About this place
Rising more than forty metres above the street, the Spalentor was built in 1398 as part of the third and final ring of walls that once enclosed Basel. A square central tower flanked by two rounder turrets, it was the last barrier travellers crossed before entering the city, the point where merchants arriving from Alsace paid their tolls before the great wooden doors and iron portcullis let them pass. Today it stands as the grandest of only three medieval gates still surviving in Basel, its outer face watched over by a stone Madonna and two prophets carved around the year 1400.
Key facts
- 40.3 meters — The height of the imposing square main tower that dominates the gate
- 1398 year — The gate was built as part of Basel's third and outermost ring of city walls
- 3 gates — Only three of Basel's medieval city gates survive, and the Spalentor is the grandest
📍 Spalenvorstadt 46, 4051, Basel