With more than 3,300 objects, the Basel Historical Museum has the largest collection of musical instruments in Switzerland. Around 650 European instruments from five centuries are presented on three floors of the music museum.

The Music Museum is located in the center of Basel's old town above Barfüsserplatz. It is part of a complex of buildings whose oldest parts date back to the St. Leonhard's Monastery, a monastery of the Augustinian canons. The historic ensemble of buildings also includes St. Leonhard's Church, which was probably founded between 1060 and 1070. In 1356, the buildings were severely damaged by the earthquake, but the monastery was restored with great effort. In the 1440s, the monastery suffered a decline due to war, plague and famine, from which it only recovered at the end of the 15th century. With the Reformation, monastic activities ceased in 1529 and Leonhard's Church became one of four reformed parish churches in the city of Basel. The monastery complex, which was used as a municipal building yard in the 17th and 18th centuries, where the so-called "Lohnherr" also paid the wages of the workers, was given the name "Lohnhof". This name was retained even when the police moved in in 1821. Between 1835 and 1995, the former monastery was used as a prison. Subsequently, the former library building of the monastery and cell wing of the prison were converted into a music museum by the Basel architects Morger & Degelo. The almost 1,000-year history of the building has remained visible to this day.

Guided tours and school classes: +41 61 205 86 70, vermittlung.hmb@bs.ch
Event information: +41 61 205 86 02


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