Covered bridges, city walls and a ton of fountains, explore the Swiss city of Lucerne.
Lucerne (Luzern) is located in about the middle of Switzerland. The city is known for its bridges over the River Reuss and is next to the very scenic Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstättersee).
It’s a cute city and it definitely reminds me of Zurich. I planned one day trip on my last visit to Switzerland. I had my options narrowed down to either Lucerne or Bern. It was I chose Bern. It was a very hard choice, but that made this trip’s choice all the much easier.
Jana Irving You don’t have to go far from train station to get to the views.
Jana Irving Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) is the city’s most famous landmark. It’s a covered bridge that goes mostly diagonally across the river. Originally built in the 14th century, Chapel Bridge has been shortened several times due to changes in the river bank over the centuries.
Jana Irving The tower in the river, Wasserturm, is 30 years older than the bridge, but that still doesn’t explain the bridges weird route across the river.
Jana Irving The sharpest bend. Chapel Bridge is the oldest covered bridge in Europe. Although, it had to be mostly rebuilt after a fire in 1993.
Jana Irving Doesn’t have a covered bridge but still adorable.
Jana Irving You can see why choosing visiting Bern over this town was so hard.
Jana Irving Jesuitenkirche (17th century), the first large Baroque church in Switzerland, north of the alps.
Jana Irving And it’s absolutely gorgeous inside.
Jana Irving It has these cute little chapels along the nave.
Jana Irving Just gorgeous.
Jana Irving In perfect Swiss fashion, a fountain.
Jana Irving Another fountain nearby.
Jana Irving Next door to that fountain is Franziskanerkirche. It’s a bit simpler inside.
Jana Irving However, this chapel is fancy.
Jana Irving It’s probably safe to assume that that building has a spiral staircase.
Jana Irving I love this.
Jana Irving Lucern’s Needle Dam (Nadelwehr). Water power used to be very important in Lucerne industry.
Jana Irving The height of the water is based on those boards and how many there are. It’s a weird system.
Jana Irving There’s Lucerne’s other covered bridge, Spreuerbrücke and the city walls.
Jana Irving Found another fountain!
Jana Irving Spreuerbrücke also has a weird bend in the middle. No tower this time, but a chapel instead.
Jana Irving More views of city walls from the bridge.
Jana Irving Very similar to the Chapel Bridge.
Jana Irving Just look how cute that bridge is. The current bridge is from the 16th century.
Jana Irving More cuteness.
Jana Irving Can really see that bend from this angle.
Jana Irving City wall time! In the summer, you can go into the towers.
Jana Irving The towers get a bit fancy.
Jana Irving Hofkirche St. Leodegar, built in the 17th century on the foundations of an older church.
Jana Irving It was so hard to get a picture of the doors. They automatically opened if someone was even slightly near a sensor.
Jana Irving Simple, yet gorgeous.
Jana Irving Some of the altar pieces are a little over the top. I love it.
Jana Irving The cloisters of the attached monastery weirdly almost encircles the church, instead of a square attached to a church.
Jana Irving It is now used mainly for burials.
Jana Irving Cute fountain surrounded by meh buildings.
Jana Irving Ahhhh, that’s better.
Jana Irving Did I mention that there are fountains everywhere in Switzerland?
Jana Irving I love the painted buildings.
Jana Irving This part of town is very cute.
Jana Irving I can’t get enough of this painted buildings.
Jana Irving The Rathaus, Lucerne’s 17th century city hall.
Jana Irving So much better than a drab city.
Jana Irving This one is a bit different.
Jana Irving The sun finally decided to come out as I was heading to the train station to go back to Basel.
Lucerne was a fun city to explore. It’s super easy to get there from Zurich, Basel, Bern and other central Swiss cities. Perfect day trip. That being said, day tripping in Switzerland is very expensive.
Check out my next update where I head back to Germany to explore the city of Heidelberg!
or
Start at the beginning of this European adventure!
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