MIDDLE BRIDGE - BASEL
Oldest Crossing of the Rhine to Kleinbasel
Bridges are usually used for simple function, crossing from one side of a body of water to the other. Bridges also develop an identity and a history. Throughout Europe are a number of unique and historic bridges, but few actually have their own social societies built around them. The Middle Bridge of Basel (Mittlere Brücke) is one such. With the development of a medieval trade route across the Gotthard Pass from Italian Savoy to France, the wide Rhine River had to be crossed. The middle bridge which crosses from main old town Basel (Gross Basel) to the district of Klein Basel (lesser Basel) on the southwest shore is the oldest existing bridge across the Rhine from Lake Constance to the North Sea. The first recorded permanent bridge was constricted of part stone and part wood in 1225 by the Prince Bishop Meinrich von Thun (see Thun Castle). With the advent of electric street trams, the old bridge needed to make way for the new and the bridge was rebuilt in 1905 entirely of granite stone with room for street traffic and trams.
Basel had been in decline as an economic center since the Roman days of the Augusta Raurica (see Roman Town Augusta Raurica), but the bridge crossing of the Middle Ages led to Basel’s growth as one of the area’s most important of trade cities, beginning in the 14th Century. Left in the middle of the middle bridge can be found a copy of the original old bridge chapel, the Käppelijoch, where in medieval times convicted criminals were executed. Other towns had to make due with hangings or burnings at the stack, but Basel had the very handy river. Death sentences carried out the bridge for egregious crimes of murderers, adulterers and child killers were called flooding. Prisoners hands and feet were tied with weights and thrown into the river. If they sank, they were guilty. If they managed to float down the river to the bank at St John, well, they were still guilty, but had to be executed with a sword.
On the Basel side of the bridge, down a flight of steps is the Schifflände, the ship landing where today the tourist cruise boast depart for dinner cruises and sightseeing trips. Next to the bridge and the landing, behind locked gates can be seen the outlet of the tributary river which now runs through tunnels under the city. A guided tour of the river tunnel can be arranged through the tourist office. On the Klein Basel side of the bridge are a number of hotels and restaurants with riverside views, and beyond, a shopping and suburban zone.
Underneath the stone arches of the bridge pass the Rhine cargo barges and ships in a daily parade, seeming to barely fit their weighty floating bulk underneath. But once a year in a cycle of dates toward the end of January, the bridge is treated to the annual parade of the Vogel Gryff, an imaginative procession of fanciful characters celebrating the three honorary societies of Klein Basel, first formed to guard the walls in the Middle Ages, represented by the Griffin, the Wild Man and the Lion. The Vogel Gryff Day begins with the voyage of the Wild Man's raft down the Rhine, a parade through Klein Basel, and culminates late at night with the last dance of the three heraldic figures and general partying. By Michael January
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HISTORIC RHINE FERRIES OF BASEL
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