Swiss Highlights
An aerial view of the former abbey of Saint-Urbain: the baroque church with two towers topped by red onion domes stands at the center, surrounded by long white conventual buildings arranged around two courtyards, with the village and fields around it.

Lucerne

Regions

The canton of Lucerne brings together 6 places referenced on Swiss Highlights: 1 natural site, 1 heritage or cultural site, 2 villages and 2 towns.

Not to miss

The Chapel Bridge and its octagonal water tower span the Reuss at dusk; the lights of Lucerne's old town, with its snow-covered roofs, reflect in the calm water under a blue winter sky.

Old town and covered bridge · Lucerne

Lucerne, old town and Kapellbrücke

It joined the Confederation in 1332, before any other town; along the Reuss, Lucerne lines up a wooden bridge of 1333, an octagonal water tower older than the bridge, and 870 metres of curtain wall with nine towers.

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Best Swiss Villages members · “The 50 most beautiful sites” (Switzerland Tourism)

Saint Urban's AbbeyBeromünsterLake LucerneLucerne, old town and KapellbrückeLuthernSempach
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An aerial view of the former abbey of Saint-Urbain: the baroque church with two towers topped by red onion domes stands at the center, surrounded by long white conventual buildings arranged around two courtyards, with the village and fields around it.

Former abbey · Lucerne

Saint Urban's Abbey

Its choir stalls of 1700-1707 were sold as far as Scotland before being bought back in 1911 and reinstalled. Since 1873 the former monastery has housed a cantonal psychiatric institution.

View of Beromünster from a sloping meadow: in the foreground an orchard and tall grass, then the brown tiled roofs of the town; at the center, the white spire of the collegiate church topped with a tall red steeple, and behind, the cultivated hills of the Wynental under a blue sky with white clouds.

Collegiate town · Lucerne

Beromünster

Two centres, the market Flecken and the canons' Stift, at 642 metres. Helias Helye finished the first dated book printed in Switzerland here on 10 November 1470; the transmitter that gave the place its present name fell silent in 2008.

Close-up view of Lake Lucerne: a historic paddle-wheel steamboat, with a Swiss flag at the stern, crosses the lake between wooded mountains, while turquoise waves fill the entire foreground under a blue sky dotted with white clouds.

Glacial lake · Central Switzerland

Lake Lucerne

The lake covers 114 km² at 434 metres above sea level and drops to 214 metres. Its basins change direction at every narrows, below the Pilatus at 2,129 metres and the Rigi at 1,798 metres.

The Chapel Bridge and its octagonal water tower span the Reuss at dusk; the lights of Lucerne's old town, with its snow-covered roofs, reflect in the calm water under a blue winter sky.

Old town and covered bridge · Lucerne

Lucerne, old town and Kapellbrücke

It joined the Confederation in 1332, before any other town; along the Reuss, Lucerne lines up a wooden bridge of 1333, an octagonal water tower older than the bridge, and 870 metres of curtain wall with nine towers.

Colorized historical aerial view of Luthern: the village, clustered around its church with a black onion-domed spire, occupies a clearing amid a checkerboard of meadows and groves, nestled in the green hills of the Napf.

Pilgrimage village · Lucerne

Luthern

The church of St Ulrich and the buildings around it form a core raised in one movement between 1752 and 1781. Four kilometres higher up, a spring and its chapel of 1583 still draw pilgrims.

Colorized historical aerial view of Sempach, a lakeside village surrounded by orchards and fields, on the shore of Lake Sempach.

Battle town · Lucerne

Sempach

On 9 July 1386, the Battle of Sempach saw the Lucerners and their allies defeat the Habsburgs; the Sempach Pact was signed there in 1393. The town received the Wakker Prize in 2017 for preserving its old town.