissance worthies. When in 1661 the family fell on hard times, professors from the university intervened to prevent the collection from leaving Basel. The city and university shared the cost of purchase, and then used the collection to open the world’s first public art gallery, which quickly became one of Basel’s major attractions.