Basel casino

Stadtcasino Basel is a concert hall in Basel, Switzerland.

It belongs to the Stadtcasino-Gesellschaft, a non-profit cultural association in Basel.^[1] The largest concert hall, the Musiksaal from with seats, is internationally renowned for its excellent acoustics and is the home base of the Sinfonieorchester Basel.^[2]

History[edit]

The founding members first met, in hired premises on Reinacherhof, in ; eventually the society required its own building, and from the architect Melchior Berri worked on plans. The Stadtcasino-Gesellschaft was officially established in , and the original building at Steinenberg was completed in ^[1]

Notable events held in the original building include the First Zionist Congress in ^[3] Up until the establishment of the State of Israel in , the Congress was held a total of ten times in the Steinenberg premises, more than in any other city or venue in the world.^[4][5]

In the late s, because of financial difficulty, the original building was sold, and a new building was erected.^[1]

From there was a project to build a new Stadtcasino. Although an international competition was held for architects, and a winning project by Zaha Hadid was announced, the voters of the canton of Basel-Stadt refused permission in to proceed with the new building. It was proposed to make structural alterations and extensions to the existing building. The modifications, based on a study by architects Herzog & de Meuron, were carried out from , and in the Stadtcasino Basel was officially reopened.^[1]

References[edit]