{"id":5180,"date":"2026-02-13T20:35:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/5180\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T20:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:35:41","slug":"what-to-see-and-do-in-basel-2025-eurovision-song-contest-host-in-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/5180\/","title":{"rendered":"What to see and do in Basel, 2025 Eurovision Song Contest host in Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">With its exposed concrete, sharp lines and overhanging roof, the St Jakobshalle, an icon of 1970s Brutalism in Switzerland on the outskirts of Basel, will provide a stark contrast to the bright colours and flaming-piano pyrotechnics of the Eurovision Song Contest when it plays host to the event from May 10 to 17.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Its cold concrete and unwelcoming facade is representative of why so many travellers heading south to Italy or onwards to the Swiss Alps speed through without giving the city a second glance.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Basel\u2019s industrial legacy still looms large. With a long history as a centre for textiles and chemicals industries, the city is often associated with an industrial skyline, grey highways and smoking chimneys.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But Basel\u2019s image is being redefined. The Rhine, a river once tainted by industry, is now clean enough to swim in.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A barge nears Basel cathedral (right) with the towers housing the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Roche to the left. The Rhine is clean enough to swim in these days. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f60d7db1-78a0-4c94-a77b-c2f84209551d_e2077168.jpg\" title=\"A barge nears Basel cathedral (right) with the towers housing the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Roche to the left. The Rhine is clean enough to swim in these days. Photo: AFP\"\/>A barge nears Basel cathedral (right) with the towers housing the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Roche to the left. The Rhine is clean enough to swim in these days. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Yves Parrat, chemist with the local health department, says the water quality is regularly checked at three different points during the bathing season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With its exposed concrete, sharp lines and overhanging roof, the St Jakobshalle, an icon of 1970s Brutalism in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[77,4460,4457,4446,4450,4447,4458,4459,4453,206,4454,4452,4448,134,4449,4455,4451,4456],"class_list":{"0":"post-5180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-roche","8":"tag-basel","9":"tag-basel-historical-museum","10":"tag-dreispitz","11":"tag-eurovision-2025","12":"tag-eurovision-song-contest","13":"tag-eurovision-song-contest-2025","14":"tag-herzog-de-meuron","15":"tag-kunstmuseum","16":"tag-lake-constance","17":"tag-novartis","18":"tag-pritzker-prize","19":"tag-rhine","20":"tag-river-rhine","21":"tag-roche","22":"tag-roche-tower-2","23":"tag-st-jakobshalle","24":"tag-tinguely-museum","25":"tag-yves-parrat"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}