An Introductory Walking Guide to Lucerne, Central Switzerland's Defacto Capital City
Lucerne hosts two fantastic old towns, tons of great museums, wonderful architecture, and, of course, a stunning lake front but it also has so many incredible stories hidden in plain sight. This week we take advantage of the city’s walkability and make a 2 hour walk to explore some of these stories firsthand. From fires that shaped the town, to architecture that broke ground across Europe, and sacrifices that shaped the course of world history. It’s all here in Lucerne.
LATESTONE YEAR: 26 CANTONS
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The City of Lucerne
Thousands of visitors make their way to Lucerne every day leaving it, arguably, one of the least hidden places in all of Switzerland. Despite that high visitation, I think most people are drawn in simply by the postcard or Instagram views and that seems fair. On a clear day, the views from Lucerne are magical but the unfortunate reality is they don't come every day.
Luckily, Lucerne has way more to offer than just its views of the Alps! The city is really a compact and history laden capital of Central Switzerland.
This week we take a walk around Lucerne’s back alleys and promenades to explore the absolute best the city has to offer. Along the way, we will hit most of the city’s major sites and point out some additional opportunities for exploration.
This is the perfect walk if the weather isn't cooperating on your mountain journey, you are keen to get an overview of the city, or you are just looking for some ideas for your next big adventure!
At a leisurely pace, the full walk will take you about 2-hours but that assumes you don’t stop for very long in any one place.
There are tons of shopping and museum opportunities along the way so, if you are keen on those, plan to take a bit longer. If you follow along with us to the very end, we will share our absolute favorite spot to take in the city’s panoramic alpine views if the weather is nice!
Thanks for joining us!
Connecting Lucerne to the World
Our tour of Lucerne starts at the Torbogen, or archway, right in front of the city’s main train station, Bahnhof Luzern (Luzern being the German spelling of Lucerne).
The Torbogen in front of the Lucerne Train Station
If you aren’t staying in Lucerne, or you are just arriving, the city’s main train station is likely to be your point of arrival. Lucerne is well connected to the rest of Switzerland and has fast and direct rail connections from most of the country's major hubs. A trip from Zurich, Basel, or Bern, will take you just about an hour.
Lucerne's main station is Switzerland’s 4th busiest and, like Bern, is conveniently located right on the edge of the historic old town.
The current train station is actually the third in this location. The first, opened in 1859 as a single-story wooden construction but, with the heavy development of rail connections on the Swiss Plateau (the relatively flat area between the Alps and Jura mountain ranges in the northern portion of Switzerland) in the latter half of the 19th Century, the original station quickly outgrew its footprint.
Plans for a new station were properly ignited during the construction of the Gotthard line over the Alps at the end of the 19th Century. The train station was turned 70 degrees to accommodate the new line and reopened in 1896 with a magnificent glass domed reception area. The dome was considered so grand at its unveiling, that some criticized its builders for trying to compete with religion.
Continuing growth of Lucerne’s train connections and increased ridership through the first half of the 20th Century called for an upgrade to the station, but it was an early 5-alarm fire on February 5th, 1971, that truly sealed the deal.
Despite the city’s best efforts to tame the fire which started in the reception area, within an hour, the entire station was engulfed in flames and its iconic dome unceremoniously collapsed.
The debate over whether to rebuild Lucerne station in its original form or start anew raged for nearly a decade before the decision was finally made to create a modern structure. Ultimately, the logistical needs of the railway won out over calls for historic preservation.
It took another decade to complete, but Luzern’s modern station officially opened its doors to the public in 1991, nearly 20 years after the fire.
The only remnants of the second grand station are its art-nouveau façade and iconic copper figure group Zeitgeist which were dismantled stone by stone during construction and re-built in the square out of the way of the modern station.
Fanciful Zeitgeist depicts self-taught engineer and visionary of the Gotthard Tunnel, Louis Favre driving a rail car forward as workers lay the rail beneath him.
A short walk from the Torbogen away from the station brings you to the waterfront revealing the first of many stunning views over Lake Lucerne and its old town. The boat station here has connection across the lake to the famous Bürgenstock, host of international peace conferences, and the Verkehrshaus, Switzerland’s Museum of Transport. Take a look at the SBB app for all the best connections.
Taking a final looking back in the direction of the arch, notice the KKL Luzern just to the left. KKL is Lucerne’s massive Art and Conference Center which opened in 2001 and hosts one of Switzerland’s finest art collections. If you are looking for a place to visit later, this may be a great option.
Lucerne's Main Train Station
KKL Luzern, Lucerne's Art Museum
Exploring the Reuss
From the train station we head down stream along the lake edge to its outlet into the Reuss River and Lucerne’s iconic Chapel Bridge, possibly Switzerland’s most photographed infrastructure. Chances are, if you are planning a trip around Switzerland you have already seen a few photos of this bridge.
Constructed in the 14th Century, the pedestrian Chapel bridge is both the oldest covered bridge in Europe and the world’s oldest truss bridge, relying on triangular structural elements to keep it standing. The bridge and its Wasserturm, the octagonal stone tower connected to the bridge, were originally part of the city defenses connecting the old town with the ‘new city’ on the far side of the Reuss (more on that in a bit).
A series of iconic triangular paintings depicting all manner of fire and brimstone were added to the bridge in the 17th Century at the height of the counter reformation. Of these paintings, about two-thirds are replicas created to replace those destroyed during a fire on the bridge in 1993.
Looking out over the Reuss to the old town of Lucerne and the Chapel Bridge
Paintings and a light early morning crowd on the Chapel Bridge
If you happen to find yourself on the bridge at mid-day, good luck. You are likely to be shoulder to shoulder battling selfie sticks and tripods. Even at the lightest times of year, the bridge tends to get intensely crowded.
Feel free to check out the chapel bridge if you want, but our walk bypasses it in favor of Lucerne’s much less well known, but no less historic, Spreuerbrücke further down the riverfront.
Before crossing the Reuss, however, it’s worth lingering for a bit on the edge of the ‘new city’, Lucerne’s second old town on the left bank of the Reuss.
While the old town of Lucerne was founded on the right bank of the river around the 12th Century, the expanding city quickly pushed over to the left bank. For a few centuries most construction focused on the area right around the river but a period of heavy growth in the 19th and 20th Century, really saw this portion of town take off.
We won’t head too far into the Neustadt on this walk, but we will head inside its two finest churches, the 17th Century Jesuitenkirche and nearby 13th Century Fransizkanerkirche before crossing over the Reuss.
The Jesuit Church with its iconic baroque exterior
The first of these churches, Jesuitenkirche Hl. Franz Xaver, or the Jesuit Church is just a few steps down Bahnhofstrasse from the Chapel bridge. The church’s dual towers and baroque exterior are picturesque and impossible to miss. The Jesuit church is said to have inspired churches all across Southern Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and its interior leaves little to be desired. The church’s towering ceiling and walls are finely adorned in stucco and gold leaf offering a truly celestial feel.
Exploring the interior of the Jesuit Church in Lucerne
Once you have poked around the myriad of reliquaries and maybe even heard a piece of the Jesuitenkirche’s famous organ concerts head back out to the river front. Just down from the church, Bahnhofstrasse branches to the right and left. The right path takes you straight to the Reuss Bridge but the left path heads past the Cantonal Parliament Building to a small parking lot and adorable square called Franziskanerplatz.
Franziskanerplatz in the Neustadt
The entrance to Franziskanerkirche is just off the square. This gothic church is darker and offers a bit less grandeur than the nearby Jesuit Church but, what it lacks in shock and awe, it easily makes up for in interesting history and architecture. The Franciscan Church was initially a Fransciscan Monestary and today’s choir, barred in by a wrought iron gate, make up most of the original church. Shortly thereafter, still in the 13th Century, the main nave was appended on to the church forming the majority of today’s structure. Major renovations in the 16th Century gave the church its modern look.
Beyond the fantastic 17th Century choir decorations, probably the most striking thing about the Franciscan church are a series of banners painted along the upper walls of the nave. Initially these were actual banners taken as spoils of war when the Swiss Confederates, Lucerne among them, defeated the Habsburgs at the Battle of Sempach in 1386. The rotting flags were finally replaced with paintings in the 18th century but still stand testament to the consequential Swiss victory.
Banners painted on the walls of the Franciscan Church
Once you have had your fill of the Franciscan church, we will head back through Franziskanerplatz to Bahnhofstrasse and on past a neat old pharmacy to a forking of Burgerstrasse and Pfistergasse.
We follow Pfistergasse back towards the Reuss and the Cantonal History and Natural History museum’s which flanking either side of the Baselertor, the gateway guarding Spreuerbrücke.
Lucerne's Oldest Old Town
The Spreuerbrücke was Lucerne’s third covered bridge over the Reuss the second being the Court bridge demolished in the 19th Century. The far end of the Speuerbrücke was initially constructed in the 14th Century to connect mills built on man made islands in the middle of the Reuss with the right bank. In the early 15th Century, the bridge was connected to Pfistergasse.
Similar vibes to Chapel Bridge with fewer people at mid-day on the Spreuerbrücke
Like the Chapel Bridge, the Spreüerbrucke hosts a series of 17th century triangular paintings within its gabels, in this case, a 67-panel depiction of the ‘Dance of Death’. Of the 67 panels, 45 here are originals.
The Dance of Death
Looking out from the bridge you can see the historic weir dam which made water wheel driven grain milling on the Reuss possible. Perhaps unsurprisingly the end of the bridge leaves you on the edge of Mühlenplatz or Mill Square, the start of our old town explorations.
There are probably 101 ways to weave your way through Lucerne’s sizeable old town and I am not going to try to claim that our way is the best. If you follow the route, you will eventually hit all the major squares and many of the most interesting buildings, but feel free to wander as you please and meet back up with us on the other side of town.
Making a bit of a zig zag pattern, we head from Mühlenplatz back to the Reussbrücke to catch a view of the Jesuitenkirche over the water before heading down Metzgerrainle into the lovely Weinmarkt with its neo-gothic fountain. From there it's on to Hirschenplatz with its fantastic painted façades. Next stop is the Kornmarkt which hosts the 17th Century Rathaus or City Hall and the fantastic Lucerne family tree painted on the façade of the Zunfthausrestaurant.
The Lucerne Rathaus
A straight shot from Kornmarkt down Kapellgasse brings us to Kapellplatz and the modest Peterskapelle, namesake for the chapel bridge, just on the otherside of the square. Have a peek inside the chapel but, if you ask me, there isn’t much to write home about inside. The fancifully painted Fritschi fountain outside is worth a bit more of an inspection.
Just up Hans-Holbein-Gasse from Peterskapelle is Sternenplatz. While many of the heavily decorated façades in Luzern’s old town are historically painted, the exceptional façade of Restaurant Fritschi is a more modern, a 1980’s creation. The flames and masked characters depict Lucerne’s famous Fasnacht, or carnival celebration, which takes place at the end of February each year. Where Basel hosts protestant Switzerland’s largest carnival celebration, Lucerne hosts catholic Switzerland’s.
From Sternenplatz, we skip most of the more modern old town periphery and head up the hill to the massive towers you may have caught some glimpses of so far.
Restaurant Fritschi in Sternenplatz
In the Defense of Lucerne
From Sternenplatz we weave our way out of the old town and cross Löwengraben, the former city moat on our way up the hill to the Musegg, a large remaining portion of Lucerne’s formidable defensive wall.
The Musegg along with its 9 remaining towers was built between the 13th and 15th Century as part of a defensive structure that enclosed the entire city state of Lucerne. In the 19th Century, town planners took the axe to most of the city’s defensive structures in an effort to ‘beautify’ Lucerne and, perhaps more importantly, enhance its traffic flow. The Musegg up on the hill wasn’t really in the way of anything and largely survived these dire times for medieval military architecture.
During the summer months, several of the towers and a portion of the wall are open to visitors allowing you to get up close and personal with the Musegg. Regardless of the time of year, the views from Panorama Terrace just below the Zytturm make the slightly steep walk up the hill very much worth the effort.
If you are interested to see more of the Musegg and its towers, there is a nice trail that runs nearly the length of the entire structure on the far side of the wall. You can get though the wall at the Schirmerturm.
Schirmerturm and the Musegg
Looking up at the clock tower from the Panorma Terrace
From Panorama Terrace we make our way back down to Museggstrasse and follow it through the Musegg back down the hill towards Löwenplatz and the Lucerne’s famous sculpted lion.
Memorializing Lost Causes
Lucerne’s Löwendenkmal or Lion Memorial can be found on Denkmalstrasse just off busy Löwenplatz. Completed in 1821, the Lion Memorial, carved into the vertical wall of a former quarry by Danish-Icelandic sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen depicts a dying Lion with a spear broken off in its back. A moving tribute to the approximately 760 Swiss Guards who died trying (and ultimately failing) to protect French King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution in 1791.
The lion monument behind its reflecting pool
The commemorative project, spearheaded by an officer on leave in Lucerne during the revolution and funded by royal households across Europe, drew both the praise and ire of many Swiss even before its opening.
Lucerne, along with much of Switzerland, had (and still has) a long history of supplying mercenaries. Many Swiss were displeased by a memorial honoring Swiss lives lost in the name of foreign nations, particularly that of France. Only 18 years earlier had the Swiss finally shrugged off the Helvetic Republic, the repressive puppet state instituted after Napolean’s army swept across the country in 1798. Further, some criticized the monument as glorifying a conservative and anti-revolutionary state.
Nonetheless, the Lion Memorial has stuck around and today it is, without a doubt, Switzerland’s most famous monument attracting nearly 1.4 million(!) visitors a year. Of those, my guess is a fraction know what the monument stands for let alone how controversial its creation really was. To me, it adds a whole new dimension to the visit.
In the immediate vicinity of the Lion Memorial you will find several other notable attractions including Lucerne’s glacier gardens where you can learn all about the geologic history of the region, the Alpineum with its 1901 3D Diorama of the Alps, and, off nearby Löwenplatz, the Bourbaki Panorama.
The Alpineum across from the Lion Monument
The Bourbaki Panorama is a full 360-degree painting, depicting the internment of France’s Armée de l'Est led by General Charles-Denis Bourbaki during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. Following their January defeat at the Battle of Lisaine, Bourbaki’s 88,000 troops retreated into neutral Switzerland giving up their weapons and many of their supplies in exchange for aid from the newly formed Swiss Red Cross.
Originally exhibited in Geneva in 1881, the exhibition was moved into its permanent home in Lucerne in 1889, to fill the hall of an incomplete (and more site appropriate) panorama depicting Lucerne’s victory during the 1386 Battle of Sempach.
Like the Lion Memorial, the Bourbaki Panorama depicts an idealized view of Switzerland as a neutral and giving nation. Such romanticized imagery was used to bolster a national narrative spun throughout the 19th and early 20st Centuries. The same national romanticism popularized folk heroes like Wilhelm Tell and important founding documents like the Bundesbrief which we saw in Schwyz a few weeks back.
In one of the great slights against Lucerne’s historic architecture, in the early 2000’s, the rotating garage built around the Bourbaki Panorama in the 1920’s was properly boxed in with glass to create more (now mostly vacant) commercial real estate. Today, only the very top of the original panorama building sticks up above the cube like some sort of forlorn monument to a time of thoughtful design.
The Bourbaki Panorama trapped in its modern box
Be forewarned that, Löwenplatz and its surroundings are one of the more lackluster corners of Lucerne. The city is currently evaluating plans for its redesign, but it will probably take a bit of time for those to be realized.
Off to the Lake Front
On our way towards Lucerne’s iconic lake front, we make a slight detour to visit the 17th Century Hofkirche St. Leodegar, the site of Lucerne’s veritable treasure trove.
St. Leodegar Church was one of the few Catholic Churches built north of the Alp’s during the Thirty Years War, a replacement for the Romanesque Basilica that had existed on the site since at least the 8th Century. Except for its two 13th Century Medieval belltowers, most of the original Basilica burned down in 1633.
The baroque church built in the basilica’s place is, alongside the Jesuitenkirche, one of the most consequential examples of the style in existence. That being said, it is what is out of sight in St. Leodegar Church that makes it one of the most important sites in all of Switzerland.
In the 1930’s, a room parallel to the sacristy was decorated in Art Deco style and converted to house the Lucerne Abbey Treasury, one of the oldest sacred collections in all of Switzerland. The collection contains fine religious artifacts going back to the Middle Ages, spoils of war taken from the Burgundians after the Battle of Murten in the 15th Century, and many more fine pieces of Swiss gold and silversmithing.
While you are free to access the church during normal hours, a worthwhile stop on its own accord, a visit to the treasury will require a guided tour. Check out the Treasury website for more information.
Leaving the church, we make the rest of our way down to the lake front and the chestnut lined waterfront promenade, Nationalquai. Constructed in the late 19th Century by the National Hotel, the Nationalquai offers the perfect place to grab a bench and take in the views of the Alps over Lake Lucerne after a long walk.
The baroque St. Leodegar Church
Looking out over the Alps from Nationalquai
From here you can choose to end your walk and head back to the train station (about 10 minutes via the modern Seebrücke in front of the Chapel Bridge) or meander further along the lake front towards the Verkehrshaus where, in addition to the museum, you will find a nice park and boat connections out onto Lake Lucerne or back to the train station.
We hope you enjoyed our walk around the sights of Lucerne. You can check out the other posts in this project our One Year: 26 Canton page! Stay tuned for additional articles on our Swiss travels every week!
Until next time, gute Reise, and feel free to leave a comment on one of our social media platforms!
