Referring to the famed Dance Macabre mural that hung on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried on a patch of grass in front of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of the coming disaster.
In the heart of the aged city of Basel, among the narrow cobblestone streets and the towers of Gothic churches, a memory lingers too grim to completely erase the plague and the death of thousands of people, luxurious, impoverished, newborn and aged, death did not distinguish. It clings to the city like fog to the Rhine, a shadow of death and an antique disease that once brought the living to their knees.
The story begins in one of Basel's darkest chapters: the Black Death, and claims that its victims will rise from their graves if the city ever needs a warning from the afterlife.
A city marked by death
The 14th century was an era of unimaginable horror for both Basel and the rest of Europe. In 1314, a virulent wave of plague swept through the city, killing thousands of people in a matter of weeks. Death was quick and cruel – marked by terrible black fumes in the armpits and groin area, followed by high fever and rapid decline.
Thirty-five years later, the plague returned with even greater ferocity. The city's cemeteries were overcrowded, and in desperation the dead were hastily buried in mass graves, especially in the burial grounds surrounding the Predigerkirche (Preachers' Church).
It was amidst this destruction that the Basel Dance of Death (Basler Totentanz) was born. Beautiful art depicting a terrible death.
Dance of Death mural
In the 15th century, as the plague continued to plague Europe, a long, striking mural was painted along the inner wall of the cemetery near the Predigerkirche. The Dance of Death was not a gentle allegory. Here death came to everyone, beggar and merchant, soldier and king. They were all depicted as skeletal figures leading the living in a grim final waltz. It was a stark, public reminder that death makes no difference between rank and wealth.
Miraculously, the mural survived the iconoclasm of the Reformation, was restored in the 17th century and finally demolished in 1805, although parts of it survive in reproduction. However, the mural's power was never solely in the paint and plaster, and it has become a living legend that, according to Basel residents, can still be seen in a different form when darkness falls.
Procession of the Restless Dead
According to local tradition, countless plague victims were hastily buried in the ground in front of the Predigerkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit). Today it is a miniature patch of grass right in front of the church, where thousands of people are said to have been buried after the plague. According to legend, they do not sleep soundly.
When Basel stands on the brink of danger, whether war, famine, disease, or other calamity, the plague dead are said to rise from their mass graves. Silently, in the middle of the night, they form a ghostly procession, a macabre parade of ghostly figures covered in rotting shrouds and empty eyes, marching through the streets of the aged city.
This ghostly procession begins at the site of the aged “Dance of Death” mural, winds through the alleys, and returns to the cemetery before dawn. Some accounts say that you can hear the lackluster rattling of bones, the pitter-patter of tired feet, and the mournful tolling of an hidden bell.
True to the message of the antique mural, the procession is democratic in its terror, with peasants, nobility, clergy and merchants marching hand in hand, bound by the march of death and decay.
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Ghost Procession in Basel and the Dance of Death
Referring to the famed Dance Macabre mural that hung on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried on a patch of grass in front of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of the coming disaster.
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Basel phenomena: hauntings, phantoms, poltergeists | barfi.ch
Happy Halloween! 🎃 Expedition to the scariest places in Basel – Bajour
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