Basler Hof, Late-Gothic town palace in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Basler Hof is a late-Gothic building erected from 1494 to 1496 by Konrad Stürtzel, court chancellor of Emperor Maximilian I, on seven adjoining plots on Kaiser-Joseph-Straße. It was then Freiburg's largest noble court and secular building; an oriel bears the year 1416, and the floors sit at different levels, suggesting older fabric was incorporated. Since 1952 it has housed the district administration.
Konrad Stürtzel von Buchheim, court chancellor to Emperor Maximilian I, built this late-Gothic town palace from 1494 to 1496 on seven adjoining plots he had acquired since 1480. In 1587 the Basel cathedral chapter, exiled in Catholic Freiburg since 1529, bought the house and gave it its name; it stayed until 1678. After wartime destruction in 1944, the facade was preserved during the 1950/51 rebuild.
The name Basler Hof dates from 1587, when the cathedral chapter of Basel, exiled after the Reformation, bought Konrad Stürtzel's palace and used it until 1678. The chapter displayed its three patron saints — Mary flanked by Henry II and Pantalus, the first bishop of Basel — in a shrine on the street facade.
The building is located in the heart of Freiburg's old town and is easily accessible via Kaiser-Joseph-Straße. Since the interior functions as an administrative building, visiting the inside is not possible, but the facade and entrance gate can be admired from the street.
A lead capsule the size of a palm was found in 1950 among the ruins of the house next to the main entrance, destroyed in 1944. The unadorned capsule holds astrological drawings, a lion carrying a castle, and a lid showing a horoscope and a snake with a child in its jaws; it has never been interpreted.
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