Lucerne

Top things to do in Lucerne

1. 01

   Chapel Bridge and the Water Tower - the covered wooden crossing

   history scenic 👍 Popular

   Long billed as Europe's oldest covered wooden bridge, built in the 14th century as part of the town defences and hung under its roof with 17th-century painted panels of local history. A fire in 1993 destroyed most of the paintings; the bridge was rebuilt within a year, and the scorched survivors are easy to pick out. The stone Water Tower beside it served as prison and treasury.

2. 02

   Lion Monument - the dying lion of Lucerne

   history culture arts 👍 Popular

   Carved into a sandstone cliff in 1820-21 to a design by Thorvaldsen, a mortally wounded lion mourns the Swiss Guards cut down defending the Tuileries in 1792. Mark Twain called it the saddest and most moving piece of stone in the world, and it still stops people. The Glacier Garden next door, with its potholes ground out by Ice Age meltwater, shares the site.

3. 03

   Musegg Wall - walk the medieval ramparts

   history scenic ⭐ Highly recommended

   Nine towers and a long stretch of 14th-century curtain wall still ride the ridge above the old town, and several towers are open to climb in the warmer half of the year. The Zytturm carries the city clock, which by old privilege strikes each hour a minute before every other clock in the city. The view down over the roofs and the lake is the best in town.

4. 04

   Swiss Museum of Transport - the country's most visited museum

   culture arts history 👍 Popular

   A sprawling campus on the lake shore covering everything that moves: locomotives, an aviation hall, road transport stacked three storeys high, a planetarium and a walk-through on Swiss chocolate. It is unashamedly hands-on and eats a rainy day whole, which is why Swiss families keep coming back.

5. 05

   Rosengart Collection - Picasso and Klee in a former bank

   culture arts ⭐ Highly recommended

   Angela Rosengart knew Picasso and sat for him, and her family's collection fills a neoclassical bank building with his late work, a deep run of Paul Klee, and Cézanne, Matisse and Miro alongside. The basement holds David Douglas Duncan's photographs of Picasso at home. Small enough to do properly in a couple of hours.

6. 06

   Lake Lucerne paddle steamers - cruise the Vierwaldstättersee

   scenic nature wildlife

   The lake fleet still includes restored belle-epoque paddle steamers, and they run as scheduled service boats rather than tour craft, calling at Weggis, Vitznau, Brunnen and Flüelen. The lake bends between cliffs into something close to a fjord, and the boat doubles as the way to the foot of the mountain railways.

7. 07

   KKL Luzern - concerts on the waterfront

   culture arts nightlife music

   Jean Nouvel's culture and convention centre, with its huge cantilevered roof reaching out over the water beside the station, holds a concert hall rated among the best-sounding anywhere. Its summer festival draws the major orchestras and the building also houses the city art museum.

8. 08

   Jesuit Church - the pink and white baroque interior

   history culture arts

   Switzerland's first large baroque church stands plainly enough on the river bank and then opens into a light stucco interior of pink and white under a painted ceiling. It is a ten-minute stop, best made on the walk between the two wooden bridges.

9. 09

   Weinmarkt and the old town squares - the painted facades

   history scenic

   The lanes north of the river are lined with houses frescoed from the ground to the eaves, wrought-iron guild signs and a fountain in every square. Weinmarkt staged Lucerne's medieval Passion plays, and the Kornmarkt carries the old town hall with a produce market strung out along the river beside it.

10. 10

    Bourbaki Panorama - a 19th-century painting in the round

    history culture arts

    An enormous canvas wrapped around a rotunda shows the French Army of the East crossing into Switzerland in 1871 to be interned and disarmed, a founding scene of Swiss humanitarian tradition and one of the few great panoramas left anywhere.

11. 11

    Richard Wagner Museum, Tribschen - the villa on the lake

    culture arts history

    Wagner lived in this country house on a spit of land south of the centre for six years, finished Die Meistersinger here and had the Siegfried Idyll played on the stairs for Cosima's birthday. The rooms hold instruments, scores and letters, and the shore walk out to it is half the point.

12. 12

    Lake fish and Chügelipastete - eating in Lucerne

    food

    Menus lean on fish out of the lake, felchen and perch fried in butter, and on the local Chügelipastete, a puff-pastry case of veal and mushrooms in cream that is the city's own dish. The riverside terraces charge for the view; the lanes behind them are steadier.

Getting to & around Lucerne

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