Barfüsserplatz, Basel's busiest tram intersection, takes its name from the Franciscan friars who once walked barefoot through this very spot. The Franciscans built a church and monastery here in the 1200s, and the square has borne witness to the city's shifts ever since.

When Basel converted to Protestantism in 1529, the friars were expelled, and their church became, of all things, a salt warehouse. It narrowly escaped demolition in the late 1800s, and the 14th-century building now houses the Basel Historical Museum. The square sits at the heart of the old town, linked by pedestrian lanes to the Carnival Alley and the Theater Square.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tour uses Barfüsserplatz as its finale, tracing the Franciscans' legacy and connecting the church's unlikely survival to the broader story of Basel's Reformation, its carnival traditions, and its transformation from medieval trading hub to cultural capital.