The National Museums of Switzerland are located in the capital Bern, the founding canton Schwyz, and the largest city Zürich. Basel, being a large, German-speaking city in the country is known for its arts, but it does have one history museum on local history that chronicles its journey from being a Prince-Bishopric that owned land all across the Jura Mountains to Porrentruy to recent developments of the tallest buildings in Switzerland.
The Basel History Museum is housed inside a former church buildings spanning three exhibition levels. For those with limited time, the “Basel in 50 Objects” exhibition is a great overview of its history complete with a mobile audio guide available in English. It displays the bishopric staff that the regions flags are modelled after, samples of 18th century fabric that supported trade from the city, the mask that was once hung on the Rheintor that gave its city its emblem, and a blackout lamp used during WWII.
18th century fabric 
Rhientor mask 
Blackout lamp
In the underground area of the museum, the world’s first edition of a Koran translated into Latin is displayed as it was printed in Basel. Various pieces of traditional tapestry are displayed on the walls in a dark room to preserve their color. Two original rooms with wooden interiors and their glass windows were also moved into the museum for display to help visitors visualise how people lived back then.
Overall, it is a very impressive museum for a municipally-funded public exhibition. I would have it nominated for the Council of Europe’s Museum of the Year award.
First Latin Koran
