Happy Father’s Day xx

St Peter's Chapel

Just before we depart from Lucerne and move onto Christmassy things I will show you St Peter’s Chapel which is the last place we visited on our day of departure.

St Peter’s Chapel is a Lucerne landmark and of considerable historical importance. It is Lucerne’s oldest church and was built in 1178 when a priest was appointed to take care of the population. Always subservient to the 8th century Benedictine St Leodegar monastery and the Hof Church, it never became the parish church.

Kapellplatz was named after St Peter’s and, more importantly, so was the city’s best known attraction, the nearby 14th century Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke). The chapel was for several hundred years the citizen’s meeting place and was subject to alterations in 1750.

The Kapellplatz surrounds tiny St. Peterskapelle, an 18th-century church that was built over a 12th-century predecessor. This chapel also lends its name to the Kapellbrücke, the charming wooden bridge synonymous with Lucerne.

The exterior walls of St. Peter’s are adorned with several interesting works of art. An alabaster carving of the Mount of Olives remains from the previous church building. The fresco of Brother Klaus dates from the late 19th century, and the painting of St. Christopher is from the early 20th century.

Rosengart Collection

The Rosengart Collection (property of a foundation established by Angela Rosengart in 1992) has been accessible to the public in its entirety – f0r the first time ever – since March 2002. The collection, which comprises some 220 works and focuses primarily on French painting from 1870 to the 20th century, is presented over an exhibition area of some 1250 square metres.

The exhibits are arranged around three main themes.  The ground floor is home to the Pablo Picasso collection, with a special focus on the artist’s later work; the lower ground floor accommodates the Paul Klee collection; and the first floor is devoted to important works by more than 20 further artists from the Impressionist and Classic Modernist movements. *

*From the museum guide pamphlet.

Bourbaki Panorama Lucerne

The Bourbaki Panorama is the best example I have seen of this type of artwork.

The 112 x 10 m large-scale panorama depicts the French Army of the East under General Bourbaki crossing the border into Switzerland and being disarmed in February 1871. The picture is complimented by 21 figures that tell the soldiers’ story.  Sound effects and an audio presentation, in which a contemporary witness describes his experience of the Bourbaki army’s internment, draw you in.  A multi-media exhibition expands on the theme.*

The Artist:

Edouard Castres witnessed the Franco-Prussian war as a volunteer with the Red Cross. His sketches and pictures portray the fate of the Bourbaki army in the bitter cold of February 1871. An entrepreneur commissioned Castres to depict the internment of the Bourbaki army in a large-scale panorama. He and his team of artists completed the work in Geneva in 1881. It has been hanging in Lucerne ever since 1889.*

You can get a flavour to the painting here and here.  Be sure to check out the interactive mode for best effect.

*From mini guide provided on entry to the panorama.

The Old Town Walls – The Clock Tower

The oldest city clock built by Hans Luter in 1535 is on the Zyt tower.  This clock is privileged to chime every hour one minute before all the other city clocks.  Unique collection of old tower clocks (1526 t0 1820) is in Lucerne’s clock tower.  Experience the huge clock face and rhythmic movements of the 9 metre pendulum.*

The website Turmuhren Luzern provides detailed information about the tower clock, the tower and the clock exhibition:

The clock-tower was the only tower whose purpose was not for defence. Thanks to its big clock-face and bell the people in the city and the boat crews out on the lake could read the accurate time. Still today the stroke of the clock-tower clock is one minute before the chime of the church bells (privilege of first stroke).
In 1579 the clock-tower was hit by lightning and on 16th August 1583 the bell and the clockwork as well as the top platform were hit again. Smoke billowed but the tower as well as the clockwork remained undamaged.

Painting on the façade
In 1511 the painting on the façade was copied for the first time by the town clerk Diebold Schilling in his chronicle. It shows two red men holding bell clappers standing on both sides of the opening in the wall and the clock-face with two giants (: wild men). The giants were the symbol of strength and power of the soldiers and mercenaries of Lucerne. In 1547 the tower was redecorated in fresco technique. In 1596 the fresco was renewed by Joseph Moser and in 1939 Karl F. Schobinger (1879-1951) designed the actual painting on the façade where the two giants still hold the coat of arms of Lucerne.
Schobinger was a pupil of Ferdinand Hodler in Geneva. From 1911 to 1914 he taught the art of painting at the academy of arts in Breslau (today: Wroclaw / PL).

More interesting information about the Zytturm clock can be found here.

*Lucerne city guide 2013

Lucerne – The Old Town Walls

Part of the rampart walls that were built in 1386 survive almost entirely intact.  Three of the wall towers are open to the public.

Needle Dam

Built in 1859/1860 following the clever style developed by Poiree, the Needle Dam is a unique attraction in terms of both technology and history.  From 2009-2011 the facility was renovated and the city’s flood protection was improved.  Even today, the level of Lake Lucerne is regulated by hand through the removal and placement of the co-called needles (wooden posts).*

*Lucerne City Guide 2013

Spreuer Bridge

History of Spreuer Bridge

The original Spreuer Bridge was erected around 1400 (first mentioned in 1408), but destroyed by storm in 1566, and rebuilt in 1568. The small chapel on the bridge also dates back to 1568, it has been renovated in 1889. An older small bridge at the location connected Mühlenplatz [Mill’s place] with the city mills built on a small island in River Reuss already in the 13th century, however.

The 1408 bridge was built to connect the mills with the baker’s quarter in Pfistergasse [Pfister = medieval German word for baker] on the left bank of River Reuss. While the major part of medieval Lucerne is located on the right bank of River Reuss, the bakers had to stay on the left bank because they kept the fire in their stoves alive during night. The fear that fire might destroy the whole town was not unrealistic, in fact there are no old wooden houses left within the old town of Lucerne, the exceptions are located just outside the medieval ramparts.

What is the meaning of the name Spreuer Bridge?

Spreuer Bridge is situated at the lower end of medieval Lucerne. Though medieval towns in Europe were known to be quite filthy and sophisticated Roman sewage techniques had been forgotten over the centuries, they still made some elementary provisions to restrict immissions. In medieval Lucerne, it was allowed to throw Spreu [chaff] into River Reuss, but only from this lowest bridge in town.

City Mills and Power Plants

The city mills were destroyed in 1875 by fire. Instead, turbines were built and used to drive a variety of machines. But 50 years later the mechanical transmission of power was outdated and replaced by an electricity generator. In 1998 the power plant was completely redesigned and equipped with the latest technology available, delivering 4.3 million kWh per year (which equals the consumption of about 1,500 households in Lucerne). So you can find here a well-preserved example of 16th century art of engineering next to state-of-the-art 21st century technology.

Spreuer Bridge – The Paintings

Paintings under the roof of Spreuer Bridge

Under the roof of Spreuer Bridge, 67 paintings dating from 1626 to 1635 represent a “Dance of Death”. Death, represented as a skeleton or as the “Great Reaper” urges everybody to dance with him, i.e. to die. Death makes no difference between old and young, churchmen and laymen, rich and poor. This kind of paintings were often placed on cemetary walls. They expressed people’s feeling in the face of death especially during times of epidemic pestilence and were widespread all over late medieval Europe, but only very few examples have survived to date. The fascination for this theme has not completely gone, however, as the dedicated German website www.totentanz.de shows. Lucerne’s Dance of Death was designed by chief painter Kaspar Meglinger.

Return Walk…

…from the Swiss Transport Museum.