About Gundeli

The Gundeli Area of Basel is situated at the south of Basel city in the Grossbasel area. Core spots in Gundeli are the Güterstrasse which is at the rear end of Basel SBB main railway station, Dreispitz with its malls and the area of the St. Margarethen Park with its historic St. Margarethen church.

Here some short historical details about Gundeli...

Basel Train Station
The Basel train station was built in the 1860s and expanded in the 1880s. It gained historical importance during World War II when thousands of Jewish refugees from Germany found safe harbour by entering Switzerland through the train station. The area at the rear end of the train station which today is the entry point to Gundeli was actually bombed during World War II. It was the only bomb to ever hit Switzerland during World War II and it was the Americans who mistakenly dropped it. Oops. Luckily the only casualty was an elderly lady who had a heart attack, but several buildings were destroyed through fires. Want to check it out? Go to Hochstrasse, walk to the end and you'll see a ruin commemorating the bombing. It's a playground which currently is being refurbished by a team of children and the city authorities.

Güterstrasse
Güterstrasse means Street of Goods, and it was basically a transportation way for the last 100 years taking goods from the former horse stables and warehouse district Dreispitz to center town. If you go to the Dreispitz entry at Leimgrubenweg Bus stop you can still see the old horse stables. Today Güterstrasse has many trendy shops and is the lifeline for people living in Gundeli and neighbouring hillside area Bruderholz. Currently there is a project going on to refurbish Güterstrasse into a Boulevard (more about the project here). I bet this will attract even more cool stores and Cafés.

St. Margarethenpark
The big park at the south end of Gundeli stretches from the Basel Ice Skating Rink to the Church of St. Margarethen. On top of the Park hill, in the suburban town of Binningen already, the Astronomical Observatorium and the Sonnenbad can be found. The church of St. Margarethen was built during the crusades by a tired nun who didn't make it home after returning from the holy land. Thus the church is over 1000 years old. She and 3 other nuns dwelled here in the area, creating a church and thereafter monasteries on St. Margareth Hill and the neighboring hills. The story can be read in front of the church on a commemorative plate.

Most of the Gundeli area used to belong to a German insurance company called Mainzer Versicherungsgesellschaft who built houses here in the 1880s. Therefore it was discussed to call the area "Mainzer Quartier", still during those nationalistic times giving a swiss district a german name was not welcomed, so instead it was called after the Castle of Gundeldingen. Earlier reportedly 7 castles were in Gundeli, but hell, I haven't seen one of them, though according to local historians four of them still stand.... I suppose one of them is the nice building at Tellplatz. But the other 3, who knows...