The Käppelijoch on the Bridge

28 January 2022

The Käppelijoch on the Mittlere Brücke in Basel has always had a special meaning. Käppelijoch means little chapel built on a pillar (Joch).

The relief shows a bishop holding an object with two bows in his hand. Four angels with a cross and a lance stand beside the bishop. They symbolise divine protection. The object represents the bridge, the Mittlere Brücke.

The Prince-Bishop Heinrich von Thun, the bishop from 1216 to 1238, was the driving force behind the bridge’s construction in 1225.

The construction was part of his regional power politics. Kleinbasel and Grossbasel were not yet united (they united in 1392). Kleinbasel belonged to the diocese of Constance and fell under the archbishopric of Mainz, while the prince-bishopric of Basel was part of the archbishopric of Besançon.

The Käppelijoch is right in the middle of the bridge, the dividing line between Kleinbasel and Grossbasel. It still is.

A stone chapel replaced the wooden Käppelijoch in 1478. In 1905 the partly still wooden bridge was replaced by the present-day bridge. The original Käppelijoch is now in the Historical Museum in Basel. The Käppelijoch on the bridge is a copy.

In the Middle Ages, the Käppelijoch served as a place where convicts were executed by drowning. Nowadays, it is a place to express love by hanging ‘love’ locks.

(Source: www.altbasel.ch; D. Heitz, Stadtjäger. Ein Spaziergang zu Basels versteckten Besonderheiten, Basel 2021).