Excursions - Basel (Basel Region)

Trained elephants and sea lions give amazing performances. But the Zoo in Basel became famous on account of its gorillas and rhinoceroses and its many successes in animal breeding.

Basel is the home of Switzerland's largest ethnological and folk art collections. The museum is particularly rich in exhibits from the South Seas and from Indonesia.

The Basel Museum of Ancient Art is the only Swiss museum devoted exclusively to Classical Antiquity. It contains Greek, Etruscan and Roman works, predominantly from the period 1000 B.C.

A tour of the Natural History Museum is like an expedition into the remotest corners of our planet where the most beautiful minerals originate, or into the distant past when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Natural objects - the largest as well as the smallest - are there to be discovered, inspected and contemplated. A memorable experience.

The emphasis of the "Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel" is on Upper Rheinish and Flemish paintings and drawing from 1400 to 1600 and on 19th and 20th century art.

Museum Tinguely Basel is dedicated to the life and work of Jean Tingley, the most important Swiss iron scuptor (1925-1991).

The Spalen Gate is the most imposing of the three surviving city gates that formed part of the fortifications in the 1400s. Many important supply goods for the city, coming from the Alsace region, passed through this gate.

The Barfüsserkirche (church of the barefoot friars) is a combination of church and museum. The former monastery church is now a museum of history. Here you can admire the magnificent treasure of Basel cathedral and gain a valuable insight into the city's history.

The Schaulager - built by the world famous architects Herzog & de Meuron - is a new venue for art and neither a museum nor a traditional warehouse. It is home to the works from the collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation that are not exhibited in museums.

The Museum for Contemporary Art presents works of the Art Museum Basel and the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation. It shows art of the 1960s up to the present in changing exhibitions.

Kunsthalle Basel is one of the world's most renowned and active public art institutions. Since its opening in 1872, it committed itself to the presentation of contemporary art. Kunsthalle Basel looks back on a long tradition of supporting the Avantgarde and of expanding the borders of contemporary art.

The Swiss Architecture Museum Basel presents international and Swiss architecture in changing expositions. It also publishes texts on the themes of the exhibits. In addition, it offers guided tours in several languages on 20th and 21st century.architecture in Basel.

Since the year 2000, Switzerland's largest collection of musical instruments has been on display in the "Lohnhof", a historic building. Approximately 650 exhibited instruments from five centuries can now be experienced even acoustically by means of a multi-media information system. The reconstruction of the former monastery complex and the prison tract for museum purposes is a successful example of combining the old and the new.

Masterpieces in the classical modern style: at the Beyeler Foundation, you can see one of the most famous private collections in the world, with masterpieces of classical modern art.

The Münster is one of Basel's main sights. Situtated in a promiment position high above the Rhine River, the former episcopal church presides high above the region.

The past is alive and well in Basel’s old paper mill. Here in the mill’s medieval-style workshops, paper is still made using traditional methods. The history of writing is brought back to life by the machines for casting and setting lead type, while the historical printing presses in the museum's own printing shop show how books used to be produced. Visitors are welcome to make their own coloured paper in the museum’s interactive studio.

Those who sign up for a tour of Basel with Emma Munzinger get to see the city from a completely different perspective. An old school maidservant, Munzinger takes guests with her to her new workplace in the home of one of Basel’s most illustrious families. There, allowed to peek behind doors that are normally shut, visitors can learn all about the history of Basel’s “Daigs” – as the upper crust is called in Basel dialect – as well as picking up many a juicy piece of gossip.

The past is alive and well in Basel’s old paper mill. Here in the mill’s medieval-style workshops, paper is still made using traditional methods. The history of writing is brought back to life by the machines for casting and setting lead type, while the historical printing presses in the museum's own printing shop show how books used to be produced. Visitors are welcome to make their own coloured paper in the museum’s interactive studio.