Can you help me, i need imformation on Lucerne Switzerland?

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Jean-Paul J

Hi there,

Just so you know, Lucerne is the French/English name of Luzern, a town in German-speaking Switzerland.

Luzern's main attractions are:

*The National Transportation Museum (the 'Verkehrshaus') which is Switzerland's most famous museum. It is so big that you need an entire day to visit it. It is really worth it!

*The Lake of Four Cantons, a magnificent lake with stunning views of the Swiss Alps. Best seen from the Lake Paddle Steamers.

*Mount Pilatus, home to the steepest rack railway (funicular) in the world, with a gradient of 48%! Mount Pilatus base (the town of Alpnachstad) is 20 minutes from Luzern by train and 1 hour and 15 min's from Luzern by boat.

*Luzern Old Town,small and cosy is cut in half by the Reuss River, which can be crossed by the famous Chapel Bridge (1365), known for its beautiful paintings.

Specialties of Luzern:

*People from Luzern speak a form of Swiss-German that is very difficult, nigh impossible to understand. Taking German at school or at college will help you a bit but Swiss German is still very different from "High" German spoken in Germany

Some facts:
*On average a Swiss Person visits the Verkehrshaus three times in their lifetime. Once as a child. The second time as a Parent and the third time as a Grandparent

*The Chapel Bridge was badly damaged in 1993 by fire caused by a cigarette butt. It re-opened in 1994

*Mount Pilatus railway uses a unique cog wheel system, the "Locher" system, in which the cogs are mounted on vertical axes as opposes to horizontal ones. This means that there are no conventional switches on the 4.6â€”km long line and instead "rotary" switches are employed

A Brief History:

The earliest settlement in the area was an Abbey, founded in 750. A town began to grow around it and by 1178 the town of Luzern itself was founded. In 1332 it joined the Swiss Confederation along with its namesake canton. When the Black Death of 1350 hit Switzerland, Lucerne's population fell by 40%. In 1653 Luzern was involved in the Swiss Peasant Revolt which saw rural labourers rising up against the cities. Luzern went into decline following the Battles of Villmergen (1656 and 1712) which saw the victory of Protestant Forces

By the middle of the 19th century less than 2% of people in Luzern worked in Industry, but with the advent of the railways this changed and many people moved to Luzern and settled there. In 2007, the people of Luzern voted to merge with the town of Littau. This will occur in 2010.

Hope this helped,

JPJ

Bix

Check out this website:

http://www.luzern.org/en/welcome.cfm?

Luzern is the German name of Lucerne. Lucerne is in the Swiss-German part of Switzerland.

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