Spalentor (Spalen Gate) - Denkmalpflege

Matthäus Merian, Map of the city of Basel, 1617. Detail with Spalentor
(Spalen Gate) and barriers as well as two squat corner towers.
Archives of Kantonale Denkmalpflege Basel-Stadt
The sculptures
Above the gateway: a city of Basel coat­of­arms on an escutcheon
held aloft by two rampant lions dating from c. 1400;
a statue of the Virgin cast as the Queen of Heaven with
crown and sceptre and in her arms the infant Jesus. The
clouds below the crescent moon at her feet are populated
by five angelic minstrels holding a fiddle, organ (portable),
dulcimer, lute and shawm. The Virgin is flanked by two
Old Testament prophets, identified variously as Isaiah and
Micah or as Enoch and Elijah (?), c. 1420 (replicas).
Inside the gateway: keystone of the vaulting with
angelic figure, c. 1400. On the gatehouse: numerous corbel
figures, all of which are replicas dating from 1984, based
loosely on the originals now in the Historical Museum. On
the merlons: two warriors in full armour holding escutcheons,
1473/74 (replicas).
The façade facing into the city features one of Basel’s
famous “Basler Dybli” (Basle Dove) letterboxes designed by
Melchior Berri in 1844.
The gates
The portcullis is a grille made of oak beams whose pointed
ends are capped with iron. It was raised and lowered inside
two grooves with a winch.
Use was also made of a system of twelve oak beams that
could be lowered individually (like those installed in the
St. Johanns­Tor in 1582). These were suspended by ropes
and rings at the top, while their pointed ends at the bottom
were again capped with iron.
July 2003
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The large oak door, whose hinges rest inside huge, drumlike
bearings inside the passageway, used to be closed at
sundown every day until the law requiring this was
repealed in 1859. Latecomers could still slip into the city
by way of the little “manhole” known as the “eye of the
needle”.
The side door in the gatehouse originally opened onto
the ditch, which was eventually converted into plots of
land that became very popular as allotment gardens. There
were vineyards (each with its own little shed) in front of
the Spalentor right up to the mid­nineteenth century.
View of Spalentor (Spalen Gate) from Spalengraben.
Photo A. Ballié, Archives of Kantonale Denkmalpflege Basel-Stadt