>>>Why the distinction? You can't be thinking that the rest of the swiss cities are just fresh off the assembly line, while Basel alone is endowed with truckloads of history.
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>If I say you are a witty Slavic curmudgeon, does that mean you're unique? ;-) Or am I perhaps providing a description for those unlucky enough not to have appreciated your canny/caustic humor for all these years? ;-)

You didn't say "a historic city" but "the historic city"... i.e. the one.

By the way, does Basel have anything else but its city? How is the rest called if there's the city of it?

Likewise, if anything is called "kingdom of" or "republic of" - well it has a kingdom or a republic, but what else does it have that is not a kingdom or a republic? And if it is not a kingdom but has one, what is it then by itself?