The Whale House

The famous scientist Erasmus von Rotterdam lived in the House of the Whale between 1529 and 1531, after fleeing the Reformation in Basel, Switzerland, but he did not find comfort in this house. It's hard to imagine how the world could not feel comfortable in this house, with its exquisitely decorated entrance window and building full of stunning late Gothic elements, and these days it operates as a branch of one of the city's banks.