Jewish Medieval Gravestones

In Novem­ber 2025, ten tomb­sto­nes from the ceme­tery of Basel’s first medieval Jewish com­mu­ni­ty were moved from Korn­haus­gas­se 8 to the museum’s new loca­ti­on at Vesal­gas­se 5. The instal­la­ti­on is on dis­play for passers-by during and after the Jewish Museum’s ope­ning hours.

His­to­ri­cal background

By around 1200 at the latest, a Jewish com­mu­ni­ty had for­med in medieval Basel. The first Jewish resi­dents of Basel came from towns along the Upper Rhi­ne, with which Basel had clo­se eco­no­mic­al, cul­tu­ral, and poli­ti­cal ties during the Midd­le Ages. The syn­ago­gue of this first Jewish com­mu­ni­ty stood at the for­mer catt­le mar­ket, near today’s Ger­ber­gas­se 14. Most of the hou­ses inha­bi­ted by Jewish fami­lies were in the imme­dia­te vici­ni­ty of the syn­ago­gue, bet­ween today’s Bar­füs­ser­platz and Markt­platz. Jewish and Chris­ti­an fami­lies lived here, in the heart of Basel, side by side.

The ceme­tery of the Jewish com­mu­ni­ty was loca­ted out­side the city walls, in the area of today’s Kol­le­gi­en­haus of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Basel at Peters­platz. It was first men­tio­ned in a deed of sale issued by the St. Peter’s monas­tery in 1264.

In Janu­ary 1349, a pogrom bro­ke out in Basel during which the mem­bers of the first Jewish com­mu­ni­ty were bur­ned ali­ve on an island in the Rhi­ne. Basel nobles, who were indeb­ted to Jewish money­len­ders, had mobi­li­zed their fol­lo­wers and jus­ti­fied their vio­lence by clai­ming that Jews had poi­so­ned the wells and were the­r­e­fo­re respon­si­ble for the out­break of the pla­gue. The Jewish ceme­tery was left aban­do­ned, and the site was repur­po­sed for a new buil­ding for a gran­ary (Korn­haus). The gra­ves­to­nes, made of fine red sand­stone, were cut up and used to cover the retai­ning wall. When the city walls were demo­lished in the 19th cen­tu­ry, the­se stones were again reu­sed as buil­ding mate­ri­al. Some gra­ves­to­nes and frag­ments were reco­ver­ed during the 19th and 20th cen­tu­ries and han­ded over to the His­to­ri­cal Muse­um Basel. Still today Jewish gra­ves­tone frag­ments are often found during con­s­truc­tion work on Basel’s infra­struc­tu­re. New­ly excava­ted stones are pre­ser­ved by the Basel Archaeo­lo­gi­cal Rese­arch Department.