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Basel Historical Museum - Barfuesserkirche

Basel Historical Museum - Barfuesserkirche

Basel Historical Museum - Barfuesserkirche
4.5
Historic SitesHistory Museums
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
About
Housed in the Barfüsserkirche since 1894, Basel Historical Museum presents selected aspects of the history of Basel from prehistoric times to the present. Especially worthy of note here are the works of pre-Reformation sacred art such as the Basel Dance of Death and Basel Cathedral Treasury. The section called «Understanding the World» installed in the basement comprises a magnificent array of medieval tapestries with their fantasy worlds and scenes of real life, the Renaissance and Baroque collections grouped together in one «Great Cabinet of Curiosities», and Basel’s rich archaeological heritage. Among the other highlights here are the coin cabinet and Burgundian Booty.
Duration: 2-3 hours
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Neighborhood: Altstadt
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles180 reviews
Excellent
93
Very good
64
Average
15
Poor
4
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4

These reviews have been automatically translated from their original language.
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Pam_and_Keith_W
Romford, UK26 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2022
We visited in the morning of 12th August and was greeted buy a lovely friendly lady who explained about the combined museum ticket which we purchased. We were given a tablet and told how to translate the explanations of each numbered exhibit into English. Off we went happily but had to leave after just over an hour as we had a reservation for a booked city cruise. We said we would return afterwards. When we returned the reception staff had changed to an elderly man and a different lady. I wanted to visit the toilet before continuing our visit to the museum and as I headed towards the toilet the man came running over and told me to put my bag in the lockers and was waiting for me just outside the toilet to make sure I did. Afterwards I continued on the visit around the museum but realised I needed the tablet again for the translations. So I headed to the reception desk where the man and the lady were both reading. I was the only person at the reception desk. I said Guten Tag and waited like a lemon for 30 seconds plus while they continued to look down at their books and ignore me. So I stormed away and just called them ignorant. Was it me? It ruined the rest of my visit and I just couldn't wait to get out.
Written August 14, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

MKTBE
Topeka, KS4,157 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2023 • Couples
The Basel Historical Museum has been housed in the Barfusserkirche since 1894. On the main floor an exhibit features many aspects of Basel's history from prehistoric times to the present, as well as religious reminders of the buildings previous function as a former Franciscan church. The lower floor contains various treasures including an extensive array of Basel and Strasbourg medeival tapestries, a special exhibit of a private collection of Baroque silver drinking vessels, and archeological treasures. We spent hours enjoying, and appreciating, the Historical Museum Basel, housed in Barfusserkirche.
Written January 3, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Travel2Twin
Henderson, NV91 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2023 • Friends
We made a quick trip to Basel and saw this museum as we got off a tram and decided to check it out. They take the Swiss Pass for payment. Sooo worth the stop. Everything is clean and the staff were very friendly and helpful.
Written June 2, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

permia
Ireland65,911 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2022
Amongst the columns and arches of the magnificent former church is a superlative array of displays.

Exquisite decorative art pieces delight the senses. In gold, silver and other precious materials they are delightfully carved and crafted. Included are a gorgeous Drinking Ship on Wheels and numerous shell cups.

As a former Franciscan Church where worship continued till 1784, the location qualifies as a delightful work of art in its own right.

Religious items feature prominently including an outstanding triptych altarpiece. Another traeasure is a sequence from the Basel Dance of Death that was painted during the Council of Basel in the first half of the 1400s.
Written December 8, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Cornelia G
Reinach, Switzerland6,622 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2024 • Friends
The special exhibition «Crazy Normal» tells the story of Basel psychiatry over the last 150 years. It costs CHF 5.- in addition to the entrance fee. The sensitive issue was dealt with well and presented realistically and controversially. But most of the stuff is for reading, a few for listening and very few objects for looking at.
Automatically translated
Written October 22, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Memo
Chicago, IL159 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2024 • Couples
The big church-like structure looms over the street and tram line in a welcoming way as it is set back from the busy thoroughfare. Well it was a Basilica centuries ago but now it is a well organized history museum with religious icons, artifacts and tapestries from the 15th Century. Also 16th century art. Hans Holbein the elder. The iPad provided for free translates every exhibit in detail into English if that’s your language.
Written October 13, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

donnaddl
Niagara Falls, New York13 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2023 • Family
Excellent museum with a variety of interesting exhibits. Not much in the way of English signs or exhibit descriptions so we had to use google translate which took extra time. Friendly staff too. Recommend.
Written August 29, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Cindy M
18 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2024 • Friends
Ten of us went to this museum because we couldn’t check into our hotel yet. We were all surprised at the amount of time we spent learning about the history of Basel. They had tablets we could use to read about the displays in English. We talked about what we learned during the rest of our days in Basel.
Written October 6, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

mfb
France89 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
The Historisches Museum Basel houses a treasury of world renown. Once a church, now a museum, it is located directly opposite the Barfüsser tram stop.

Step into that unassuming building (ignore the drab area on the left passing for a coffee shop) and you experience a quiet uncluttered calm that belies the importance of the treasury discreetly exhibited within. Churches have been endowed with jewel-encrusted, gold and silver objects since the late 8th century. Jewels can be readily sold; gold and silver are easily reworked into coin or ingots to pay for wars, so many medieval treasuries have disappeared. So few medieval treasuries exist in Europe today that scholars can only learn about what once was through written inventories.

The Basel Cathedral Treasury was assembled over five centuries from 1019 to 1529 when the Protestant Reformation became established in Basel. It is rare because it has survived almost intact, nine hundred years. Over half of the original pieces are in the Historisches Museum. Five years ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, assembled almost the complete treasury for a major exhibition. It borrowed missing pieces from museums in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York, Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna and Zurich.

When the earthquake of 1356 toppled portions of the cathedral’s towers into the Rhine below, its treasury remained snug and undamaged within. It has outlived two eras destructive to Catholic religious objects and icons, the Protestant Reformation and iconoclasm, but not the division of Basel into Basel City and Basel Land. One item that fell victim to this division was the gilded silver Reliquary Bust of Saint Ursula (1300–1320). Basel Land being the poorer of the two regions sold part of its treasury. A hundred years later, the bust, purchased with donations from the people of Basel, was recovered from the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

Its history began a half-century before its creation. In 1254, the Cologne Cathedral gave the Basel Cathedral a skull and two arm bones, among other relics of several thousand martyred virgins, or so the story goes.

There is no dearth of Ursula legends, all of Monty Pythonesque proportions. Details and dates vary. Essentially, Ursula was doomed to marry a heathen. She managed to postpone her wedding for three years, to make a pilgrimage to Rome to devote (albeit temporarily) her virginity to Christ. The delay would give her fiancé sufficient time to convert to Christianity, be baptized and become a devout practising Christian.

Ursula set sail from Britain with eleven thousand maidens in tow. Blown to the mouth of the Rhine, she and the damsels sailed up the river to Cologne where an angel foretold Ursula’s demise as a martyr. Unfazed, Ursula continued up the Rhine to Basel where she and all 11,000 chaste companions disembarked to continue their journey through the Alps to Rome, on foot. Along the way, Ursula managed to convert these ingénues to Christianity.

In Rome, Ursula met a certain Pope Cyriacus who was supposed to accompany her safely home but backed out. In the meantime, word reached the ruling Huns in Cologne that Ursula and her troop would be passing through. Only interested in women for pleasure according to one Ursuline Internet site, they eagerly awaited Ursula’s arrival.

Writers are always cautioned not to use hackneyed phrases like the one I am about to use but I can think of none more apt. Perhaps the expression ‘a fate worse than death’ originated with Ursula’s narrative because in Cologne, the maidens exchanged their heads for their maidenheads.

Surveying thousands of beheaded corpses, Ursula was comforted and entreated by the Top Hun to take his bloodied hand in marriage. Alas, already betrothed to a Christian, Ursula could not be tempted by the heathen Hun’s proposal and also perished. To add insult to ignominy, forty years ago, Pope Paul VI struck Ursula from the saints’ registry.

Centuries later, unsullied by time and travel, the Reliquary bust of Saint Ursula smirks serenely in the Historisches Museum Basel.
If your German isn’t up to scratch and you are unable to decipher the explanations beside each treasury exhibit, there’s an excellent film on the ground floor you can watch in English or French.
Another section of the museum houses bits of a mural rescued from the interior of the Prediger Church’s cemetery wall. These fragments of the Totentanz (Dance of Death) are all that remain of a two-metre high, sixty-metre long mural, warning the populace of Basel (still smarting from the earthquake and the Black Death) to live a virtuous if not exemplary life because Death could strike before its victim received last rites.

Once a popular theme in Europe, many a Totentanz was lost when Europe was bombed in World War II. Basel’s centuries old wall fell before the war; victim to urban expansion, it came crashing down in 1805. There’s no record of its commission but it is thought that the Totentanz was painted around 1430. The mural, protected from the elements by a cantilevered roof, depicted several levels of medieval society from a duke and his duchess, to a count, a knight and so on down to a crippled beggar. Each one, caught unawares, was made to dance with a skeleton—death. The message was clear; irrespective of one’s social standing, whether powerful or rich, death claims us all and in death we are all equal. The wall no longer stands but its message still does.

Also on display are some of Basel’s guild treasures, tapestries, ecclesiastical art and furniture. Not to be missed are the treasures hidden beneath the former church.

Kinderleben in Basel displays objects illustrating how (mostly privileged) children lived in Basel between the 18th and 20th century. There is also a coin section, several exquisite rooms from ancient demolished houses in Basel, some weaponry and much more.

If I were to identify a single negative point about the museum, it is that almost all the explanations are in German. Granted, Basel is a predominantly German speaking city and we all need to make an effort to learn the language, but at the same time, like it or not, it’s an international city. The museum would attract more visitors from the city and the region if the directors were to make information more accessible by having it in French and English; nevertheless, it’s well worth a visit.
Written December 12, 2008
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

coarica
United Kingdom70 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2017 • Couples
This museum looks relatively small from the outside, being housed in an old church building, but it is so packed full of information and artefacts that a museum-lover could easily spend an entire day here. The permanent collection contains a good mixture of historical items, archaeological finds and curios from the private collections of many of Basel's notable citizens. The cathedral treasury, some nice stained glass and an impressive alterpiece are also here, as well as a room dedicated to the preservation of a mural depicting the Basel dance of death. There is a section on the history of Basel and the museum also hosts temporary exhibits, as well as music concerts in the evenings.

If your German is a little rusty, I'd recommend getting the (free) tablet at the desk which will enable you to read the explanations in a language of your choice. The order of the exhibits is a little confusing at first but you can always go back and pick up a lost thread as and when needed. All in all, well worth a visit for the history enthusiast.
Written September 23, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Basel Historical Museum - Barfuesserkirche - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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