Lucerne

Lucerne^{? /i} (Swiss German Lozärn [loˈtsæːrn], French Lucerne, Italian Lucerna, Rhaeto-Romanic Lucerna^{? /i}) is a city, municipality and capital of the Swiss canton of the same name. It also forms the electoral district of Lucerne-City.

Lucerne is the social and cultural centre of Central Switzerland. In the field of education, it is home to the University of Lucerne, the Lucerne University of Teacher Education and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, among others. Events with supra-regional appeal include the Lucerne Carnival and the Lucerne Festival. Lucerne is an important tourist destination in Switzerland, on the one hand because of its location on Lake Lucerne and its proximity to the Alps, and on the other hand thanks to sights such as the Chapel Bridge and the Swiss Museum of Transport.

Geography

The city of Lucerne is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Lucerne at the outflow of the Reuss River. The Reuss divides the city into the old town and the new town. The Chapel Bridge with the water tower and the Spreuer Bridge connect the old and new town. The exclave of Bürgenstock also belongs to Lucerne. The location between the lake and the mountains Pilatus and Rigi is particularly picturesque and favoured the development of Lucerne as a tourist town and early stronghold of tourism from 1840.

The highest point in the municipality is the summit of the Bürgenstock in the Bürgenstock exclave at 1127.8 metres above sea level. The lowest point is at Rotsee at 419 metres above sea level.

The area of the town is 29.1 km², of which 44.2 % is settlement area, 30.2 % agricultural zones and 23.7 % forest. 2.0 % is unproductive area.

Climate

Lucerne 1981-2010

Climate diagram

J F M A M J J A S O N D     51   3 -2     54   5 -2     74   10 1     88   14 4     128   19 9     154   22 12     151   25 14     146   24 14     107   19 11     76   14 7     73   8 2     72   4 -1 Temperature in °C, precipitation in mm Source: Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss

 

Monthly average temperatures and precipitation for Lucerne 1981-2010 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature (°C) 3,4 5,2 10,3 14,4 19,1 22,2 24,7 23,8 19,4 14,3 7,8 4,3 Ø 14,1 Min. temperature (°C) −2,3 −2,0 1,1 4,3 8,9 12,1 14,2 13,9 10,6 6,7 1,6 −1,0 Ø 5,7 Temperature (°C) 0,5 1,4 5,4 9,1 13,7 16,9 19,1 18,3 14,6 10,2 4,6 1,6 Ø 9,7 Precipitation (mm) 51,1 53,6 74,0 88,1 128,3 153,7 150,6 146,4 107,2 75,8 72,6 71,5 1.172,9 Sunshine hours (h/d) 1,5 2,6 3,9 4,7 5,2 5,7 6,5 6,0 4,6 3,1 1,7 1,2 Ø 3,9 Rainy days (d) 9,5 8,8 11,9 11,9 13,1 13,8 12,5 12,5 10,3 9,4 9,7 10,0 133,4 Humidity (%) 83 79 73 70 72 72 72 75 80 83 84 84 Ø 77,2 Temperat ur 3,4 −2,3 5,2 −2,0 10,3 1,1 14,4 4,3 19,1 8,9 22,2 12,1 24,7 14,2 23,8 13,9 19,4 10,6 14,3 6,7 7,8 1,6 4,3 −1,0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec   Precipitation 51,1 53,6 74,0 88,1 128,3 153,7 150,6 146,4 107,2 75,8 72,6 71,5   Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Source: Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss

The highest value of average sunshine duration for the month of January was reached in 2020 with 98.5 hours. This broke the previous record of 1999 (86.7 hours).

City breakdown

As of 2014, the City of Lucerne is divided into 2 districts, 6 city districts, 26 neighborhoods, and 132 small neighborhoods. City districts 01 to 10 are located on the right bank, while city districts 11 to 19 are located on the left bank of the Lucerne Bay (northwestern arm of the Kreuztrichter), as seen from the lake. The Littau urban district also includes the district of the same name, while the other five urban districts are located in the Lucerne urban district.

City District	No.	Quartier	Area (ha)	Population End 2016	Population density (inhabitants per km²)
A Right side of the lake	01	Oberseeburg/Rebstock	84,9	2548	3001,2
	02	Würzenbach/Schädrüti	112,6	4474	3973,4
	03	Bellerive/Schlössli	44,4	1105	2488,7
	04	Halde/Lützelmatt	239,8	2477	1032,9
B Right bank of the Reuss	05	Wesemlin/Three Linden	90	4921	5467,8
	06	Maihof/Rotsee	51,6	3629	7032,9
	07	Hochwacht/Zürichstrasse	30	2208	7360,0
	09	Bramberg/St. Karli	34,1	2286	6703,8
	10	Cantonal hospital/Ibach	98,4	664	674,8
C City centre	08	Old town/Wey	39,7	2292	5773,3
	12	Fracture/Gibraltar	30,1	3429	11392,0
	14	Hirschmatt/Small town	56,5	3231	5718,6
	16	Neustadt/Voltastrasse	30,5	5780	18950,8
	17	Unterlachen/Tribschen	91,8	3999	4356,2
D Left side of the lake	13	Upper/lower Gütsch	31	2058	6638,7
	15	Upper ground/Allmend	128,1	3233	2523,8
	18	Sternmatt/Hochrüti	52,4	4641	8856,9
	19	Langensand/Matthof	80,8	5965	7382,4
E Left bank of the Reuss	11	Basel-/Bernstrasse	103	4272	4147,6
	20	Udelboden		3245
	21	Reussbühl		3131
	22	Ruopigen		3850
F Littau	23	Matt		3810
	24	Littau village		1545
	25	On the Emme		2158
	26	Littauerberg		229
	99	Exclave Bürgenstock2)	155,8	0	0,0

¹⁾ The Swiss Federal Statistical Office assigns the number 21 to the municipality of Littau. Littau was an independent municipality with the municipality number 1060 until 31 December 2009.
²⁾ The exclave Bürgenstock is not considered a city district, but a pseudo-district Bürgenberg Wald with the number 99.

History

Place name

The earliest known mentions of the site are ad monasterium Lucernense or ad Lucernense monasterium (9th century; transcript c. 1200), monasterium Luciaria (840), and in quodam loco, qui Lucerna ex antiquitate est dictus (853; 11th century transcript). The meaning is unclear. Proposed derivations from Latin lucerna "luminaire" (compare to this day "luminous city of Lucerne"), from the Celtic god Lugus and from the male personal name Luz or Luzius are not tenable. However, a possible basis remains Latin lūcǐus "pike", combined with the suffix -ārǐa expressing a spread. The meaning of the name Luzern would thus be "place where pike are found in large quantities".

Early period and foundation of the town (around 750-1386)

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Germanic Alemanni took ever greater possession of this area from the 7th century onwards. The Alemannic language gradually replaced the Latin. Around 710, the Benedictine monastery of St. Leodegar (where St. Leodegar im Hof is today) was founded by a Carolingian, which came under the rule of the Alsatian abbey of Murbach in the middle of the 9th century. At this time, or around 750, the area was called Luciaria. The bailiwick over Murbach and thus also over Lucerne had been held by the noble family of the Habsburgs since 1135. The town was probably founded by the brothers of Eschenbach, who held the abbacy of Murbach and Lucerne at the same time at the end of the 12th century. The exact year of the town's foundation is unknown, but it must have been between 1180 and 1200. The city became increasingly important as a key point in the growing Gotthard traffic and as an administrative centre. By 1250 Lucerne had already reached the size it maintained until the 19th century. In the 13th century Lucerne was marked by party fights between supporters of the emperor and the pope and seemed to have already had a municipal self-administration with a council and a citizens' assembly. In 1291, the German king Rudolf I of Habsburg acquired the lordship rights of the Murbach monastery over Lucerne, having already systematically bought up the surrounding territories.

The disputes over the German royal throne in 1314-1325 also led to hostilities in the lands around Lake Lucerne. To stabilize the situation, Lucerne entered into a confederation with the three neighboring forest territories of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden in 1332. This alliance was not specifically directed against the Habsburgs: Lucerne expressly reserved its obligations to the dominion of Austria.

Particularly from the second half of the 14th century, Lucerne successfully began to strengthen its influence in the surrounding rural areas and to bind lordship rights to itself. This expansive territorial policy, which was also pushed by other Confederate cities such as Zurich, inevitably led to conflicts with the dominion of Austria and culminated in the Battle of Sempach in 1386. The victory of the Confederate parties allowed Lucerne to consolidate its dominion, which already roughly corresponded to the present-day canton of Lucerne in terms of its extent.

From the city to the city-state (1386-1520)

In 1415 Lucerne was granted imperial freedom by King Sigismund and was thus an imperial city until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Lucerne formed a strong member of the confederation. The city expanded its territorial rule, levied taxes and appointed civil servant bailiffs. The city's population of 3000 declined by about 40 percent. This was caused by the plague (around 1350, in several waves) and several wars (the so-called Ennetbirgic campaigns). After witch hunts had initially spread mainly in the French-speaking world, the term "Hexereye" appeared in 1419 in a sorcery trial against a man in Lucerne and thus for the first time in the German-speaking world.

Suburb of Catholic Switzerland (c. 1520-1798)

In the growing confederation of the Swiss Confederation, Lucerne was one of the influential towns. When the Reformation split the Confederation after 1520, most cities became Reformed, but Lucerne remained Catholic. After the victory of the Catholics over the Reformed at the Battle of Kappel in 1531, the Catholic towns dominated the Confederation. Despite the military victory in the First Villmerger War in 1656, the balance shifted in favour of the Reformed cities such as Zurich, Bern and Basel, which defeated the Catholics in the Second Villmerger War in 1712. Lucerne's leading position in the Confederation was thus over. In the 16th and 17th centuries, wars and epidemics became increasingly rare, the population grew strongly, especially in the countryside, while the city hardly grew at all within its walls.

Century of Revolutions (1798-1914)

In 1798, nine years after the beginning of the French Revolution, the French army marched into Switzerland. The Old Confederation disintegrated and the rule of the patricians was transformed into a democracy, the Helvetic Republic was born, whose capital was Lucerne for a short time.

The industrial revolution came late to Lucerne. In 1860, only 1.7 percent of the population was employed in home or factory work, which was only a quarter as much as in the rest of Switzerland. The canton was dominated by agriculture, with a high proportion of 40 percent of the workforce employed in farming. Nevertheless, the city attracted quite a few industries, but these settled in the communities around Lucerne. From 1850 to 1913, the population quadrupled and its settlement area grew. From 1856 the railways followed, first those to Olten and Basel, in 1864 to Zug and Zurich and in 1897 to the south.

From 1910 to 1912, the Ville de Lucerne, an airship for passenger sightseeing flights, operated in Lucerne. The landing site with the hangar and a gas power station was located in Tribschenmoos.

Development accents in the 20th century (1914-2000)

In the 20th century, the suburbs became more and more important. The population of the surrounding metropolitan area doubled, while the urban population increased only slowly. The connection to the A2 motorway followed in 1981.

Development in the 21st century (from 2001)

On 17 June 2007, the residents of Lucerne and Littau voted in favour of a municipal merger of Littau with Lucerne. In Lucerne, 9869 of those eligible to vote voted in favour of the merger, 8875 against (53% to 47%, turnout 46.2%). The people of Littau voted in favour of the merger with 2824 against 2343 (55% to 45%, voter turnout 60.4%). The merger was completed on 1 January 2010. The "new" city will continue to be called Lucerne and will retain the old city coat of arms. The population is now around 75,000.

However, the Lucerne City Council saw this as only the first step towards further mergers. In November 2011, Ebikon, Adligenswil and Kriens decided against a merger. In March 2012, the voters of Emmen rejected the opening of merger negotiations with the city of Lucerne in a referendum.

View of Lucerne from Mount Pilatus


View from the Rigi 1798 m above sea level to the Pilatus near Lucerne 2129 m above sea level.


Old town of Lucerne with view of the river Reuss


Aerial view, October 2012


Jesuit Church and Needle Weir


Aerial photograph by Walter Mittelholzer (1919)


Scene from medieval Lucerne: at the fish market, Jörg Supersaxo, a Milanese agent, is arrested


View of the city of Lucerne by Matthäus Merian based on the Martiniplan


View of Lucerne by Martin Martini 1597


Map of the territorial development of the Lucerne city state until 1798


Oldest view of the city of Lucerne by Petermann Etterlin, 1507. St. Peter's Chapel is clearly visible in front with the Chapel Bridge and part of the Court Bridge at the right edge of the picture.