As we bid farewell to January, it seems appropriate to feature the Roman god its name is taken from, Janus, the two-headed god of time, of beginnings and endings, of looking forward and back.
But this statue of him in Basel is a bit unusual. Janus is usually depicted with two faces on one head, but in Basel, Otto Charles Bänninger chose to put the other face at his feet.
The statue, erected in 1962, is in a small square called Totentanz, or Dance of Death, just outside Basel’s Prediger Church and University Hospital.
With a tram stop on one side and a bus stop on the other, he gets plenty of youthful companionship; I had to visit more than once to get pictures without kids—perhaps they’re attracted to Bänninger’s youthful and playful faces
