Living in Innere Stadt / Altstadt — Basel neighbourhood

Basel's Old Town lies almost exactly within the 1200 city walls and looks back on more than 2,000 years of history, from the Roman trade route along what is now Freie Strasse (first mentioned in 1241 as "libera strata") to Switzerland's oldest university. The university was opened in 1460 in the Münster itself, by papal bull, growing out of the Council of Basel (1432–48) — Erasmus of Rotterdam taught here and made Basel a centre of European humanism. The Kunstmuseum Basel, founded in 1661, is among the oldest public art collections in the world. From the Pfalz, the open terrace right behind the Münster, the view stretches to the Dreiländereck ("three-country corner") and, on clear days, to the Black Forest — a prime vantage point complemented by three engineless Rhine ferries, propelled solely by the current. The Marktplatz hosts the city's oldest and largest fresh-produce market almost every day. The highlight of the year is Basel's Fasnacht (carnival): at the "Morgestraich", all the lights in the city centre are switched off at 4 a.m. on the Monday, before thousands of drummers and pipers wind through the narrow lanes — the city's "drey scheenschte Dääg" ("three most beautiful days"). Freie Strasse and Barfüsserplatz remain the commercial axes.