The beautiful Lucerne and Swiss Guard

Lucerne has everything I can imagine for a beautiful small city. In nature, it is surrounded by mountains and lakes, and a river goes though the city. In history and culture, Lucerne has its history for more than 1300 years, and yet today the old town was kept well. There exist many pretty architectures from different time periods: churches, wooden bridges and city wall. But Lucerne not only has history, it also has progressive modern parts. Starting from the old town, we can see modern buildings grow in all directions especially along the Lake Lucerne.

Wooden Bridges:
The symbolic architecture of Lucerne is the wooden bridge across Reuss river, just before the river flows into Lake Lucerne. The bridge is called "Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke)", which was originally built in AD1333. It was the oldest European bridge which has ceiling cover. The name "Chapel Bridge" came from the nearby St. Peter's Chapel.

Unfortunately, in 1993, a discarded cigarette caused a fire and burnt much of the bridge. Two thirds of the interior paintings were damaged and one person died. What we see today were rebuilt after the fire.

The landmark of Lucerne: Chapel Bridge

The zigzag shape, the wooden bridgebody, the goldenred tiles on the cover, and the octagonal Water Tower  (Wasserturm) in the middle all make this 204 m long bridge very unique. Actually the  Wasserturm is not a real "water" tower for storing water etc. It was named that way just because it is a tower standing in water. The function of the tower used to be prison,  and later turn to a municipal archive.

When we went to there it was in winter. In summer, the bridge will be decorated by flowers all the way, then it would look even more visually enjoyable. 

Actually Lucerne used to have three wooden walking-bridges, but one of them (Hofbrücke) was vanished in the 19th century. Today we can see the Chapel Bridge and the Spreuerbrücke, both of which have triangular shape paintings as interior decoration all the way along the bridges, which talk about local people' life, events, etc. This feature is very unique, and not be found in any other European wooden walking-bridges. 

Before the fire in 1993, in Chapel Bridge, among the original 158 paintings dating from the 17th century, 147 of them had been reserved. But after the fire, all of them were damaged. People collected the remains of 47 paintings , but only 30 were managed to be fully restored.

When I walk inside the bridge, and look at those new installed triangular shape painting, I feel the style of those painting does not match with the wooden bridge. To me those paintings seem to be too loud in color, too new in time-feeling, and too much like advertisement. 

The another remained wooden bridge in Lucerne is called Spreuerbrücke (Spreuer Bridge) or Mühlenbrücke (namely Mill Bridge), located upstream of Chapel Bridge. The bridge was first time built in 13th century, as only a "half-bridge" which does not completely connect the left and right banks of the Reuss River. 

As we mentioned earlier, the Chapel bridge was named after the nearby St. Peter's Chapel, not because there is a Chapel on the bridge. Instead, the Chapel bridge has a Water tower on the bridge. The funny thing is, the Spreuerbrücke (or Mühlenbrücke) has a Chapel on the bridge, but it is not called Chapel bridge. The name "Mühlenbrücke (Mill Bridge)" came from the function of this bridge was to connect the Mühlenplatz (Mill Place) at the right-side bank of the Reuss river, with the mills in the center of the river. 

The whole bridge was only completed at the beginning of 15th century, by connecting to the left bank with a zigzag shape. In 1566 a flood destroyed this bridge. Today's version was a rebuilding after the flood. 

The interior triangular paintings in Spreuerbrücke have been kept much better than the Chapel bridge, 45 from the 67 original ones  are still in life today. The paintings record a Totentanz (dance of death), designed by painter Kaspar Meglinger. The paintings try to show the philosophical truth: in the city, in the countryside or in the sea, there's nowhere death isn't present.

Old Citywall with Night Watchtowers:
We only stayed in Lucerne for one day. Besides we took the daytime to explore the lakes and hills in Lake Lucerne, so we only had the night time to explore the city. I am very glad we did it. Wandering in the old town Lucerne, we unexpectedly met the remain of the city gate, and then found many watchtowers when walking along the city gate. 

Remained City Gate of Lucerne

After many hundreds of years, people's houses have already melt together with the city wall. You do not see the city wall from inside, because it is blocked by local houses. But from across the river, you can still see several towers stick out from the small hill which is full of houses.

There are eight watch towers on the higher part of the city wall, and a round gatetower at the end of the city wall near the river. Five of the watch towers have similar "ordinary" looking, but another four including the round gate-tower all look different. My favorite is below one, don't you think it looks like the "Toothless" in "How to train your dragon"?

Pretty Courtyards:
In the old town there are also several pretty courtyards. I always enjoy looking at the beautiful facade with different styles.

From the Lion Monument to Swiss Guards:

Asking questions and looking for the answers is always the best way to study. For learning history and social culture, visiting "the place" is a good chance to find out what questions to ask.

I remember before I visited England for the first time, I bought a book about English history from one friend, but I hardly absorb informations. In stead, what I read a few mins ago just go with the wind. And that was a very simple book with many pictures. But after I visited England, I found much easier to absorb informations about those places I have visited and have risen up questions. And yet many of these studies were done after the visiting, when I was writing blogs.

In Lucerne, the most interesting cutting point to me is the Lion Monument. 

Before I went to Lucerne, I read some introductions, and saw that Mark Twain referred the Lion sculpture to "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world". This interested me. So even very late, we still walked to the monument under moonshine. It was not in the old town, but not far to walk to. Lucerne is not a big city anyway.

I do not need to describe the looking of the wounded Lion monument because Mark Twain has done a very good job:

"The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.

Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is."

— Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880

The Lion was made to commemorate the Swiss Guards who died during the French Revolution in 1792. My question came from here: why a group of Swiss went to Paris to protect French King in Tuileries Palace? Why French King felt safe to be protected by "foreigners"? 

Not only French, Swiss Guards had served as guards for other European courts such as Spain and Naples. Till today, an important role of Swiss guard, actually the Pontifical Swiss Guard, is to protect the Pope at the Vatican.

There are several necessary preconditions which made these become true: 

1, Very importantly, there is no King in Switzerland. Since 1291, the current Switzerland country was established, it is a Confederation, not a Kingdom or Empire. That probably helped about for the Kings or loyal members of other country trust these "foreigner" more.

2. Second,  Swiss solders have very good reputations, for both discipline and loyalty, as well as fighting capacity. 

3. 500 years ago, Switzerland was not as rich as now. It was a poor country, so that young men often went to other rich European Kingdoms to earn money. 

Then other questions followed: why there was no local King in Swiss (in spite of the French or Hofburg kings who ruled the swiss area). And what is the consequence of this fact. To me it is super interesting that Swiss people speak so different languages from north to south but they still remain one country for so many years. A lot to learn, isn't it. This is what makes travel interesting. But this blog is already too long so I will save it for the next one "The Lucerne Lake, Swiss Plateau and direct democracy".