Arlesheim

The village is characterised by a large number of historic buildings. The Ermitage, which was laid out as an English landscape garden at the end of the 18th century, and the baroque cathedral with its Silbermann organ are known far beyond the borders of the country.

Arlesheim is home to the oldest settlement sites in the canton, dating back to the Palaeolithic, Stone Age and Neolithic periods: the Hermitage Cave, the Hohle Felsen and the Hollenberg Caves. In 1239, Abbess Willebirgis von Hohenburg sold the Arlesheim estate to the Bishop of Basel. Arlesheim became very important when the cathedral chapter, which had fled from Basel to Freiburg im Breisgau, settled in Arlesheim in 1679. The canons' houses and the cathedral were built. With the French Revolution, the Arlesheim Dome Chapter was lost again and the episcopal part of the Birs Valley came under French rule. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Arlesheim became part of the Canton of Basel. In 1832, the citizens of Arlesheim campaigned for the separation of the canton and since then the village has been the district capital. The municipal coat of arms of Arlesheim is closely related to the coat of arms of the former Bailiwick of Birseck. This goes back to the aristocratic coat of arms of the Lords of Uesenberg. They bore the wing in a similar form in their coat of arms.