The 14th-century Barfüsserkirche (Church of the Barefoot Friars) was renovated in the 1970s to house the Historical Museum with important collections on local history and culture.

 It spotlights particularly the city's unique position at the crossroads between Swiss, German, and French cultures. In the nave of the church are the Late Gothic tapestries and the curious Lällenkönig (Babbling King), a crowned head with a movable tongue and eyes that was the emblem of Gross-Basel in the 17th century. 

In the aisles are weapons and furnished period rooms, in the choir religious art, and in the crypt is the minster treasury, recovered after being saved from destruction during the Reformation.