Friday, November 30, 2018

Day 4 in Europe: Basel Switzerland

Rathaus
The Basel Town Hall (German: Rathaus Basel, locally known as Roothuus) is a 500-year-old building dominating the Marktplatz in Basel, Switzerland. 
The Town Hall houses the meetings of the Cantonal Parliament as well as the Cantonal Government of the canton of Basel-Stadt. 
The Great Council Chamber at one time featured a series of frescoes painted in 1522 by Hans Holbein the Younger, which have been lost.[1][2] Fragments of the work as well as some of the initial drawings are kept in the Kunstmuseum.[3] 
"Rathaus" literally means "council house" while the term "Roothus" in the local Basel German dialect means both "council house" but also sounds like "red house", a pun with reference to the red sandstone facade of the building.
All these pictures were taken from the courtyard of Rathaus. For someone from Canada it's hard to get your head around the age of these places. And this one is only 500 years old.

Notice the beautiful murals on the walls. It was difficult to get very good pictures because of the shadows inside the courtyard.








I signed the guest book.


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