Basel: Territorialization and Rural Autonomy

Abstract

The city of Basel sits on the bend of the Rhine where the river turns from the foothills of the Alps to flow north through Alsace and beyond. The oldest buildings in the city are remarkable to the visitor for their glittering and colorful glazed tile roofs. In 1356, Basel was leveled by an earthquake and what had not been destroyed by the temblor was consumed by the week-long fire which followed. With the assistance of neighboring cities the people of Basel rebuilt their city, the builders of the time favoring native sandstone and those remarkable glazed roofs. Amazingly, the city not only recovered from the earthquake, but by 1615 its walls enclosed a space three times that of 1356. The intervening centuries had been years of astounding growth for the city, territorially, economically, and culturally.¹ Around 10,000 residents lived within the city walls between 1429 and the beginning of the sixteenth century.² At times, the population of the city may have swelled to half again that many, as it surely did in the early 1430s, during the first seven years of the Council of Basel.