In the The city of Basel along the Rhine River, Switzerland

 "Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself."

-- Herman Hesse
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(in northern Switzerland) The city of Basel It lies along the Rhine River, at the mouths of the Birs and Wiese rivers, where the French, German, and Swiss borders meet. Basel is commonly considered to be the cultural capital of Switzerland and the city is famous for its many museums, including the Kunstmuseum, which is the first collection of art accessible to the public in the world, and the largest museum of art in Switzerland, the Fondation Beyeler, the Museum Tinguely and the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is the first public museum of contemporary art in Europe. The city's commitment to humanism has made Basel a safe haven at times of political unrest in other parts of Europe for such notable people as Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Holbein family, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and in the 20th century, also Hermann Hesse and Karl Jaspers.
+ Basel was the seat of a Prince-Bishopric starting in the 11th century, and joined the Swiss Confederacy in 1501. The city has been a commercial hub and an important cultural center since the Renaissance, and emerged as a center for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries in the 20th century.

+ This city was originally a Celtic settlement of the Rauraci tribe. At the beginning of the 5th century CE, the bishop of Augusta Raurica moved his see there. The city’s university was founded in 1460 by Pope Pius II, who had been in Basel for the celebrated Ecumenical Council (from 1431–49). In 1501 Basel was admitted into the Swiss Confederation. With the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus teaching at the university (from 1521–29), the city became a center of humanism and of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. The Counter-Reformation brought skilled workmen as refugees from other parts of Europe, and by the 18th century political power was in the hands of the trade guilds. In 1831 the rural part of the canton revolted, proclaiming independence the following year.

+ The Rhine divides the city into two parts, linked by six bridges. Kleinbasel, to the north, is the Rhine port and industrial section, with the buildings of the annual Swiss Industries Fair. Grossbasel, the older cultural and commercial center on the south bank, is dominated by the Romanesque and Gothic-style Münster (Protestant); consecrated in 1019, it was Basel’s cathedral until 1528 and has a monumental slab to Erasmus, who is entombed there. Other notable buildings are the late Gothic Rathaus, the Town Hall, the Church of St. Martin, and the former 14th-century Franciscan church. There are three surviving medieval city gates, of which the 15th-century Spalentor (St. Paul’s Gate) is one of the finest in Europe. The new university buildings were completed in 1939; the university library contains manuscripts of the religious reformers Martin Luther, Erasmus, Huldrych Zwingli, and Philipp Melanchthon.