Historisches Museum Basel

Basel Cathedral Treasury with its thousand-year history ranks among the world’s most important collections of medieval ecclesiastical treasures. It recalls that period in the city’s history when the bishops held sway in matters both sacred and secular. The collection of costly reliquaries, monstrances, crucifixes and other, mostly gold or silver liturgical items amassed over five centuries was spared the devastation of the Iconoclasm. In 1836, however, shortly after the canton was divided into two half-cantons, part of it was auctioned off and scattered to the four winds. The exhibition on the rood screen gallery shows two thirds of the seventy or so works that remained in Basel. The others are now held by museums in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Munich, New York, Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna and Zurich.

> Barfüsser Church
Rood screen gallery