Boundary Stone Hike – Weil am Rhein/Basel # Stage 1

Setting boundary stones with the aim of constitutional functions began around the year 1300. Known as “cross stones”, they initially served to mark the area around Basel where travelers and market visitors could expect the bishop's safe protection. Conversely, they also marked the point up to which those banished from the city were allowed to approach this ban circle. Over the centuries, sovereign jurisdiction was increasingly dominated by property and tax-related law. For our border area, this applies to the 15th and 16th centuries. Since then, the border course around Basel and Switzerland has hardly changed. To this oldest stone setting, we also owe the origins of cartography around Basel, as the first maps were mainly official records of boundary stone settings. The oldest preserved map by Hans Bock from 1620 reported 82 boundary stones between Kleinhüningen and Grenzach, which increased to 170 by 1870 and now totals 218. This also results in numbering from 1–150, which has only been extended by subdivision with “a” and “b” for additional stone settings.

Source: The right-bank border around Basel - By Gerhard Moehring in: Das Markgräfler Land, volume 4/35 . issue 1/2 - 1973