The city at the three-country corner — where Switzerland, France, and Germany share a Rhine crossing and a carnival, the world's oldest public art museum opened in 1661, Art Basel became the world's most important contemporary art fair, and Erasmus of Rotterdam chose to retire and die in a city that was not Rotterdam
Basel (180,000; metro 800,000 across the Swiss-French-German border) sits at the Dreiländereck (three-country corner) where Switzerland, France, and Germany meet at the Rhine. The Kunstmuseum Basel (opened 1661) is the oldest public art museum in the world. Art Basel (founded 1970) is now the world's most significant contemporary art fair, held each June in the exhibition halls by the Rhine. Basel Minster (Münster, begun 1019 CE) watches over the city from a red sandstone platform above the Rhine — the tomb of Erasmus of Rotterdam is in the north aisle.
Basel's strategic Rhine crossing made it one of the most contested cities in Europe — a Roman fort (Augusta Raurica, the best-preserved Roman city north of the Alps, lies 10km east at Augst), the seat of an influential medieval prince-bishopric, and the city where the Council of Basel (1431–1449) came closest to reforming the Catholic Church from within. Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536), Europe's most celebrated humanist, chose Basel as his home city for the last years of his life, drawn by the university and the publishing house of his friend Froben, and is buried in the Münster. The Basler…