Depending where you’re from this might be a perception issue. Cities in Europe are generally smallish on modern city world scale. 200.000-500.000 inhabitants, with just a few larger city exceptions per country. There’s just a LOT of those medium-large cities and they are often all rather near to each other. How a “city” is defined can differ a lot, many urban areas consisting of many entangled and interdependent cities are technically still all their own (historic) “city”. Look at the Ruhr area for example, the Randstad, Flemish Diamond, …
No, no, you don’t have to explain that to me, I’m from Poland. It’s just that Basel is like, small and lacking skyscrapers even for me (aka “cozy”), so I always thought during my time there that it’s like, IDK, Perth - not really known world wide nor really associated as the profile picture of the country - and thus my confusion. Does that make sense?
Skyscrapers =/= big city. Basel is a very well known city in western Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands…). Known for it’s beautiful old town, trams, many museums. It’s the cultural capital of Switzerland. Also with people who never went there. As for “not big”, it’s just not the case, it spreads out into Lörrach, Rheinfelden, Saint-Louis, lots and lots of people from FR and DE work in Basel, go visit it regularly etc. The commuter attraction reaches easily into Freiburg and Mulhouse, with thousands going there daily to earn a way higher Swiss paycheck. The wider urban area goes towards 900.000 people! Compared to polish cities too it’s not that small. It’s only the old town and the river area that gives that vibe (stayed out of the wars, nothing was destroyed…). Really the lack of skyscrapers is a very unreliable way to judge how “big” a city is! Basel by the way houses the tallest buildings of Switzerland! Roche towers. High rise is just very uncommon in Switzerland, but they get high density living with regular apartment buildings. I really don’t understand where your “Basel is a small provincial town” impression is rooted.
Compared to polish cities too it’s not that small.
That was my point, what I saw looked like a small, provincial polish city with an old town, tourists, relaxing people, etc.
I really don’t understand where your “Basel is a small provincial town” impression is rooted.
I literally explained that in my last comment. I thought it was small, provincial city, full of medium sized buildings, full of tourists, that was so close to neighboring cities they shared trams. I spent a month there. I swam down the river, was forced to see removed street, had a public grill next to the river, went to see some overpriced art festival, stuff like that.
I remember that after we took a tram to German suburbs (or neighbouring city) there was a lot of police checking out Arabs and their documents.
Thank you though for the population size information. Does it take into consideration metropolitan area across three countries or only the Swiss part? I’m not arguing here, just curious.
Internationally yes but in Switzerland it’s considered a large city, because it’s the 3rd largest, after Zürich and Genève, but before Lausanne and Bern (the capital)
Because Basel is a city in Switzerland?
Yes, but it’s like a small city?
It’s the third largest in Switzerland. Very multicultural, in the sense that it’s on the borders with France and Germany.
Oh, I didn’t know that. I loved that place but I thought it’s like… you know, deep province small city.
Depending where you’re from this might be a perception issue. Cities in Europe are generally smallish on modern city world scale. 200.000-500.000 inhabitants, with just a few larger city exceptions per country. There’s just a LOT of those medium-large cities and they are often all rather near to each other. How a “city” is defined can differ a lot, many urban areas consisting of many entangled and interdependent cities are technically still all their own (historic) “city”. Look at the Ruhr area for example, the Randstad, Flemish Diamond, …
No, no, you don’t have to explain that to me, I’m from Poland. It’s just that Basel is like, small and lacking skyscrapers even for me (aka “cozy”), so I always thought during my time there that it’s like, IDK, Perth - not really known world wide nor really associated as the profile picture of the country - and thus my confusion. Does that make sense?
Skyscrapers =/= big city. Basel is a very well known city in western Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands…). Known for it’s beautiful old town, trams, many museums. It’s the cultural capital of Switzerland. Also with people who never went there. As for “not big”, it’s just not the case, it spreads out into Lörrach, Rheinfelden, Saint-Louis, lots and lots of people from FR and DE work in Basel, go visit it regularly etc. The commuter attraction reaches easily into Freiburg and Mulhouse, with thousands going there daily to earn a way higher Swiss paycheck. The wider urban area goes towards 900.000 people! Compared to polish cities too it’s not that small. It’s only the old town and the river area that gives that vibe (stayed out of the wars, nothing was destroyed…). Really the lack of skyscrapers is a very unreliable way to judge how “big” a city is! Basel by the way houses the tallest buildings of Switzerland! Roche towers. High rise is just very uncommon in Switzerland, but they get high density living with regular apartment buildings. I really don’t understand where your “Basel is a small provincial town” impression is rooted.
That was my point, what I saw looked like a small, provincial polish city with an old town, tourists, relaxing people, etc.
I literally explained that in my last comment. I thought it was small, provincial city, full of medium sized buildings, full of tourists, that was so close to neighboring cities they shared trams. I spent a month there. I swam down the river, was forced to see removed street, had a public grill next to the river, went to see some overpriced art festival, stuff like that.
I remember that after we took a tram to German suburbs (or neighbouring city) there was a lot of police checking out Arabs and their documents.
Thank you though for the population size information. Does it take into consideration metropolitan area across three countries or only the Swiss part? I’m not arguing here, just curious.
Maybe symbolic being so small yet sharing borders with two EU countries?
Internationally yes but in Switzerland it’s considered a large city, because it’s the 3rd largest, after Zürich and Genève, but before Lausanne and Bern (the capital)