Basel - Historical Museum

(Local Name: Barfüsserkirche / Historisches Museum) In Basle's busy Barfüsserplatz is the 14th C. Barfüsserkirche (church of the barefoot friars), which now houses the Historical Museum, with an important collection on the history of culture and art (renovated 1975-81); cellars constructed and reconstruction of the rood screen). Notable exhibits in the nave of the church are the Late Gothic tapestries and the "Lällenkönig" ("Babbling King"), a crowned head with a movable tongue and eyes, once the emblem of Gross-Basel (17th C.). In the aisles are weapons and furnished rooms, in the choir religious art, in the crypt the Minster treasury.

Changing exhibitions on the lower level reflect the history of the city of Basle. One of the most important textile productions in the late 18th and throughout the 19th C. was that of silk ribbons.