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Lucerne - a gem in the heart of Switzerland
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Member: Suiza  
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Description: Goethe described Switzerland as a combination of "the colossal and the well-ordered." One is always sure that the trains and letters will be on time. The tidy, just-so precision of Swiss towns is tempered by the lofty splendor of the landscapes that surround them. Fresh mountain air, clear blue lakes and clean cultured cities make Switzerland a dream come true. A gem at the heart of Switzerland is Lucerne, lapped by scenic Lake Lucerne and surrounded by majestic snow-capped mountains - its striking skyline epitomizes the very essence of Switzerland. It is often considered to be the true "Swiss" capital. Charming Lucerne has an 'Old Town' center of 15th-century buildings with painted facades, towers, a 17th-century Renaissance town hall, old squares and picture-perfect medieval bridges adorned with rooftop art. Any tour of Lucerne must begin with the 14th-century covered Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), the oldest road bridge in Europe, angled around the octagonal mid-river Wasserturm (water tower). Constructed in 1333 as a part of the city's fortifications and named after St. Peterskapelle (St. Peter's Chapel), which is located nearby, the wooden bridge has come to stand as the symbol of Lucerne. The principal historical interest of the bridge lay in its collection of double-sided triangular roof ceiling panels, painted by Heinrich Wägmann in 1614 with scenes from the city's historical past and mythological events, including the biographies of the city's patron saints, St. Leodegar and St. Maurice. Each is numbered, and captioned with rhyming couplets, the idiosyncratic local dialect written out in obscure medieval gothic script. The most distinctive image is panel no. 31, which shows William Tell shooting the apple from his son's head. The water tower - over 34 meters high - was built around 1300 as part of the city wall and used as an archive, treasury, prison and torture chamber. It is Lucerne's landmark and the most frequently photographed monument in Switzerland. Kapellplatz, at the bridgehead of the Kapellbrücke, encircles the tiny 18th-century St. Peter's Chapel, built over a predecessor dating from as early as 1178. Some 150m west is Kornmarkt, site of the medieval public marketplace. On one side, overlooking the riverside market area of Unter der Egg, is the huge Rathaus, completed in 1606 in Italian Renaissance style but crowned with an oddly incongruous Emmentaler-style roof. The twin needle towers of the church of St. Leodegar, which was named after the city's patron saint, sit on a small hill just above the lakefront. Originally built as a Benedictine monastery in 735, the present structure was erected in 1633 in the late Renaissance style. It is the most important Renaissance church in Switzerland. Especially noteworthy are the façade, Mary's altar (with a relief panel dating from 1500), and the souls' altar. The interior is richly decorated. The church is popularly called the Hofkirche (Hof Church). Not far from the city center is is one of the world's most famous monuments, the dying Lion of Lucerne (Löwendenkmal), done by Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen) in 1819-21. It was carved out of natural rock in memory of the heroic deaths of some 800 Swiss guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the mob stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, where King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their children took refuge. Mark Twain described the Lion of Lucerne as the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world.
Category: Viajes y lugares
Tags: Lucerne Switzerland Chapel Bridge Water Tower Rathaus Hof Church St.Leger St.Peter'sChapel LionofLucerne
Added: 10-08-2008 Runtime: 10 min 2 sec
Views: 2850  |  Downloads: 0  |  Favorited: 0

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