Early history and founding (750–1386) After the
fall of the Roman Empire beginning in the 6th century, Germanic
Alemannic peoples increased their influence on this area of present-day Switzerland. Around 750 the
Benedictine Monastery of St. Leodegar was founded, which was later acquired by
Murbach Abbey in
Alsace in the middle of the 9th century, and by this time the area had become known as . The origin of the name is uncertain, it is possibly derived from the Latin name of the
pike, , thus designating a pike fishing spot in the river Reuss. Derivation from the theonym
Lugus has been suggested but is phonetically implausible. In any case, the name was associated by popular etymology with Latin 'lantern' from an early time. In 1178 Lucerne acquired its independence from the jurisdiction of Murbach Abbey, and the founding of the city proper probably occurred that same year. The city gained importance as a strategically located gateway for the growing commerce from the
Gotthard trade route. By 1290, Lucerne had become a self-sufficient city of reasonable size with about 3000 inhabitants. About this time
King Rudolph I von Habsburg gained authority over the Monastery of St. Leodegar and its lands, including Lucerne. The populace was not content with the increasing
Habsburg influence, and Lucerne allied with neighboring towns to seek independence from their rule. Along with Lucerne, the three other forest cantons of
Uri,
Schwyz and
Unterwalden formed the "eternal"
Swiss Confederacy, known as the , on November 7, 1332. Later the cities of
Zurich,
Zug and
Bern joined the alliance. With the help of these additions, the rule of
Austria over the area came to an end. The issue was settled by Lucerne's victory over the Habsburgs in the
Battle of Sempach in 1386. For Lucerne this victory ignited an era of expansion. The city shortly granted many rights to itself, rights which had been withheld by the Habsburgs until then. By this time the borders of Lucerne were approximately those of today (excluding Littau).
From city to city-state (1386–1520) In 1415 Lucerne gained from
Emperor Sigismund and became a strong member of the Swiss confederacy. The city developed its infrastructure, raised taxes, and appointed its own local officials. The city's population of 3000 dropped about 40% due to the
Black Plague and several wars around 1350. In 1419 town records show the first witch trial against a male person. In 1471, the law was passed to persecute the
Romani people of Indian origin.
Swiss-Catholic town (1520–1798) Among the growing towns of the confederacy, Lucerne was especially popular in attracting new residents. Remaining predominantly Catholic, Lucerne hosted its own annual
passion play from 1453 to 1616, a two-day-long play of 12 hours performance per day. As the confederacy broke up during the
Reformation, after 1520, most nearby cities became Protestant, but Lucerne remained Catholic. After the victory of the Catholics over the Protestants in the
Battle at Kappel in 1531, the Catholic towns dominated the confederacy. It was during this period that
Jesuits first came to Lucerne in 1567, with their arrival given considerable backing by Cardinal
Carlo Borromeo,
Archbishop of Milan. The region, though, was destined to be dominated by Protestant majority cities such as Zurich, Bern and
Basel, which defeated the Catholic forces in the 1712
Toggenburg War. The former prominent position of Lucerne in the confederacy was lost forever. In the 16th and 17th centuries, wars and epidemics became steadily less frequent and as a result the population of the country increased strongly. Lucerne was besieged by a peasant army and quickly signed a peace treaty with the rebels in the
Swiss peasant war of 1653.
Century of revolutions (1798–1914) , , . Etching by
Heinrich Müller In 1798, nine years after the beginning of the
French Revolution, the French army marched into Switzerland. The
Old Swiss Confederacy collapsed and the government became democratic. The
Industrial Revolution hit Lucerne rather late, and by 1860 only 1.7% of the population worked in industry, which was about a quarter of the national average at that time.
Agriculture, which employed about 40% of the workers, was the main form of economic output in the canton. Nevertheless, industry was attracted to the city from areas around Lucerne. From 1850 to 1913, the population quadrupled and the flow of settlers increased. In 1856 trains first linked the city to
Olten and Basel, then Zug and Zurich in 1864 and finally to the south in 1897. The 1804 play
William Tell by
Friedrich Schiller did much to establish the reputation of Lucerne and its environs. Schiller himself had not been to Lucerne, but was inspired to write the play by his wife Lotte and his friend
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who had both personally visited the city and its surrounding canton. Goethe had lodged in the Hirschenplatz on his route to Italy in 1779. It was during the latter part of the 19th century that Lucerne became a popular destination for artists, royalty and others to escape to. The German composer
Richard Wagner established a residence at
Tribschen in 1866, where he lived and worked. The city was then boosted by a visit by
Queen Victoria to the city in 1868, during which she went sightseeing at the
Kapellbrücke and the
Lion Monument and relished speaking with local people in her native German. Lucerne, Villa Wallis (1870).jpg|
Pension Wallis (close to
Château Gütsch), where Queen Victoria stayed in 1868 The Queen's View, Lake of Lucerne, from the Pension Wallis (The Illustrated London News, 1869).jpg|"''The Queen's View, Lake of Lucerne, from the Pension Wallis
by Collingwood Smith", from The Illustrated London News'', 1869 The American writer
Mark Twain further popularised the city and its environs in his travel writings after visiting twice, in 1878 and 1897. In 1892 Swiss poet and future
Nobel laureate Carl Spitteler also established himself in Lucerne, living there until his death in 1924. Lucerne's status as a fashionable destination led to it becoming one of the first centres of modern-style tourism. Some of the city's most recognisable buildings are hotels from this period, such as the Schweizerhof Hotel (1845),
Grand Hotel National (1870), and
Château Gütsch (1879). It was at the
National that Swiss hotelier
César Ritz would establish himself as manager between 1878 and 1888.
1993 great fire (1919) In August 1993, the
Kapellbrücke, in the centre of the city, suffered from a great fire which destroyed two thirds of its interior paintings. The bridge was subsequently reconstructed and reopened to the public in April 1994, after a total of CHF 3.4 million was spent on its repair.
Merge with Littau On June 17, 2007, voters of the city of Lucerne and the adjacent town of
Littau agreed to a merger in a simultaneous
referendum. This took effect on January 1, 2010. The new city, still called Lucerne, has a population of around 80,000 people, making it the seventh-largest city in Switzerland. The results of this referendum are expected to pave the way for negotiations with other nearby cities and towns in an effort to create a unified city-region, based on the results of a study. ==Geography and climate==