Basel Minster - Interior

Basle Minster, which was carefully investigated and restored between 1963 and 1975, is 65 m/213ft long by 32.5 m/107ft across, with double lateral aisles; the outer aisles were originally a series of interconnected chapels. The raised choir is surrounded by an ambulatory, and under it is the crypt. The Gothic organ gallery was originally a rood-screen which until 1852 separated the chancel from the nave. In front of the pulpit, under glass, is a piece of the Late Romanesque pavement (12th C.). The Romanesque capitals in the nave and ambulatory are very fine. On the north side of the ambulatory is the sarcophagus of Anna von Hohenberg, wife of Rudolf of Habsburg, and her young son Karl (d. 1271). Most of the interior furnishings were destroyed in 1529 by Protestants at the Reformation. The elaborately decorated High Gothic altar was the work of Hans von Nussdorf, builder of the Minster (1486). In the outer north aisle are a number of tombs and the monument of Erasmus, who died in Basle in 1536. The panel near here depicting eight scenes from the martyrdom and death of St Vincent of Saragossa and another panel depicting the Apostles in the outer south aisle date from the 11th C. and may be by the same sculptor. The choir stalls, now at the entrance and the crossing as well as in the choir, are of the late 14th C.