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Photo: Alan Philip Müller from Milano, Italy, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Enjoy the wacky animated mechanical artwork of Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), and other "kinetic" modern artists. The building was designed by Mario Botta, whose other museum buildings include the San Francisco MOMA.
Another of his machine sculptures, the Fasnachtsbrunnen ("Carnival Fountain") can be seen on the plaza in front of Restaurant Kunsthalle on Steinenberg. There's more of his work in Fribourg, where he was born.
The Museum Tinguely is an art museum in Basel, Switzerland, devoted to the work of Swiss painter and sculptor Jean Tinguely (1925–1991). The building was designed by architect Mario Botta and opened in 1996 beside the Rhine. The museum has the world’s largest collection of Tinguely’s work, from early reliefs to large-scale kinetic sculptures.
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Fine Arts Museum
Huge permanent collection of 19th and 20th century works, including a whole room of Picasso, and medieval and renaissance paintings from Holbein, Grien and others. Housed in two buildings: Hauptbau & Neubau.
On the same ticket but in the separate Gegenwart building at St. Alban-Rheinweg 60 (10-minute walk from the main facility) is the Museum of Contemporary Art, open Tu-Su 11:00-18:00.
Basel Minster
Now a Reformed Protestant cathedral, it was built from 1019, badly damaged in an earthquake of 1356, and completed in 1500 in Romanesque & Gothic style. The Galluspforte (Gallus portal) on the western façade is a magnificent sculptural work. Figures carved on the main (south) façade include St. George slaying the Dragon. Inside, there's a sandstone lectern, and a crypt with tombs of early bishops of Basel; also buried here is Jacob Bernoulli, who discovered the mathematical constant e. You can climb either or both towers: St. Martin's is 62 m and St. George's is 65 m.
Museum of Ancient Art and Ludwig Collection
Huge collection of antiquities: some Egyptian and Mesopotamian art, but mostly Greek art.
Museum of Cultures
Ethnographic museum featuring exhibits from South America, Africa, East Asia and Oceania. The exhibits from the South Seas, Ancient America, Tibet and Bali are world-famous, as are its textiles.
No permanent collection, this is Basel's main non-commercial art space for changing contemporary art shows. Throughout the year, the Kunsthalle shows cutting edge international artists in meticulously curated shows.
Protestant church completed in 1864 in neo-Gothic Revival style. Note the stone pulpit with wooden canopy.