Moving to Basel

Pharmaceuticals & life sciences

Roche, Novartis, Lonza, Bachem, Idorsia, Actelion legacy sites

One of the densest pharmaceutical clusters on earth. Roche's Bau 2 at 205 metres is the tallest building in Switzerland, and the two headquarters face each other across the Rhine.

Chemicals & agriscience

Syngenta, Clariant, BASF Grenzach, Huntsman

The industry that made the city — Basel's dye works became its chemical industry and then its pharmaceutical one. Much of the manufacturing now sits on the German and French sides of the border.

Banking & financial regulation

Bank for International Settlements, Basler Kantonalbank, Bâloise

The BIS is the central bank of central banks and the reason global capital rules are named after this city. It has its own headquarters agreement and its staff hold FDFA legitimation cards rather than Swiss permits.

Logistics & the Rhine port

Port of Switzerland, Ultra-Brag, Rhenus, Contargo

Switzerland's only cargo seaport connection runs through Basel — the Rhine terminals at Kleinhüningen and Birsfelden handle a significant share of the country's imported fuel and containers.

Art, culture & the trade fair

Art Basel, MCH Group, Kunstmuseum, Fondation Beyeler

Art Basel is the most important contemporary art fair in the world and started here in 1970. The week it runs, the city's hotel and short-let market becomes unrecognisable.

Architecture & engineering

Herzog & de Meuron, Diener & Diener, Christ & Gantenbein

Herzog & de Meuron were born, trained and still practise in Basel, and the region has an unusual concentration of signature buildings by Pritzker laureates — several of them within a tram ride.

Nature · From Tinguely Museum down to the Johanniterbrücke

In summer the whole city gets in the river after work and floats through the middle of town.

Local tip: Buy a Wickelfisch — the waterproof bag doubles as a float and keeps your clothes dry. Get in above the Tinguely Museum and out at the steps before the Johanniterbrücke; past that the current takes you toward the port and the shipping.

Landmark · Grossbasel, above the river

The red sandstone cathedral on its bluff, with a terrace looking straight down the Rhine bend into Germany.

Local tip: The Pfalz terrace behind the Münster is free and is the best view in the city. Erasmus is buried inside the cathedral, and the cloister is usually empty even in June.

Culture · St. Alban and the old town

The oldest public art collection in the world, plus the Tinguely, the Antikenmuseum and the Papermill within walking distance.

Local tip: Basel museums are largely free on the first Sunday of the month, and the U-Abo transport pass includes discounted entry to several. Check before paying full price at the desk.

Neighborhood · Right bank, across the Mittlere Brücke

The historically working-class, most international side of the river, now the city's best eating and drinking territory.

Local tip: The Rhine promenade bars on the Kleinbasel side — the Buvettes — are where the whole city drinks from May to September. They are seasonal, cash-friendly and appear and disappear with the weather.

Food · Behind the SBB station

A 1929 domed market hall turned food court, with the multicultural Gundeldingen district behind it.

Local tip: The Markthalle is where you eat well for under twenty francs in a city where that is otherwise difficult. Gundeli, on the far side of the tracks, has the best-value groceries and restaurants in Basel-Stadt.

Nature · Four crossings between St. Alban and Klybeck

Wooden ferries hung from an overhead cable that cross the Rhine using nothing but the current, and the point downstream where three countries meet.

Local tip: The ferries cost a couple of francs, take two minutes, and have run without engines since the 1850s. Take the Klingental one at dusk. Downstream in the port, the Dreiländereck monument lets you stand where Switzerland, Germany and France touch — an oddly moving spot in the middle of a container terminal.