Basel Minster - Crypt

The Basle Minster Crypt, which can be entered from either side of the choir, contains the tombs of bishops of the 10th to the 13th C. and other monuments. The Romanesque frieze on the piers shows fabulous themes, hunting scenes and interlace ornament. The ceiling frescoes depict scenes from the life of the Virgin, the childhood of Christ and the lives of St Martin of Tours and St Margaret. On either side of the altar, formerly dedicated to the Virgin, are life-size Romanesque statues of bishops, dated by an inscription to 1202. On the right-hand side of the altar recess, also identified by an inscription, is Bishop Adalbero, builder of the earlier cathedral of 1019. Under the crossing are a collection of lapidary material and the recently excavated walls of a still earlier church of the early ninth C.