Switzerland Guide
Basel
Marktplatz
Marktplatz, in the Old Town, is crowded every morning with fruit-and-veg stalls. Lighting up the broad rectangular space with a splash of eye-catching colour is the elaborate scarlet facade of the Rathaus (Town Hall), the central arcaded section sixteenth-century, the tower and side annexe both late nineteenth-century. Feel free to wander into the frescoed interior courtyard.
At the northern end of Marktplatz is the small Fischmarkt, with its central fountain, just beyond which is Schifflände at the southern end of the Mittlere Brücke, a modern construction at the site of what was for centuries the only bridge over the Rhine between the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and the North Sea. On a facade looking along the bridge, you'll spot an odd little bust of a bearded man: this is the Lällekeenig, or Tongue King. The original Lällekeenig adorned the gate of the bridge from the mid-seventeenth century, greeting all arrivals to the city until the gate's demolition in 1839, and had a clockwork motor so that he rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue in time with the ticking. He was probably made to demonstrate what Grossbaslers thought of their down-at-heel Kleinbasel neighbours, but these days the city is united, the clockwork original is in the Historisches Museum, and the Lällekeenig still staring along the bridge is a static copy. Opening time: DailyPrice: Free