St. Jakobs Memorial

Initially the monument to the Battle of St. Jacob an der Birs (1444), which was designed by Marquard Wocher and inaugurated in 1824 on a small hill at the fork in the road to St. Jakob and Münchenstein. The ancient memorial was a neo-gothic[1] 12 meter high tower sculptured out of red sandstone. But the tower was in need of extensive maintaining and the city wanted to replace it with aanother memorial.[2] In the 15th century the St. Catherine's Chapel was built at the place, which was demolished in 1805.[2]

In 1859 a commission to elect a new memorial was formed, which included the Swiss historian Jakob Burckhardt[2] and the architect Amadeus Merian.[3] Several local and international artists were allowed to participate in the competition which was

Former memorial of the Battle of St.Jakob an der Birs

announced in February 1860 and closed on the 8 August of the same year.[1] 18 artworks were taken into consideration by the commission[1] of which the models of Arnold Böcklin, Ernst Stückelberg, Franz Heinrich Baldinger and Ferdinand Schlöth were exhibited to the public.[4] The election committee chose the model of Baldinger as the one to be realized but Government of Basel hesitated in its pledge in view of the considerable costs on 100'000 Swiss francs.[5] It demanded that the Grand Council of Basel Stadt would chose a simple monument resembling the former one, to which the Grand Council agreed on the 9 December 1861 and a new competition began.[5] The election committee favored an architectonic memorial but also asked painters to participate in the competition, after which paintings a sculpture was to be crafted.[6] In the new competition, sculptor Ferdinand Schlöth and the painter Arnold Böcklin were the main competitors.[7] Schlöth invested great time into the competition, and worked on different models of Helvetia out of plaster. He focused on Helvetia as he noticed that this motive gained wide support from the public.[7] On the 5 July 1864, the electoral commission announced that the contract to build the memorial was given to Ferdinand Schlöth.[8] In February 1866 a model of the sculpture was erected beside the Stadtcasino in Basel, so the public could inspect it.[8] Again, Schöth received a list of deficiencies of what did not meet the expectations for the sculpture and he made adaptions to the Helvetia, which was the most criticized. But in view of the ever closer coming 425. anniversary of the Battle of St. Jakob in 1869, the electoral commission informed the city council of Basel Stadt in August 1866 that the model was read to be sculpted in stone.[8] Now the question what stone was to be taken, and Schlöth insisted that it would be Carrara marble and assured that he would deliver the memorial for 80'000 Swiss francs.[8] He preferred the Carrara marble to other stones due to its better workability.[9] But at the time, the nature of the Carrara marble was not known well enough to used for monuments of such dimensions below the open sky.[9] Only after the electoral commission received benevolent informations on the weather resistance of the Carrara marble from Berlin and Stuttgart, the city council approved Schlöths demand for the Carrara marble.[8]

In 1867 Schlöth left for Rome where he had his workshop, and waited for the Carrara marble to be delivered. The smaller blocks arrived in the winter months of 1867-1868, but the main block for Helvetia did still not arrive by 1869 due to which its inauguration had to be delayed.[10] The costs of the memorial were of a considerable larger amount that expected and surpassed the 100'000 Swiss francs.[8] As Schlöth had to endure financial hardships, the chancellor for the realization of the St.Jakob Memorial gave him a private credit for the time the city had to await the result of a fundraising campaign for the realization of the sculpture.[11] But the work made good progress and by 1871, all five statues which comprised the memorial composition arrived in Basel.[11]

In Basel, a discussion about the erection place and the pedestal on which the sculpture was to be placed began. Initially it was planned that it would replace the former monument for the Battle in the fork on the street in front of the Sommercasino. But now there were several options in place.[12] After several discussions whether the sculpture was to be erected in the right or on the left side of Rhine the government of Basel decided to erect it on the place of the former memorial, which was received with pleasure of the cantonal architect who planned to combine its erection with the amplification of the road between the Sommercasino and the Aeschensquare.[12] About the material for the pedestal the discussion was still raging. The available options were red Granite, dark white-veined Limestone from Saint-Triphon in the Canton of Vaud and Limestone from the nearby Canton of Solothurn.[12] After the electoral committee chose the limestone of Solothurn, without a discussion with Schlöth, the sculptor reacted rather furiously, as he deemed the stone of much less quality than others as its nature is said to be at times a bit porous which was not to be seen at the raw product. But his opposition was to no avail and the city aimed to inaugurate the Memorial as soon as possible.

The monument was inaugurated on the 26 August 1872, in presence of the Federal councilors Paul Cérésole and Melchior Josef Martin Knüsel.[13] Ferdinand Schlöth, still remembering the discussions on the quality of the pedestal, preferred not to attend the inauguration and stayed in Rome.[13]