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There is nothing left of this gem today
With the connection to international tourism, many hotels sprouted up in Basel. Some are long gone. For example, the bear had to give way to a faceless office building.
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The bijou gave way a faceless office building. And where the bear’s beer hall used to be, there is now a burger restaurant.
20 minutes/Am élie Schärer
The Grandhotel “Victoria & & National” on Centralbahnplatz, as presented on a postcard from around 1930.
Private collection/Basel Stadtbuch
That’s what it’s about
The once pretty Gasthaus zum Bären has been replaced by an inconspicuous office building.
Many hotels in Basel have changed or even are completely gone.
The city book takes a look back at the early days of leisure tourism in Basel.
Where today In Basel’s Aeschenvorstadt there is a faceless office building, the smart city hotel “Zum Bären” was there until 1976. The Basel city book commemorates the former hotel and Christian hospice in a tweet, of which only a photo remains. The inn with 100 beds offered “restaurant locations” and beer halls, guests could also enjoy billiards or bowling alley.
It is not the only hotel, that has changed. Also on the Centralbahnplatz, some of the former elegant hostels have given way to offices. The Burger King is now at home within the walls of the “Continental”. Others, like the “Victoria”, are still in existence today.
Tourism boom thanks to rail connection
These hotels are remnants of a time when Basel was thanks to the rail connection and steam navigation was connected to international long-distance traffic from the middle of the 19th century. Travelers from the north who wanted to travel into the Swiss mountains had no choice but to stop in Basel. Passes away made Basel the “Golden Gate to Switzerland” and marked the beginning of leisure tourism at the bend in the Rhine.
Everything that Basel has to offer was advertised. “Picturesque on the Rhine” lies near the city and attracts with “mild, fog-free climate” and “exciting excursions”. The Zoological Garden, the Holbein Gallery and the Boecklin Gallery should also attract guests. As a museum city, the tourist destination of Basel has endured to this day.
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