The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life. 

Basel is a city where history lingers not just in its ancient streets and Gothic spires but in the very earth beneath its feet. Nowhere is this more palpable than in the Cathedral and its adjoining Double Cloister of Basel Minster.  solemn, shadow-cloaked place where the line between the living and the dead has always felt unsettlingly thin. 

Read also: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

Built in the 15th century, the cloisters once rang with sacred hymns and church rites, housing as many as six altars for medieval services. There are actually two different cloisters, connected by the open gardens surrounding them.

After the Reformation, one of the cloisters turned into a marketplace, but also a cemetery for the city’s upper middle class. Long after the Reformation’s sweeping changes silenced the rituals of the monks, the ritual of burial within the cloister’s cold embrace.

Basel Minster

A Cemetery Hiding in Plain Sight

For centuries, this peaceful cloister functioned as a cemetery for the city’s wealthy and influential, seen as their graves marked with ornately carved stones, some still intact within the shaded arcades. This was known as Münster Cemetery. Even as the world outside modernized, these hallowed grounds remained a final resting place, with burials continuing into the 19th century. The place is heavy with history, and as any Basler will tell you, such places seldom stay quiet after dark.

When the evening mists curl in from the Rhine and the last of the daylight dies behind the Minster’s towers, strange things are said to stir amid the cloister’s arches.

Cloister of Basel Minster

The Moaning of Emanuel Büchel

Among the restless souls tied to these ancient stones is Emanuel Büchel (1705–1775), a respected draftsman and master baker whose demise is steeped in grim folklore. He also painted, mainly nature and landscapes.

Emanuel Büchel completed his apprenticeship with a master baker in Basel in 1723. He then set out on a journeyman’s journey, and upon his return in 1726, he applied for membership in the city’s bakers’ guild. In 1728, he applied for the position of gatekeeper to the Steinentor. He married Susanna Felber in 1726.

Self Portrait

In 1773 he was assigned the task of copying the dance of death in Basel, a huge honor for an artist. At that time he was 68 and he died 2 years later at 70, 24 September in 1775. The question his legend asks though, did he truly die on that day though?

Legend insists that poor Büchel was buried alive, mistaken for dead in an era when death’s finality could sometimes be tragically premature. On long, hushed nights, visitors claim to hear his ghost moaning, wheezing, and rustling beneath the cloister’s stones, a soul forever reliving the terror of suffocation in his tomb.

The Malevolent Shade of Master Tailor Schnyyder Hagenbach

But if Büchel is a sorrowful spirit, Master Tailor Schnyyder Hagenbach is an entirely different creature of the night. Even in life, the tailor was, by all accounts, an unpleasant man. It was said he was cruel to his family, dishonest in business, and feared by neighbors. It comes as little surprise, then, that his spirit would choose to linger in malevolence.

The Cloister Cemetery: The cloister of Basel Minster consists of a small and a large cloister. Numerous epitaphs (grave and memorial monuments) are attached to their walls.

For generations, tales have spoken of an invisible, vindictive specter haunting the cathedral cloister. Passersby walking the dim, ancient pathways have felt sudden, icy slaps on their faces or hands, delivered by unseen forces. Locals blame Hagenbach’s ghost, a being said to emerge not at the witching hour, but as early as dusk, prowling the arcades in search of fresh victims to torment.

His ghost, it’s said, lashes out without warning — a sudden blow accompanied by mocking laughter, leaving the victim shaken, their skin cold where the invisible hand landed.

A Living Monument to Basel’s Darker Past

The Double Cloister stands as both a treasured historical site and a place of uneasy quiet. Its arched walkways and sun-dappled courtyards are beautiful by day, but at night, the air thickens with something ancient, something watching.

A cemetery masquerading as a courtyard, a sanctum where moaning spirits and unseen hands remind the living of the unforgiving past.

Newest Posts

• 

  The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House30. March 2026

  Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests. 

• 

  The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death26. March 2026

  Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster. 

• 

  The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)24. March 2026

  Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?

• 

  The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister23. March 2026

  The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life. 

• 

  The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal20. March 2026

  A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area. 

• 

  Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine19. March 2026

  In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?

• 

  Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master18. March 2026

  After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. 

• 

  The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern17. March 2026

  Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends. 

• 

  A Vampire in Ohio: The Strange and Grim Superstition of the Salladay Family 16. March 2026

  Seeking new land and a new life, the Salladay family went to Ohio, but brought a silent killer with them: Consumption. Falling into odd superstitions, they believed the only way to stop the disease was to stop the undead from rising from their graves. 

• 

  Cell Number 11: Whispers in the Attic of the Norwegian Justice Museum in Trondheim12. March 2026

  Is Cell Number 11 in the former prison for the criminally insane haunted? The attic of the Norwegian Justice Museum in Trondheim, Norway has had many who come out, claiming so. 

• 

  The Haunted Legends of Carl Beck House in Ontario, Canada11. March 2026

  Now a place you can rent and stay at, the Beck House in Canada is said to be one of the more haunted places. Those who have stayed the night come back with stories of strange encounters, believed to be the ghost of the Beck family members. 

• 

  The Burgträppe-Balzli Haunting: The Ghost of Nydegg Castle10. March 2026

  Where the Nydegg Church is today, there once used to be a castle. Tales about ghosts lingering around the old Nydegg Castle and the stairs leading up to it still roams. And one of the more infamous and feared ghosts of Bern is the Burgträppe-Balzli.

References:

Emanuel Büchel – Personenlexikon BL

Spuk und Geister im alten Basel

Happy Halloween! 🎃 Ein Streifzug durch Basels grusligste Orte — Bajour

Basler Phänomene: Spuk, Phantome, Poltergeister | barfi.ch