Chapel Bridge
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Chapel Bridge is a covered wooden footbridge crossing the Reuss diagonally in Lucerne. It takes its name from nearby St. Peter’s Chapel.
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Why go
- Seventeenth-century paintings illustrate Lucerne’s history.
- The Water Tower has served as a prison, torture chamber, municipal archive and treasury.
Don't miss
- Painted panelsLook in the rafters for scenes of 12th-century city life and Swiss history, including stories of St. Leger and St. Maurice. Photographs of the originals replaced destroyed painted panels.Inside the bridge, in the rafters.
- Water TowerSee the octagonal tower, which remains in its original condition.Beside the bridge, roughly halfway across.
- Charred painting remnantsSee blackened original paintings marking the boundary between surviving and rebuilt sections.At the two joins between preserved and reconstructed sections.
Know before you go
- The Water Tower is closed to visitors.
Tips for your visit
- During carnival, protective carnival pictures cover the historic paintings, hiding the usual panels.
Interesting facts4
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270 metres
The bridge originally stretched more than 270 metres; today it measures 204.7 metres.
Kapellbrücke - Wikipedia -
34.5 metres
The Water Tower is 34.5 metres tall and predates the bridge by about 30 years.
Kapellbrücke - Wikipedia -
Triangulated trusses support the bridge on piled trestles.
Kapellbrücke - Wikipedia -
City council members who sponsored paintings could have their coats of arms added to the panels.
Kapellbrücke - Wikipedia
Shorts
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Remembering the Chapel Bridge fireSWI swissinfo.ch - English
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Chapel Bridge | Lucerne, Switzerlandwendzandre
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Lucerne's Chapel Bridge: Why You MUST Visit This Swiss Icon (History …Travelexpro
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Chapel Bridge, Footbridge in Lucerne, Switzerland | 4K Drone Footage …Time to Travel
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Walking Across Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) 🇨🇭 | Lucerne’s Most Landm…Travel with Mr Evening
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Chapel Bridge LucerneSarah Martin
History
A fire in 1993 damaged the bridge and paintings.
- c.1365The bridge was built as part of Lucerne’s fortifications.
- 15th centuryBenches made the bridge a place for people to gather.
- 1611Town chronicler Renward Cysat finalised his ideas for the painting cycle.
- 17th centuryPainter Hans Heinrich Wägmann and his four sons received the commission. The paintings included Catholic scenes from the Counter-Reformation.
- 1646The paintings were first restored.
Show all
- 1741–42A flood damaged four pillars, and part of the weakened bridge collapsed. Repairs followed.
- c.1835The riverbank was filled in, shortening the bridge by about 75 metres.
- 1869The municipal council defeated a proposal to remove the bridge over concerns about water flow.
- 18 August 1993The fire spared only the two bridgeheads and Water Tower. Of the original 158 painting panels, 147 remained before the blaze; 110 were affected.
- 14 April 1994After eight months of rebuilding, the bridge reopened to pedestrians and was dedicated.
- After the 1993 fire–1998Forty-seven painting remnants were recovered after the fire; 30 paintings had been restored by 1998.
- 2014Voters rejected an initiative to hang 146 copies of the bridge paintings.
How to get there
- On footThe bridge links the Lucerne Theatre on the south bank with St. Peter’s Chapel on Rathausquai, between the Seebrücke upstream and Rathaussteg downstream.
Sources: Kapellbrücke - Wikipedia · Lucerne - Wikivoyage (see) · Chapel Bridge | Lucerne's landmark · Lucerne Guest Card | Discounts for guests | Use… · Über Luzern Tourismus · Kapellbrücke - Wikipedia · Kapellbrücke - Wikipedia · Kapellbrücke - Wikipedia · Für Freunde & Familien | Ausflüge und Erlebnisse · checked 24 Sep 2026
Where
Kapellbruecke, 6003
- Website
- luzern.com/en/chapel-bridge
- Phone
- +41 41 227 17 17
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