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| Lucerne City, Central Switzerland |
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| Lakeside Promenade |
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| Chapel Bridge (Kapell Brucke) |
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| Paintings under the ceiling |
In the afternoon after having our lunch we traveled towards Lucerne, the gateway to Central Switzerland. Throughout the way we saw the typical Swiss landscape with vast green pastures, farm cottages, lakes, grazing cattle, hills and valleys with dense growth of fir and pine trees. Pure air, pure dairy products, pure water from mountain rills and hygienic climate are the God-given gifts to this land of peace and prosperity. The distance from Engelberg to Lucerne is nearly thirty kms and so it took forty-five minutes to reach Lucerne, the famous town of ancient churches and many museums, dominated by the lake side view of historic buildings and churches. Lucerne lies at the northeen end of the Lake Lucerne, where the river Reuss flows out of the lake.On the Lake Promenade many souvenir shops, watch shops and confectionery shops attract many tourists. Ferry trips on the lake provide a panoramic view of the surrounding monuments, Alpine hills of Pilatus and Rigi and the Chapel Bridge.
Soon after we got down, we took a leisurely stroll along the banks of the lake Lucerne and walked across the Chapel Bridge, a roofed medieval wooden bridge with paintings on both sides of the ceiling. This is one of the oldest wooden bridges in Europe built in 1333, as part of Lucern's fortifications. It linked the old town on the right side of the Reuss river to the new town was on the left. When it was built it was 204 meters in length, but now it is 170 meters due to , modifications made in later times. The famous 17th century Catholic painter Hans Heinrich Wagmann painted the events from Lucerne history and the lives of the town's patron saints, St.Leodegar and St. Maurice on 110 panels. In 1993 eighty-five of these 110 paintings were destroyed in fire accident. They have been replaced by paintings taken from the second part of the bridge which was dismantled in 1834 to make room for the Lakeside Avenue. Just beside the bridge there is an octagonal tower called "Wasserturm", a fortification from 13th century. The bridge led the way directly to St.Peter's chapel on northern side. This is an eighteenth century church that was built over a twelfth century chapel. St.Peter's chapel (St.Peter's kapelle) lends its name to the wooden bridge as Chapel Bridge (Kapell Bruke). The Chapel Bridge and the Water Tower were once the ramparts of the medieval town of Lucerne. Later the water tower was used as a dungeon, an archive and as a treasury till 19th century. At present it is used as a club by a traditional association and is not open to public.
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| St.Peter's Chapel (St.Peter's Kapelle) |
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| Ferry ride on Lucerne Lake |
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| Spreur Bridge |
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| Paintings on Dance of Death |
There is another ancient wooden bridge called Spreur Bridge located at the lower end of the medieval town of Lucerne. It is also a part of the medieval town's fortifications. It was erected in 1408. It was destroyed by storm in 1566 and was re-built in 1568. On the ceiling of this bridge also there are 67 paintings drawn during the period between 1627 and 1635 representing the dance of death. These paintings are quite realistic representing the costumes and style of medieval times. This bridge connected the mills with bakers' quarters on the left bank of Reuss. The mills on the right bank were destroyed by fire in 1865.
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| St.Leodegar's Church |
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| Interior View of St. Leodegar's Church |
Another important monument in Lucerne is "Hofkirche" or church of St.Leodegar with twin towers, built during the period between 1633-1639. On this site previously there was a monastery built in eighth century. Later in twelfth century this church was constructed. Due to fire accident most parts of the church were destroyed except the front two towers. In 1633 another fire accident happened. The present church was built in late Renaissance style. In the church we can still see the previous Death of Virgin altar belonging to 15th century and the original wooden pews that survived the fire accident.
As the time given for seeing the town was barely two hours, we were not able to see Hofkirche, the church founded in memory of St.Leodegar, the patron saint of this city. If you are a votary of knowledge, there are many museums like Swiss Museum of Transport, Culture and Convention Center and Nature Museum to reveal many interesting facts.
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5th February, 2016 Somaseshu Gutala
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