Basel Historical Museum, History museum in Basel, Switzerland
The Basel Historical Museum occupies three buildings: the Barfüsserkirche, the Haus zum Kirschgarten, and the Musikmuseum. The spaces display a broad collection of objects from the Upper Rhine region, ranging from religious artworks to everyday items from different periods.
The museum was founded in 1894 and is based on a collection that the city of Basel acquired in 1661 from the Amerbach family. This collection began as a private Wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities, filled with valuable and rare objects.
The Barfüsserkirche displays the Basel Cathedral treasury, the Basel and Strasbourg tapestries, fragments of the Basel Dance of Death, and Erasmus of Rotterdam's estate. The Amerbach and Faesch cabinets of curiosities, bought by the city in 1661, are kept here. The Musikmuseum, in a former prison, holds about 650 European instruments in 21 cells.
The museum is located in central Basel and opens Tuesday through Sunday. Accessibility is provided throughout, and combined tickets allow you to visit all three locations.
On 20 October 1975, workers in front of the choir found a brick-walled grave chamber holding the mummified body of Anna Catharina Bischoff, later identified as an ancestor of Boris Johnson. The museum also keeps the Amerbach and Faesch cabinets of curiosities, assembled by Basel collectors in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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