The canton is composed of the various districts which the town acquired, the dates being those at which the particular region was finally secured—Weggis (1380), Rothenburg, Kriens, Horw, Sempach and Hochdorf (all in 1394), Wolhusen and the Entlebuch (1405), the so-called “Habsburger region” to the N.E. of the town of Lucerne (1406), Willisau (1407), Sursee and Beromünster (1415), Malters (1477) and Littau (1481), while in 1803, in exchange for Hitzkirch, Merenschwand (held since 1397) was given up.
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LUCERNE, the capital of the Swiss canton of the same name. It is one of the principal tourist centres of Switzerland, being situated on the St Gotthard railway line, by which it is 59 m. from Basel and 180 m. from Milan. Its prosperity has always been bound up with the St Gotthard Pass, so that the successive improvements effected on that route (mule path in the 13th century, carriage road 1820-1830, and railway tunnel in 1882) have had much effect on its growth. It is beautifully situated on the banks of the river Reuss, just as it issues from the Lake of Lucerne, while to the south-west rises the rugged range of Pilatus, balanced on the east by the more smiling ridge of the Rigi and the calm waters of the lake. The town itself is very picturesque. On the rising ground to its north still stand nine of the towers that defended the old town wall on the Musegg slope. The Reuss is still crossed by two quaint old wooden bridges, the upper being the Kapellbrücke (adorned by many paintings illustrating the history of Switzerland and the town and clinging to the massive Wasserthurm) and the lower the Mühlenbrücke (also with paintings, this time of the Dance of Death). The old Hofbrücke (on the site of the Schweizerhof quay) was removed in 1852, when the process of embanking the shore of the lake began, the result being a splendid series of quays, along which rise palatial hotels. The principal building is the twin-towered Hofkirche (dedicated to St Leger or Leodegar) which, though in its present form it dates only from 1633-1635, was the centre round which the town gradually gathered; originally it formed part of a Benedictine monastery, but since 1455 has been held by a college of secular canons. It has a fine 17th-century organ. The 16th-century town-hall (Rathhaus) now houses the cantonal museum of antiquities of all dates. Both the cantonal and the town libraries are rich in old books, the latter being now specially devoted to works (MS. or printed) relating to Swiss history before 1848. The Lion monument, designed by Thorwaldsen, dedicated in 1821, and consisting of a dying lion hewn out of the living sandstone, commemorates the officers and men of the Swiss Guard (26 officers and about 760 men) who were slain while defending the Tuileries in Paris in 1792, and is reflected in a clear pool at its foot. In the immediate neighbourhood is the Glacier Garden, a series of potholes worn in the sandstone rock bed of an ancient glacier. Among modern buildings are the railway station, the post office and the Museum of War and Peace, all in the new quarter on the left bank of the Reuss. In the interior of the town are many quaint old private houses. In 1799 the population numbered but 4337, but had doubled by 1840. Since then the rise has been rapid and continuous, being 29,255 in 1900. The vast majority are German-speaking (in 1900 there were 1242 Italian-speaking and 529 French-speaking persons) and Romanists (in 1900 there were 4933 Protestants and 299 Jews).
The nucleus of the town was a Benedictine monastery, founded about 750 on the right bank of the Reuss by the abbey of Murbach in Alsace, of which it long remained a “cell.” It is first mentioned in a charter of 840 under the name of “Luciaria,” which is probably derived from that of the patron saint of the monastery, St Leger or Leodegar (in O. Ger. Leudegar or Lutgar)—the form “Lucerrun” is first found in 1252. Under the shadow of this monastery there grew up a small village. The germs of a municipal constitution appear in 1252, while the growing power of the Habsburgs in the neighbourhood weakened the ties that bound Lucerne to Murbach. In 1291 the Habsburgs finally purchased Lucerne from Murbach, an act that led a few weeks later to the foundation of the Swiss Confederation, of which Lucerne became the fourth member (the first town to be included) in 1332. But it did not get rid of all traces of Habsburg domination till after the glorious victory of Sempach (1386). That victory led also to the gradual acquisition of territory ruled by and from the town. At the time of the Reformation Lucerne clave to the old faith, of which ever since it has been the great stronghold in Switzerland. The papal nuncio resided here from 1601 to 1873. In the 16th century, as elsewhere in Switzerland, the town government fell into the hands of an aristocratic oligarchy, whose power, though shaken by the great peasant revolt (1653) in the Entlebuch, lasted till 1798. Under the Helvetic republic (1798-1803) Lucerne was the seat of the central government, under the Act of Mediation (1803-1814) one of the six “Directorial” cantons and from 1815 to 1848 one of the three ruling cantons. The patrician government was swept away by the cantonal constitution of 1831. But in 1841 the Conservatives regained power, called in the Jesuits (1844) and so brought about the Sonderbund War (1847) in which they were defeated, the decisive battle taking place at Gisikon, not far from Lucerne. Since 1848 Lucerne has been in disfavour with the Radicals who control the federal government, and has not been chosen as the site of any great federal institution. The Radicals lost power in the canton in 1871, after which date the Conservatives became predominant in the canton, though in the town the Radicals were in the majority.
See J. J. Blumer, Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte d. Schweiz. Demokratien (3 vols., St Gall, 1850-1859); A. L. Gassmann, Das Volkslied im Luzerner Wiggerthal u. Hinterland (Basel, 1906); Geschichtsfreund (organ of the Historical Society of the Forest Cantons) from 1843. A. von Liebenau, Charakterbilder aus Luzern’s Vergangenheit (2 vols., Lucerne, 1884-1891); T. von Liebenau, Das alte Luzern (Lucerne, 1881) and “Der luzernische Bauernkrieg vom 1653” (3 articles in vols. xviii.-xx., 1893-1895, of the Jahrbuch f. Schweizerische Geschichte); Heimathkunde für den Kanton Luzern (6 vols., Lucerne, 1867-1883); A. Lütolf, Sagen, Bräuche, Legenden aus d. Fünf Orten (Lucerne, 1862); K. Pfyffer, Der Kanton Luzern (2 vols., 1858-1859) and Geschichte d. Stadt u. Kanton Luzern (2 vols., new ed., 1861); A. P. von Segesser, Rechtsgeschichte d. Stadt u. Republik Luzern (4 vols., 1850-1858) and 45 Jahre (1841-1887) im Luzernischen Staatsdienst (Bern, 1887); J. Sowerby, The Forest Cantons of Switzerland (London, 1892).
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LUCERNE, LAKE OF, the name usually given by foreigners to the principal lake of Central Switzerland. In French it is called the Lac des Quatre Cantons, and in German the Vierwaldstättersee, this term being often wrongly translated “Lake of the Four Forest Cantons,” whereas it means the “Lake of the Four Valleys”—valles—which form the four Cantons of Lucerne, Unterwalden, Uri and Schwyz. It takes its name from the town of Lucerne, which is situated at its west end, just where the Reuss issues from the lake, after having entered it at Flüelen at the east end and so practically formed it; the Muota enters the lake at Brunnen (northern shore) and the two mountain streams called the Engelberg and the Sarnen Aa at Buochs and Alpnachstad respectively (S.). The lake is generally supposed to be, on the whole, the most beautiful in Switzerland. This is partly due to the steep limestone mountains between which it lies, the best known being the Rigi (5906 ft.) to the N., and Pilatus (6995 ft.) to the S.W., and to the great promontories that thrust themselves into its waters, such as those of Horw (S.), of Bürgenstock (S.), of Meggenhorn (N.) and of Seelisberg (S.), and partly to the irregularity of its shape. It is, in fact, composed of four main basins (with two side basins), which represent four different valleys, orographically distinct, and connected only by narrow and tortuous channels. There is, first, the most easterly basin, the Bay of Uri, extending from Flüelen on the south to Brunnen on the north. At Brunnen the great delta of the Muota forces the lake to the west, so that it forms the Bay of Gersau or the Gulf of Buochs, extending from the promontory of Seelisberg (E.) to that of the Bürgenstock (W.). Another narrow strait between the two “Noses” (Nasen) leads westwards to the Basin of Weggis, enclosed between the Rigi (N.) and the Bürgenstock promontory (S.). This last named bay forms the eastern arm of what is called the Cross of Lucerne, the western arm of which is formed by the Bay of Lucerne, while the northern arm is the Bay of Küssnacht and the southern that of Hergiswil, prolonged S.W. by the Bay of Alpnach, with which it is joined by a very narrow channel, spanned by the Acher iron bridge. The Bay of Uri offers the sternest scenery, but is the most interesting, by reason of its connexion with early Swiss history—at Brunnen the Everlasting League of 1315 was really made, while the legendary place of meeting of the founders of Swiss freedom was the meadow of the Rütli on the west (purchased by the Confederation in 1859), and the site of Tell’s leap is marked by the Chapel of Tell (E.). Nearly opposite Brunnen, close to the west shore, an isolated rock (the Schillerstein or Mythenstein) now bears an inscription in honour of Friedrich Schiller, the author of the famous play of William Tell (1804). In the Bay of Gersau the most interesting spot is the village of Gersau (N.), which formed an independent republic from 1390 to 1798, but in 1818 was finally united to the canton of Schwyz. In the next basin to the west is Weggis (N.), also for long in the middle ages a small independent state; to the S.E. of Weggis, on the north shore of the lake, is Vitznau, whence a rack railway (1871) leads up to the top of the Rigi (4¼ m.), while S.W. of Weggis, on the south shore of the lake, is Kehrsiten, whence an electric railway leads up to the great hotels on the Bürgenstock promontory (2854 ft.). The town of Lucerne is connected with Flüelen by the main line of the St Gotthard railway (32 m.), though only portions of this line (from Lucerne to Küssnacht, 10½ m., and from Brunnen to Flüelen, 7 m.) run along the shore; Brunnen is also connected with Flüelen by the splendid carriage road known as the Axenstrasse (7¼ m.) and is the starting-point of an electric line (1905) up to Morschach (S.E.) and the great hotels of Axenstein and Axenfels near it. On the promontory between Lucerne and Küssnacht stands the castle of New Habsburg (modern), while from Küssnacht a carriage road leads through the remains of the “Hollow Way” (Hohle Gasse), the scene of the legendary murder of Gessler by William Tell. The west shore of the southern arm, or the basin of Hergiswil and the Bay of Alpnach, is traversed from Horw to Alpnachstad by the Brünig railway (5½ m.), which continues towards Sarnen (Obwalden) and the Bernese Oberland, S.W. from Alpnachstad, whence a rack railway leads N.W. up Pilatus (2¾ m.). Opposite Hergiswil, but on the east shore of the Basin of Hergiswil, is Stanstad, the port of Stans (Nidwalden), which is connected by an electric line with Engelberg (14 m.). The first steamer was placed on the lake in 1835. Lucerne is the only town of importance, but several spots serve as ports for neighbouring towns or large villages (Brunnen for Schwyz, Flüelen for Altdorf, Stanstad for Stans, Alpnachstad for Sarnen). Most of the villages on the shores are frequented in summer by visitors (Gersau also in winter), especially Hertenstein, Weggis, Gersau, Brunnen, Beckenried and Hergiswil, while great hotels, commanding magnificent views, have been built on heights above it, such as the Bürgenstock, Seelisberg, and near Morschach, above Brunnen, besides those on the Rigi, Pilatus and the Stanserhorn. The area of the lake is about 44½ sq. m., its length about 24 m., its greatest width only 2 m. and its greatest depth 702 ft., while the surface of the water is 1434 ft. above sea-level. Of the total area about 15½ sq. m. are in the Canton of Lucerne, 13 sq. m. in that of Nidwalden, 7½ sq. m. in that of Uri, 7½ sq. m. in that of Schwyz, and about 1 sq. m. in that of Obwalden.
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