The two adjoining cloisters of Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by several specters buried within the building. It is said that in the darkness of the Double Cloister in Basel, you can hear the moans of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unexpected blow of a man as cruel in death as he was in life.
Basel is a city where history is hidden not only in its age-old streets and Gothic towers, but also in the very ground beneath its feet. Nowhere is this more palpable than in the cathedral and the adjoining double cloister of Basel Cathedral. a earnest, shadow-shrouded place where the line between the living and the dead always seemed disturbingly gaunt.
Built in the 15th century, the cloisters once resounded with sacred hymns and church rites, housing as many as six altars for medieval services. There are actually two different cloisters, connected by the open gardens surrounding them.
After the Reformation, one of the cloisters turned into a market square, but also a cemetery for the city's upper middle class. Long after the radical changes of the Reformation silenced the rituals of the monks, the ritual of burial in the icy embrace of a monastery.
A cemetery hidden in plain sight
For centuries, this peaceful monastery served as a cemetery for the city's wealthy and influential inhabitants, as seen by their graves marked with ornately carved stones, some of which are still found in the shaded arcades. It was called the Münster cemetery. Even as the world outside modernized, these sacred places remained resting places, and burials continued until the 19th century. This place is full of history and, as any Basler will tell you, such places are rarely silent after obscure.
As the evening mists roll in from the Rhine and the last rays of sunlight fade behind the church towers, strange things begin to appear among the arches of the cloister.
The moans of Emanuel Büchel
Among the troubled souls associated with these age-old stones is Emanuel Büchel (1705–1775), a respected draftsman and master baker whose death is steeped in grim folklore. He also painted, mainly nature and landscapes.
Emanuel Büchel completed his studies with a master baker in Basel in 1723. Then he set out on an apprentice journey, and after returning in 1726, he applied for membership in the city's bakers' guild. In 1728 he applied for the position of porter to Steinentor. In 1726 he married Zuzanna Felber.
In 1773, he was entrusted with copying the Dance of Death in Basel, which was a great honor for the artist. He was 68 years aged then, and died 2 years later at the age of 70, on September 24, 1775. But the question his legend raises is whether he actually died that day?
Legend has it that destitute Büchel was buried alive, presumed dead at a time when the finality of death could sometimes be tragically premature. On long, mute nights, visitors claim to hear his spirit moaning, gasping and rustling under the monastery's stones, his soul forever reliving the horror of suffocation in his grave.
The evil shadow of master tailor Schnyyder Hagenbach
But if Büchel is a sorrowful spirit, master tailor Schnyyder Hagenbach is a completely different creature of the night. Even in life, the tailor was, by all accounts, an unpleasant man. He was said to be cruel to his family, dishonest in business, and feared by his neighbors. No wonder his spirit preferred to remain livid.
For generations, stories have told of an unseen, vengeful specter haunting the cathedral's cloisters. Passersby walking along the obscure, age-old paths felt sudden, icy blows to their faces or hands from unseen forces. Locals blame the ghost of Hagenbach, a creature that supposedly appears not at witching hour, but at dusk and prowls the arcades looking for recent victims to torment.
Its spirit is said to attack without warning – a sudden blow accompanied by mocking laughter, leaving the victim shocked, their skin icy where the concealed hand landed.
A living monument to Basel's darker past
The Double Monastery is both a valuable historical site and a place of uneasy silence. The arched walkways and sun-drenched courtyards are lovely during the day, but at night the air thickens with something age-old, something watching.
A cemetery disguised as a courtyard, a sanctuary where groaning ghosts and concealed hands remind the living of a ruthless past.
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The restless dead buried in the double monastery in Basel
The two adjoining cloisters of Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by several specters buried within the building. It is said that in the darkness of the Double Cloister in Basel, you can hear the moans of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unexpected blow of a man as cruel in death as he was in life.
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Emanuel Büchel – BL's personal encyclopedia
Hauntings and ghosts in aged Basel
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