Author: Maarten Koning

Swiss Smilestones

One of the latest Swiss attractions is close to one of the older miracles of nature: the Rhine Falls (Rheinfall). Europe’s biggest fall was created 120 000 years ago by the glaciers. This phenomenon can now be admired in Switzerland’s largest indoor miniature world.

The mountainous Berner Oberland and the eastern part of the country are on display already. Interlaken, the Jungfrau, Eiger, Mönch and the Kleine Scheidegg, the Matterhorn, the Appenzeller Land, the Säntis mountains and many other locations are on show, not as dead miniatures but embedded in moving train- and car traffic, helicopters, cities, villages, woods, lakes, rivers cows and people.

Smilestones, the name of this miniature world, is indeed made with a smile and numerous (and humorous) details. The real Rhine Falls are just a few hundred meters away, and one can see the likeness between the miniature and the real world.

(Source Swiss Smilestones, Neuhausen, www.smilestones.ch).

Hendrick Jan van Oyen in the Parc de l’Indépendance in Morges

The Independence Park (Parc de l’Indépendance) in Morges (canton of Vaud) owes its name to the independence of Vaud (Le Pays de Vaud) on 24 January 1798, after the long domination of Bern (since 1536).

Citizens proclaimed the République lémanique on this date  in Lausanne (Place de la Palud). This Republic was short-lived, however. The Republic was dissolved a few weeks later by Napoleon, who founded the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803).

The first horticultural exhibition was held in 1872. In 1882, the park was transformed into an English garden. In 1889, it officially became the Parc de la Indépendance. The park organizes the annual Festival des Tulipes (Tulip Festival).

Some monuments recall the history of Vaud’s independence and the memory of the Dutch count Hendrick Jan van Oyen (Tiel, 1771—Morges, 1850), a general in Napoleon’s army who became a Swiss citizen in 1825.

(Source and further information:  Le  Parc de  l’Indépendance, Morges

The Monasteries of Basel

Almost 500 years ago, in 1525-1529, the ten monasteries in Basel ceased to exist. The city became the new owner. The bishop, too, left the town and went to Porrentruy. The Reformation reached Basel, and 450 years of history ended.

The first monastery St. Alban was founded in 1083. The second monastery was St. Leonhard, which was consecrated around 1133.

The St. Alban Monastery, unknown artist, 19th century. Photo: Wikipedia

Today’s complex of the St. Alban monastery

The Leonhardskirche and the Museum of Music

In the thirteenth century, the number of monasteries increased due to the rise of the new mendicant orders. Between 1231 and 1279, Dominicans (also called Preachers because preaching was their principal occupation) founded Franciscan and Augustinian monasteries, all with male and female convents. The last monastery, the Carthusian order, was established in 1401.

The Predigerkirche

The mendicant orders had three male monasteries (Barfüsser or Barfoot (Franciscans), Prediger (preacher) and Augustiner) and four female monasteries (Gnadental, St. Clara, Steinen Monastery and Klingental).

The complex of the Carthusians and the St. Theodorkirche

The complex of the Carthusians is the best preserved; other monasteries have been completely lost, including the Steinen Monastery (on the site of the Tinguely wells). Only the walls of the Gnadental and Augustiner monasteries have survived the fate of history.

The Barfüsserkirche

The Martinskirche and the Martinsplatz

The Peterskirche

The Clarakirche

The Preacher’s Church (Predigerkirche), consecrated in 1269, has been thoroughly renovated with an eye for detail and the medieval original, including a reconstruction of the Dance of Death on the walls of the cemetery. This Dance of Death (Totentanz) was destroyed in 1805.

The Barfüsserkerk is the historical museum of Basel. St. Clara is the monastery church of the Clarissa, the female Franciscans, and it is still functioning.

The monastic life of Basel depended on the presence of the bishop. He was the head of the diocese, the prince of the Holy Roman Empire and the most important secular lord of the town until the 15th century.

The Reformation changed the monastic life forever.

(Source: F. Ackermann, Th. Wollmann, Klöster in Basel, Basel 2009).

Webergasse, wallpainting. 

The former monastery in Klein-Basel