(German; French, Bâle), a city in the extreme northern part of Switzerland near the convergence of the Swiss, French, and German borders. Administratively it is equivalent to a demicanton. It is located in a narrow valley of the Rhine River, where it flows out onto the plain on which three mountain massifs, those of the Jura, Schwarzwald (Black Forest), and Vosges, come together. It is the second largest city in the country. Population, in 1968, was 215,600; metropolitan area, including suburbs, 358,700.
Historical sketch. The site is first referred to as the Roman fortification of Basilia in 374. By the 13 th century Basel had become a significant commercial and trade center. Basel, whose inhabitants carried on a struggle against the bishop, the seignior of the city, beginning in the 12th century, won the status of an imperial city in the 14th century. The city gradually subjected the surrounding rural areas to its authority and became the center of an extensive territory, the canton of Basel. In 1501, Basel joined the Swiss Confederation. In the late 15th and the 16th centuries Basel became one of Europe’s centers for trade, commerce, and credit and loan operations, as well as for book publishing (J. Froben) and humanism (Erasmus of Rotterdam). In 1525 a peasant movement, which was supported by the urban poor, developed in the Basel area. It was suppressed by 1526. In 1529 the Reformation was introduced in Basel. The oligarchical patrician regime in Basel in the 17th and 18th centuries provoked numerous peasant and urban uprisings (1653, 1789, and so on). In 1833 the population of the rural part of the canton, through an armed uprising, won the establishment of an independent demicanton by the name of Basel Land. In this struggle the city, Basel Stadt, had the support of the reactionary Sarnen League. Basel has been the site of the signing of many international treaties. In 1869 the fourth congress of the First International was held here, and in 1912, a congress of the Second International.
Economy. Basel is a major financial and trade center of international significance. It is a major transport center with a port on the Rhine, where the river begins to be navigable, and a port on the Rhine-Rhone Canal. As much as 40 percent of all the country’s imports and exports pass through Basel, primarily through the port. Many Swiss banks are located in Basel, along with the Bank for International Settlements. Annual industrial fairs are held there. As far as industry is concerned, Basel ranks below Zurich, but it does have considerable significance as a center for the chemical, silk, pharmaceutical, machine-building, and electrical-engineering industries, as well as for book publishing and the book trade.
Architecture. The Rhine separates Basel into two parts: Great Basel on the raised left bank of the river, where the city’s historic center is located, along with the main architectural monuments, and where the typical features of the age-old trade and commercial town are preserved; and Little Basel (New City) on the low-lying right bank, where industrial establishments are located. The two parts of the city are connected by five bridges. North of Basel is the harbor of Hiiningen with its port facilities. Among the architectural monuments of Basel are the Romanesque-Gothic cathedral, which was begun in 1019, with work continuing into the 15th century, and the Rathaus with frescoes of the 16th century. In 1962–63 a new complex was built to house the School of Arts and Crafts (architect H. Baur) with ornamental sculpture by J. Arp and others. In Basel’s public art gallery there is a fine collection of paintings by Renaissance artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger and Hans Baldung, and by impressionist painters, as well as sculpture by A. Rodin, A. Maillol, and others. It has the oldest university in the country (1460) and historical and ethnographic museums.