SWISSBLISS
SWISS LUXURY TRAVEL BLOG
Der Teufelhof Basel
The Devil's close: An artist's sanctuary
The Teufelhof Basel may not fall into the category of luxury accommodation, but it is worth a detour for its very unique art-inspired rooms and chic dining venues. This is one of the first art hotels opened over 25 years ago. Its central concept is not only to display works of art in the room, but also to live in art. It also doubles up as a cultural centre housing its very own theatre that welcomes cabaret and satirical shows. The hotel is very conveniently located right on the edge of Basel’s old town making it easy to access all the main sites on foot.
The hotel is divided into two separate buildings: the Art Hotel and the Gallery Hotel. The Art Hotel has nine rooms each one realized as a piece of art by nine individual artists. The artists are given 36 hours to express themselves as freely as the like; each room is given a complete makeover every three years. The décor ranges from glow-in-the-dark wall art to explosions of paper flowers. The rooms all carry equally inspiring names such as “The magic of nature” and “Just tonight”.
The Gallery Hotel offers 20 rooms, three suites and one junior suite all decorated in a very clean, crisp, white decor with parquet flooring and minimal furniture. The rooms are a decent size and all have en-suite bathrooms. This part of the hotel serves as an exhibition space for art with works of art on display in the gallery areas.
The hotel also has two restaurants. The first, Bel Étage is a one-Michelin starred gourmet restaurant with a very Parisian, intimate atmosphere. It is located on the first floor of the Art Hotel and feels more like a private dining room than a restaurant. It has the most beautiful parquet floors and is elegantly decorated.
The second restaurant, L’Atelier has 14 Gault & Millau points. It has a very lively and informal atmosphere. It offers global cuisine using Swiss and regional products and wines. And if you get bored waiting for your food, it even has a colouring wall available where you can doodle away to your heart's content.
The hotel also has an exceptional wine store offering 450 different wines and just beyond it a well kept Basel secret: function rooms in the cellar located between the original medieval city walls dating back to the 11th and 13th centuries. It comes complete with glass vitrines showcasing archaeological finds.
The Bar and Café Zum Teufel in the hotel is a very popular, lively and cosy place to meet. It has an authentic Parisian feel with its glass chandeliers and marble-topped tables. It also offers a very generous wine list and serves homemade cakes and desserts throughout the day. Amazingly, the hotel also has a 100-seat theatre that runs a repertoire of cabaret and satirical shows in German. Der Teufelhof is much, much more than a hotel: it is a unique cultural meeting point where you can eat, be entertained and sleep in total comfort.
steps steps
up to your room
under the roof
of the old hotel
you came from somewhere
and will go home
again
what will happen here
while your are not there
is in the air.
sleeping in a question
up high under Basel sky
in between
you here and you there.
The artist who painted the room I slept in wrote the following poem about the room:
I was lucky enough to sleep in a duplex-suite decorated by the American artist John Egan called “Sleeping in a question”. On entering the suite you are welcomed into a small living room area, with a cream sofa and bright accent colours, including lovely, colourful glasswork on the windows. The crisp, white-tiled bathroom is just off this area, offering a very large, round bathtub. A narrow, wooden staircase leads you up to the top floor of the suite, under the hotel’s eaves, with a fantastic view over the rooftops of Basel’s old town. Here the spaces decorated in white and pale blue, flow freely with a lovely galley-like office space leading to the bedroom area, which offers a large double-bed, cosily tucked under the eaves, offering a sense of intimacy. I really enjoyed staying in this very unique hotel room; it was very homely.
For more information check out the hotel's website here.