The treasury’s eventful history begins with the consecration of the cathedral by Bishop Adalbero II on 11 October 1019 and withthe gifts donated by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (973–1024).

Why did Basel Cathedral receive so many gifts?

The city of Basel, which in those days belonged to the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy, had already been promised to the Holy Roman Emperor. The financial support that Henry provided for the building of the cathedral and the gifts he then lavished on it were therefore a means of demonstrating the power and the glory of the Holy Roman Empire and of asserting his claim to hegemony over the city on the Rhine.

How did the treasury grow?

A few years before the Reformation, the treasury consisted of more than one hundred different items, including reliquaries, crosses and monstrances made of silver and gold and then enamelled or encrusted with gems. Thanks largely to donations from both private individuals and members of the clergy, the collection continued to grow, in the course of five centuries becoming a unique ensemble of Romanesque and Gothic goldsmithing. Most of the gifts were donated in hopes of improving the giver’s prospects of a place in heaven. The shrine comprised relics from more than a hundred well-known saints.

What happened after the Reformation?

Basel Cathedral Treasury was spared the devastation of the iconoclasm of 1529, but no longer had a functionin post-Reformation liturgy. The various items were therefore locked up in the cathedral sacristy for some 300 years and inspected only from time to time
to ensure that nothing was missing. The collection was not disperseduntil the canton of Basel was split into two half-cantons, after which some of the treasures were auctioned off, though not before the relics themselves hadbeen removed and taken to Mariastein

Abbey in Canton Solothurn.

Chronology

1019
Basel Cathedral is consecrated. Emperor Henry II presumably donates the Golden Altar Frontal, the Cross of Henry, various relics and other precious items.
1146
Henry II is canonized, as is his consort Cunigunde in 1200.
1254
Relics of St. Ursula and the 10,000 virgins reach Basel.
1270
Donation of a fragment of the skull of St. Pantalus from Cologne.
1347
Henry II becomes, after the Virgin Mary, the second patron saint of Basel Cathedral which thereupon purchases his relics and those of his consort from Bamberg.
1356
The great earthquake destroys the choir and high altar. The treasures are unscathed.
1431
The Council of Basel is convened and remains in session until 1448, electing the antipope Felix V in 1440.
1477
The oldest surviving inventory of the cathedral treasury is drawn up.
1501
Basel joins the Old Swiss Confederacy on Henry's day.
1529
Basel embraces the Reformation. Much of the cathedral's interior is destroyed in the iconoclasm, although the treasury is spared. The cathedral chapter flees to Freiburg im Breisgau.
1585
The Treaty of Baden settles the property dispute arising out of the Reformation. The city has to pay the bishop 200,000 guilders in compensation for his loss of title. Resistance by the cathedral chapter thwarts a settlement for the loss of the treasury.
1827
The treasury is removed from the sacristy and taken to Basel town hall. The relics are removed from the reliquaries.
1833
The canton of Basel is split into two half-cantons. The cantonal assets (including the cathedral treasury) are shared between them.
1834
The relics are transferred to Mariastein Abbey in Canton Solothurn.
1836
The treasures belonging to Canton Basel-Landschaft are auctioned off in Liestal.
1849
The treasures belonging to Canton Basel-Stadt are exhibited in the new museum on Augustinergasse. From there, they are transferred to the medieval collection in 1882 and to the Historical Museum Basel in the Barfüsserkirche in 1894.
1955
Thanks to a spectacular purchase, the reliquary bust of St. Ursula returns to Basel.