This menacing figure is one of four basilisks that were cast by Ferdinand Schlöth in 1879 to stand on the four corners of the Wettsteinbrücke, one of Basel’s six bridges over the Rhine. She now guards the entrance to Lange Erlen, a local forest that straddles the border between Switzerland and Germany. At around two metres in height and weighing 2.5 tonnes, she provokes a visceral impact.

All four basilisks were removed from the bridge in 1936 when it was widened, but you can see how they were originally positioned in this 1913 postcard. When the old bridge was replaced in 1991, one of the statues was repurchased by the city and returned to its plinth on the south-east corner of the bridge; it is that one which provides the image on the banner of this travelogue. A third one sits in the garden of a music centre in Basel, while the fourth is in Meggen on Lake Lucerne. It is possible to visit all four in this day-trip, which also provides some history on their movements since 1936.