The shores of Lake Sempach have been inhabited since the Neolithic. Sursee municipality is home to the Halbinsel prehistoric
pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlement that is part of the
Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site. Halbinsel was settled a number of times during the
Neolithic and
Bronze Age. At Zellmoos in the Halbinsel site, the bottom layer is from the
Cortaillod culture while there are several Late Bronze Age layers above it. There are three Late Bronze Age layers at Gammainseli. The Zellmoos sites were discovered in 1806 and excavated in 1902, 1941, 1991 and 2005. The Bronze Age sites featured several houses with clay floors. A number of ceramic, bronze, bone, stone and flint items were found in the excavation. The Gammainseli site has been known since the 19th century, and was explored by divers in 2005, who found Late Bronze Age
potsherds, animal bones and a few bronze items. Some neolithic flints were also found, but no trace of a settlement has been discovered. In the Roman era, there was a
vicus just to the west of the town. In the 8th century, a wooden church was built around which the village gradually developed. The wooden church was replaced by stonework in c. 800, again rebuilt in c. 1000. An
Alamannic cemetery and the remains of another early medieval church were excavated to the north-east of the town. The first mention as
Surse dates to 1036, as Ulrich I of
Lenzburg gave the village to
Beromünster abbey. The village grew into a small town in the 13th century, granted city rights by the
Dukes of Austria in 1299. Sursee was conquered by
Lucerne in 1415, and managed to retain its city rights under the new lordship. In the later 19th century, the furnace-factory
Ofenfabrik Sursee grew to be the largest employer. By 1950, Sursee was affected by uncontrolled growth and today faces the problems of many agglomeration cities. But during the 1990s, authorities tried to guide the growth in a more controlled, higher quality direction. In 2003, the
Wakker Prize was awarded to Sursee for the development and preservation of its architectural heritage. Sursee was awarded the prize for their efforts to control and direct the formerly uncontrolled expansion while avoiding turning the historic old city into a museum or an empty show piece. ==Geography==