The Museum (Museum für Wohnkultur) treats the domestic Culture in Basel in the 18th and 19th Century. The Haus zum Kirschgarten was built as a private residence and business premises for the silk ribbon manufacturer Johann Rudolf Burckhardt (1750-1813) between 1775 and 1780.
Since its opening in 1951, it has traditionally been a museum of domestic life: half of its fifty rooms show how people in 18th- and 19th-century Basel lived.
The various period rooms are furnished with interiors from comparable townhouses, including five from the Segerhof, a merchant’s residence torn down in 1934. The kitchen, salons, dining rooms, bedrooms and ancillary rooms give visitors a vivid impression of how Basel’s well-to-do burghers once lived.
Impressions of the museum
Zunfthaus/Restaurant zum Schlüssel today
The large wine barrel in the former Basler Ratskeller (Gnadenkeller), 1723
Sign of the former inn ‘Zum wilden Mann’ (16th century to 1877 on Freie Strasse). The ‘wilde Mann’ still plays an important role in local folklore today (e.g. at Vogel Gryff in January and on Epiphany on 6 January)
The famous inhabitant of the museum, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817), alias sheik Ibrahim
Museum: Museum of Domestic Culture Haus zum KirschgartenCity: Basel
Country: Switzerland
Address: Elisabethenstrasse 27/29
Website: http://www.hmb.ch