No, you won’t see any teddy bears… not in these particular woods anyway! Last year, at around this time, we wanted to do something on a sunny day that just happened to also be a public holiday in both Germany and Switzerland. I had read about a fairytale sculpture trail in some nearby woods, so we hopped on a tram to Reinach and went exploring.
The sculpture path originally opened in 2005 with 12 sculptures. More were added in 2008, 2009 and 2011, for a total of 46 fairytale characters by 22 artists today. Obviously the later ones are in better condition than the earlier ones. Some of the sculptures represent specific fairytales that I recognised, some are Swiss tales that I didn’t know and others seem to just be general fairytale themes, for example a palace or witch that didn’t seem to be from any particular story.
The palace above is actually a marble run, which is pretty cool. We found a marble on the floor and managed to give it a go. Then, later on the trail, we found this:
We spent quite a while playing with it because… well, you just would, wouldn’t you? So fun!
Poor Puss in Boots appeared to have fallen victim to a madman with an axe, and Pinnochio had lost his famous nose completely. Does that mean he had been telling too many truths? Telling tales unnecessarily, perhaps?
We found Red Riding Hood, hiding from a rather young looking wolf.
I immediately recognised the following sculpture as a mirror and assumed it was SNow White, but its sign informed me it’s actually Momo’s mirror. Momo is a fantasy novel by Michael Ende, which I started reading ages ago and never finished so I’m not sure where the mirror comes in!
Of course, no fairytale trail would be complete without an actual fairy!
We didn’t bring any food with us, but there is a picnic area in the woods including a place where you can “grill” over an open fire. The sculpture trail is only in a small part of the woods, and there is also a nature trail throughout the whole thing – the signs are only in German but I’m sure you can still have a nice walk. The photos I’ve shown here are, obviously, just a few of the sculptures. There are plenty more to discover. I can recommend this to anyone visiting Basel who has children or – like me – just loves fairytales!
To get to the sculpture trail, take tram number 11 from Basel to the stop called “Reinach Süd”. The start of the trail is a short walk – about 10-15 minutes. Follow signs for “Schulhaus Fiechten”.
I’d love something like that! It looks lovely
It’s a great place, and great if you like your walks to have a purpose other than just walking 🙂
That’s super cool!
It really is 🙂
This looks lovely! And I would also play with the marble trail, probably for longer than I should.
It’s hard to resist! Luckily there weren’t too many kids waiting a turn 😉
This looks so sweet! I really love that Little Red Riding Hood sculpture. 🙂
Red Riding Hood was definitely one of my favourites!
We will definitely check this out – thanks!
I bet your girls will love it. Maybe take some marbles in case there aren’t any for the marble run palace – we only found one by chance and I would hate for them to be disappointed!
Yes, we have lots of marbles to bring!
That looks like so much fun!! If only it was on the Swiss side…
It’s in Basel-Landschaft x
I read through your post again yesterday evening to find my error…i think the mention of Germany threw me. Yesterday was a bad day!
Aww, I hope you’re having better days now?
The Germany thing was because I get more public holidays than Jan so when off he isn’t always.
Back to the usual denial 😉 ah yes, that’s the same with us and French hols.
Itlooks sooooooooooooooooooooooo fun!!! The Marble run is fab!!! We had a Science week competition to design a Marble run at school and our hall was full of them! Wish I’d tried some out now I come to think of it!
P.S> I really do think Basel is a cool place! I loved the museums we went to when there! Must go back some time!
How lovely. Apart from being fun to look at, it’s good that there are some interactive sculptures.