16 March 2024
Chapel Bridge and Water Tower
- Chapel Bridge and Water Tower
- On 18 Aug 1993, the bridge caught fire, supposedly from a dropped cigarette, and much of it was burned. All that could be saved were the two bridgeheads and the Water Tower. It was rebuilt in 8 months and reopened in 14 Apr 1994.
- 650 years old
- The bridge has several paintings from the 1600s in triangle formation as you look up under the roof while crossing the bridge. Unfortunately, the fire devastated many of these paintings, which were lost.
- “Prior to the fire in 1993, 147 of the original 158 panels were still in existence; 110 of them were directly affected by the fire that destroyed the bridge, of which some two-thirds either went up in smoke or suffered severe damage.”
- The water tower was erected around 1300. Over the years, it served as a lookout, a fortification, and as a prison, complete with torture chamber.
Luzern Town Hall
Clock tower (and artistic sign) at Town Hall on Kornmarkt
Jesuit Church
- The church was built from 1666-77. It has a mix of baroque and rococo styles.
- Lucerne is the only Catholic enclave in Switzerland. The other major cities – Bern, Basel, Zurich – are Protestant. But the Swiss Guards, who serve the Vatican, have a long history of coming from relatively wealthy families from Lucerne. Because of their wealth and ties to the community, Lucerne has spent the money to keep up the Catholic churches (lest the wealth go elsewhere).
Lion Monument
On 10 Aug 1792, about 1,000 Swiss guardsmen were protecting the life of King Louis XVI of France. “The revolutionaries stormed the King’s residence which the Swiss were defending, leading to the virtual annihilation of the Swiss Guard.”
The Lion Monument was created in honor of the Swiss Guards who died in the Storming of the Tuileries in Paris in 1792 (against the French Revolutionaries).
Mark Twain said, “The Lion of Lucerne (is) the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.”
Church of St. Leodegar (Hofkirche)
“Around 735/736, Southern Alemanni noblemen founded a small monastery on the site now occupied by the church precincts. Around 1135, the self-governing monastery became a dependent priory of Murbach in Alsace. Changing fortunes obliged Murbach Abbey in 1291 to sell the priory in Lucerne and all its properties to the Habsburgs. After Lucerne joined the Old Confederacy in 1332, the town of Lucerne began appropriating the rights of the Habsburgs – including those over the monastery – in a process that continued until 1433. The Benedictine monastery became a collegiate church in 1455/56.”