The Three Days the Heavens Stood Still
July 27, 28, and August 7, 1566. The prosperous city of Basel, Switzerland, a beacon of Renaissance scholarship and Reformation fervor at the time, awoke to scenes in the skies that defied explanation. Over three separate days, at sunrise and sunset, the sky transformed into a unbelieveable theater of war. Once again this wasn't fleeting blink-and-you-miss it event. The phenomena lasted hours each time, visible to the thousands of people gathered below.
Black spheres of immense size darted across the horizon, clashing with glowing red globes that turned fiery before disintegrating in thick smoke. The people of Basel, merchants, scholars, and families, gathered by the thousands in the streets, on rooftops, and along the Rhine, watching in silent terror as the celestial battle unfolded.
Thankfully one man, printer Samuel Apiarius (also known as Samuel Coccius), ensured the events would echo through history by publishing a detailed broadsheet with vivid woodcuts and descriptions of the UFOs and the events that occurred. This document, along with the Hans Glaser broadsheet of the Nuremberg April 14th 1561 event, remains one of the most extraordinary records of unexplained aerial phenomena ever created.
Samuel Apiarius' Broadsheet: A Masterpiece of Eyewitness Reporting
Apiarius' broadsheet, printed in late 1566, is a single folio sheet combining dramatic text and three woodcut illustrations. The original survives in collections like the Wickiana at the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. His account is precise and chronological, written in the formal German of the era.
The full translated text reads:
"In the year 1566, on the 27th of July, after the sun had risen, many large black balls were seen in the air, moving before the sun with great speed, and dashing against each other as if fighting. Some of them became red and fiery and afterwards faded and went out."
– Samuel Apiarius, July 27 description
"On the 28th of July, toward evening, the same black balls appeared again and did the same things."
– Samuel Apiarius, July 28 description
"On the 7th of August, early in the morning, the sun rose red as blood, and many black balls were seen again, and also some red ones, which fought together fiercely for a long time."
– Samuel Apiarius, August 7 description
Apiarius concludes with a moral reflection typical of the era, interpreting the signs as divine warnings to repent amid the religious turmoil that was happening around the time.
The Objects Themselves: A Detailed Breakdown
Apiarius' descriptions and woodcuts provide remarkably consistent details about the objects:
- Black Spheres: The dominant objects – large, perfectly round, jet-black, moving at "great speed." They darted toward the sun, wheeled about, and deliberately collided with others.
- Red Globes: Smaller numbers of glowing red spheres that, upon impact or stress, turned "fiery red" and "disintegrated," producing thick smoke.
- Behavior: The spheres did not drift passively – they "dashed against each other as if fighting," "clashed vehemently," and "wheeled about among themselves" for extended periods.
- Duration: Events lasted from sunrise well into the morning, or from sunset for hours.
- Smoke Trails: Many objects left long trails of smoke as they burned or fell.
The woodcuts show dozens of these spheres filling the sky around a dramatically rendered sun, some trailing smoke, others appearing to be exploding.
Historical Context: A City in Turmoil
Basel in 1566 was a hotbed of religious and intellectual ferment. The Reformation had taken root, and celestial prodigies were widely seen as omens. Similar events five years earlier in Nuremberg had primed Europe for such interpretations. The question remains whether these UFOs were new, or the same from the previous Battle of Nuremberg, April 14th 1561.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| July 27 1566 | First sighting at sunrise – black balls fighting |
| July 28 1566 | Second sighting at sunset – repeated battle |
| August 7 1566 | Third sighting – black and red spheres clash |
| Late 1566 | Samuel Apiarius publishes illustrated broadsheet |
Sources
- Samuel Apiarius original broadsheet (Zentralbibliothek Zürich)
- Historical translations by researchers
- Carl Jung – Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (1959)
Final Verdict
THE DAYS THE SUN WAS NOT ALONE. For three mornings and evenings in 1566, the people of Basel watched black spheres and red globes wage war across the sky. They fought, they burned, they fell in smoke. Samuel Apiarius captured it for the ages. Divine sign, natural wonder, or visitors from beyond? This event happened 5 years after very similar event took place in Nuremberg, April 14 1561. Maybe they were the same UFOs back for Round 2?