Basel Historical Museum

The main house of Basel's history museum occupies the former Barfüsser church, a Gothic friary in the heart of the old town whose stripped stone nave now shelters the city's treasures. Displays run from medieval altarpieces and tapestries to the celebrated cathedral treasury of gold and silver reliquaries. A separate branch preserves the guild rooms and painted panels of the medieval merchant class. The setting, with objects arranged beneath the soaring vaults of the deconsecrated church, gives the collection an unusually atmospheric backdrop.