House to the mosquito
The Haus zur Mücke on the Schlüsselberg near Basel's Münsterplatz is a building erected in 1545, which served as the university library and the first public museum in Basel from 1671 to 1849 . In its predecessor building of the same name, the conclave elected by Pope Felix V took place in 1439 .
history
Building finds at the place where the Haus zur Mücke and the associated courtyard are located go back to Roman times. Remains of the late antique fort wall around the later Münsterplatz and the foundation walls of a colossal building, which is interpreted as a granary, have been archaeologically proven.
The high medieval predecessor building, first mentioned in 1334/45 under the name "zer Mugken", served the urban nobility as a drinking room. In its paneled rooms, banquets and balls were held after tournaments on the Münsterplatz. During the Basel Council , the house was a conference building. The conclave also took place in it, which elected Duke Amadeus of Savoy as Pope on November 5, 1439, who received the papal crown as Felix V on July 24, 1440 on Münsterplatz. In 1477 the Basel council took over the house and had it converted into a municipal cloth house.
The appearance of the first two-story house at Mücke is unknown. However, its function suggests that it is an extremely representative building. Enea Silvio Piccolomini called it "palatium amplum" ("stately palace"). In 1545 the old building was demolished and the Haus zur Mücke rebuilt from scratch. In 1661 the city and university acquired the Amerbachkabinett (located in the Haus zum Kaiserstuhl ), a 16th century cabinet of curiosities. This moved into the Mücke house in 1671 together with the university library (housed in the “lower college” of the university, the former Augustinian monastery) and occupied the upper floor there. The Haus zur Mücke, which housed the core holdings of what would later become Basel's state museums , became the destination of a public interested in art, books and curiosities. Because of its primary function, however, it was referred to as a "library".
The space shortage caused by the growth of the collection forced after the beginning of the 19th century to consider moving the collections elsewhere in the Haus zur Mücke. In 1821 a natural history museum was founded in the Falkensteiner Hof , including the natural science collections. An extension to the upper floor of the neighboring Reinacherhof failed because of the turmoil caused by the separation of the cantons in Basel . Finally, the collections came to the museum on Augustinergasse, which opened in 1849 . Since then, Haus zur Mücke has served as a school building, as of 2008 as a “further education school” (8th and 9th year of compulsory elementary school ). The renovation of 1862, which was necessary to accommodate the then secondary school , changed the appearance significantly: a third floor was added, whereby the old roof structure was first removed and then put back on.
literature
- Valentin Lötscher: The house to the mosquito. In: Basler Jahrbuch 1958, pp. 86–141.
- Anne Nagel, Martin Möhle, Brigitte Meles: The art monuments of the canton of Basel-Stadt , Vol. VII The old town of Grossbasel I - secular buildings . Bern 2006, pp. 122–125.
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 33 '24 " N , 7 ° 35' 25" E ; CH1903: 611415 / two hundred sixty-seven thousand three hundred thirty-nine