Bäumlihof Manor Estate

Riehen, the municipality just northeast of Basel on the German border, is known for its country houses, and Riehen’s Bäumlihof Manor Estate is one of them. For centuries the wealthy merchant and industrial families of Basel, many of them in the silk and ribbon trades, built summer residences in the villages around the city, called Landgüter, with a manor house, outbuildings, farmland and a park. A number of these estates survive in Riehen, and the Bäumlihof is one of them, part of a green belt that separates the built-up areas of Basel from the countryside and the border.

The estate belongs to the same tradition as the better-known Wenkenhof, which lies close by and is covered in a separate entry. These houses were designed to be enjoyed as places of leisure in summer, away from the narrow lanes and heat of the city, and their grounds show the tastes of the people who made them: lawns and old trees for shade, avenues leading toward the house, orchards and kitchen gardens and, in some cases, formal garden elements with clipped hedges. The manor houses themselves are generally simple, plastered buildings with high roofs and symmetrical facades, restrained in comparison with the palaces of the aristocracy but comfortable and elegant.

Practical details about the Bäumlihof are limited. The house and some of the grounds are in use for other purposes and are not a staffed visitor attraction with set hours, so you should not expect guided tours or a museum. What a visit offers is the surrounding open land: footpaths and cycle routes that run through fields, along hedges and past old trees, with views of the contrast between the city skyline in one direction and the hills of the Black Forest in another. In spring, the blossom and the fresh green of the meadows make the walk especially attractive. Respect the privacy of buildings and fences and keep to marked paths.

The estate fits well into a day around Riehen. The Fondation Beyeler, the Wenkenhof park, the Wiese river paths, the Naturbad Riehen and the MUKS museum of culture and play are all within a few minutes, and the Rehberger-Weg art walk links several of these places. The tram from Basel brings you to the district directly, which makes it possible to combine the walk with a museum visit without needing a car.

It suits walkers, cyclists and visitors with an interest in the regional heritage of the Basel area. Treat it as a quiet addition to a day in Riehen and not as a destination of its own, and bring a map or phone, as signposting between estates can be patchy.