Basel festival: Behold The Dance of Death

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This was published 7 years ago

Basel festival: Behold The Dance of Death

By Keith Austin
People in colourful fantasy costumes taking part in carnival Fastnachtsumzug.

People in colourful fantasy costumes taking part in carnival Fastnachtsumzug.Credit: iStock

To be perfectly honest, I never had any plans to go to Basel. It always seemed a bit of an also-ran in the Things To See And Do in Switzerland stakes. As a backpacker there in the mid-1980s it was never even on my radar. And yet now, after just a few days here, I find myself plotting and planning to return – mainly for what seems to me to be one of the best winter carnivals in Europe but also because Basel is, well, surprisingly cool. The third most populous city in the country behind Zurich and Geneva, Basel is part of a tri-cornered section of Europe where Switzerland, Germany and France meet. So entwined are they that some of Basel's suburbs are in those other countries.

The city is a mere 37 kilometres square and yet it houses 40 museums – a cultural concentration that few cities in Europe can match. Some of them are admittedly not much more than holes in the wall but places such as the Fondation Beyeler gallery, designed by Renzo Piano and found in Riehen on the outskirts of Basel, mount world-class exhibitions. Its recent retrospective of Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Der Blaue Reiter movement was superlative.

Back in the city centre, the Kunstmuseum Basel contains one of the city's oldest and largest art collections. It holds 4000 paintings, and sculptures as well as 300,000 drawings and prints dating from the early 15th century. In early 2016 it opened a new state-of-the-art extension to hold all its gumpf.

Red sandstone Basel Cathedral in the old town.

Red sandstone Basel Cathedral in the old town. Credit: iStock

If you go, make sure to get hold of a copy of the Basel Museum Guide, which lists even the smallest of museums and includes a handy map. Cartoons, historical anatomy, paper, urban history, musical instruments, science for children, pharmacy, textiles and mechanical music automata are just a few of the collections to be found in the city.

Of course, if all that culture makes you reach for your gun then you just have to follow the river and head for the port area, out towards the tri-state corner (Dreilandereck). It's a semi-dingy industrial part of town just before the docks – maybe a 30-minute walk – but it's where a whole bunch of weird, wild and funky pop-up bars and restaurants have, well, popped up along the Rhine riverfront.

Housed in old shipping containers or ramshackle wooden huts that look like they've been hammered together overnight, it's an increasingly popular hangout for the young and the young-at-heart.

Basel from the Bar Rouge on the 31st floor of the 105-metre-high Messeturm.

Basel from the Bar Rouge on the 31st floor of the 105-metre-high Messeturm.

Closer to town there are a few more official Rhine-side bars, called "buvettes", which open in good weather and serve coffee, soft drinks, alcohol and snacks.

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The Basel area has been settled for more than 2000 years, became part of the Swiss Confederation in 1501 and has somehow managed to enter the 21st century without peeling away too many layers of that history.

Its medieval streets are still wonderfully haphazard, full of slender alleyways, sequestered squares and ancient buildings – and towering above it all is the gothic pile of Basel Minster. Built between the 12th and 15th centuries, the cathedral sits on a hillside overlooking the Rhine. In front of it, the large cobblestoned square is alive with bars and restaurants while the Pfalz platform at the rear has magnificent views across the river to the Kleinbasel (old town) district.

Relaxing at the Basel Rhine bathing huts.

Relaxing at the Basel Rhine bathing huts.

From here you can watch the four Fahrimaa (small passenger ferries summoned by ringing a bell) as they ply their trade across the water and maybe catch sight of the mad sods who, even in September, seem to think swimming in the river is a good idea. It's very popular in summer and you can buy a Basel Wickelfisch – a watertight sack to keep your gear dry while swimming – at tourist information offices.

It's not a great city for cars, that's for sure, but the excellent and easy-to-use public transport system more than makes up for that – and every hotel guest who stays in Basel receives a free Mobility Ticket which entitles them to free travel on buses and trams during their stay. How's that for service?

Which brings us to why I want to go back: Fasnacht.

The Victoria greenhouse dates from 1898 in the Botanical Garden of the University of Basel.

The Victoria greenhouse dates from 1898 in the Botanical Garden of the University of Basel. Credit: Basel Tourismus

If the photographs and the explanations of my guide are anything to go by, this three-day carnival, which happens every year in the week after Ash Wednesday, is a political, social and cultural extravaganza in which the locals don't so much push the boat out as launch it from a catapult and set fire to it.

There are masks and elaborate home-made costumes and drumming and exhibitions and a kids' day and music concerts, you name it.

And all this starts at 4am on Monday morning when the authorities turn out all the lights and plunge the city into darkness. This is the Morgestraich, when about 200 local bands (cliques) of drummers and piccolo players from all over Basel start playing the same tune and marching willy-nilly around the town centre.

Mingling on the banks of the Rhine.

Mingling on the banks of the Rhine.Credit: Basel Tourismus

Each clique carries a large illuminated canvas lantern decorated with paintings and rhymes that make fun of a particular local event from the past year. All the players, too, have a small lantern above their mask as they parade through the darkened city streets.

And that's just the start. The carnival carries on for the next three days and ends at 4am on Thursday morning. The next Morgestraich takes place on March 6, 2017.

As I say, I've never been, but here's what the Fasnacht organising committee has to say about it: "Many visitors and locals simply enjoy the experience of wandering around the city's lively streets, alleys, bars and restaurants, absorbing the unique mixture of celebration and melancholia, and the haunting enactment of the medieval rituals: the dance of death (Totentanz) and the masquerade (Mummenschanz)."

The Burghers of Calais by Rodin in the courtyard of the Kunstmuseum Basel.

The Burghers of Calais by Rodin in the courtyard of the Kunstmuseum Basel. Credit: Basel Tourismus

Masquerade? Dance of Death? How can you not want to see that?

TRIP NOTES

MORE

The sculpture Utopia in the Museum Tinguely.

The sculpture Utopia in the Museum Tinguely.

traveller.com.au/switzerland

myswitzerland.com

fasnachts-comite.ch/en

A cooling break at one of Basel's fountains.

A cooling break at one of Basel's fountains.Credit: Basel Tourismus

basel.com

FLY

Swiss International Air Lines flies to Switzerland from the main Australian cities. See swiss.com for details and prices.

Fondation Beyeler: This dignified building by the Italian star architect Renzo Piano has housed the private collection of Ernst and Hildy Beyeler since 1997.

Fondation Beyeler: This dignified building by the Italian star architect Renzo Piano has housed the private collection of Ernst and Hildy Beyeler since 1997.

Trains from Zurich to Basel takes about an hour and they leave every hour or so. There is a tourist information office at Basel train station. Tickets cost about $38. For full details of times and prices see raileurope.com.au

A Swiss Travel Pass covers unlimited travel on public buses, boats and trains around the country, gives holders up to 50 per cent discount on mountain railways and cableways and free entry to more than 490 museums. Children under 16 travel for free with a guardian using the pass. See myswitzerland.com/rail.

Keith Austin travelled as a guest of Switzerland Tourism.

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