The best museums in Basel
Basel has around 40 museums crammed into one of the smallest cantons in Switzerland. That’s roughly one museum per square kilometre, which sounds like a tourism board statistic until you actually start walking around and realise it’s just true. The collections here range from world-class to wonderfully odd, and the buildings they live in are often worth the visit on their own. Here’s where to start.
Kunstmuseum Basel
In 1661, the city of Basel and its university made a decision that no other city in the world had made before: they bought a private art collection and opened it to the public.
That collection is the reason the Kunstmuseum is technically the oldest public art museum on the planet, and it has been accumulating things ever since.
Today the collection spans three connected buildings and covers everything from Upper Rhine masters of the 1400s to a Picasso room that feels quietly extraordinary given how few people tend to be standing in it. The scale surprises you.
This is not a municipal collection that happens to be old; it’s a genuinely world-class institution that has been doing this longer than anyone else.
Photo: Kunstmuseum Basel, © Succession Picasso / 2020, Pro Litteris, Zurich
Fondation Beyeler
About 25 minutes from the city centre by tram, the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen is the kind of museum that people travel to Basel specifically to see.
The building was designed by Renzo Piano and sits inside a park with views across to the foothills of the Black Forest, the kind of setting that makes you understand why someone would want to put a Monet in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows and let the garden outside do the rest.
Inside, the collection spans impressionism, classical modernism and contemporary art, with works by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Giacometti and Warhol among others.
Go without a plan and give yourself more time than you think you need.
photo: Sabine Hess
Museum Tinguely
Jean Tinguely was a Basel-born sculptor who spent his career building kinetic machines from scrap metal and discarded objects.
Several of the works are interactive: you press a button and watch decades of artistic thinking start whirring in front of you.
It also works remarkably well for children who are otherwise indifferent to art, because something is always happening.
Photo: Basel Tourismus – Susanne Maier
Vitra Design Museum
Technically just across the border in Weil am Rhein, Vitra is the Swiss furniture company behind almost every iconic designer piece you’ve ever seen in a magazine or a film.
Buildings sit side by side across 25 hectares, the Schaudepot displays over 400 key pieces from the collection, and the VitraHaus lets you wander through rooms decorated with all their iconic furniture. There’s also a toboggan if you need a reason to bring children.
Take tram 8 from Basel and plan for at least half a day.
Photo: Basel Tourismus – Teddy Verneuil
Basel Historical Museum at Barfüsserkirche
The Barfüsserkirche is a 14th-century church that was converted into a museum in the 1970s.
Inside, the collection covers Basel’s history from Celtic times through to today, with medieval tapestries, cathedral treasures and goldsmith works that feel genuinely extraordinary in the space they occupy.
Photo: Historisches Museum Basel
Anatomical Museum of the University of Basel
One of the more surprising museums in the city, and one of the most memorable. The Anatomical Museum holds real anatomical specimens, including original organs, wax models and skeletal preparations. It’s a small museum tucked inside the university. Not for everyone, but the people who go tend to say they wished it was bigger.
Photo: Anatomisches Museum Basel
Cartoonmuseum Basel
The only museum in Switzerland dedicated entirely to comics, graphic novels and illustrated satire. The Cartoonmuseum rotates its exhibitions frequently and covers a genuinely broad range, from classic newspaper cartoons and political caricature through to contemporary graphic novels and animated film. It’s smaller than the others on this list, but consistently well curated and a good option when you want something a little different after a morning of fine art.
Photo: Cartoonmuseum Basel
Basler Papiermühle
A working paper mill from the 15th century, turned into one of the most hands-on museums in the city. Visitors can make paper by hand, set metal type and print their own pages using a historical press, then walk away with something they actually made themselves. Takes a couple of hours, and is one of those places that turns out to be interesting regardless of how interested you thought you were in the subject going in.
Photo: Basler Papiermühle
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