Something to Declare

Post No. 12. Luzern is Lovely the Second Time Around.

September 14, 2023

Today was our day to show off to Lisa our new-found familiarity with Luzern. The first stop was the Jesuit Church (Jesuitenkirche), which is the first major Baroque church in Switzerland (c. 1670). The interior was once decorated in Baroque style, but was re-done in Rococo in 1750. Note the absence of stained-glass windows.

(Truth in advertising: I never took Art History, and don’t know what characterizes Baroque or Rococo, or what distinguishes one from the other, except that the latter is supposed to be less ornate. I think.)

The interior looks rich, but contains no real marble. It’s really stucco made from ground-up marble laid over wood. Very economical. One of the side chapels is dedicated to Brother Klaus, the 15th century hermit who became Switzerland’s only Saint.

The Sound of Music: One notable event at the Jesuitenkirche: Stef happened to be reading aloud to us from the Rick Steves guidebook, about the possibility of being in the church when they’d be having an organ recital. When, at that very moment, the whole church began to reverberate and resound with rich hymnal chords. We looked back at the organ pipes at the rear of the church.

We’d gotten there just in time for an organ concert! Who’d have guessed? (We joked about miracles.)

Then it happened again! We had left the Jesuitenkirche and were continuing our Spaziergang (stroll) in the Old Town when we came to another church (St. Peter’s Chapel in this case), where there was a sign on the door announcing a concert at “zwölfnachzwölf” (twelve after twelve) – a reference to the twelve apostles:

We all looked at our watches: 12:12 pm! How could we not go in? And sure enough, there was a young woman playing the first of two pieces, the Gnossienne No. 1, by Erik Satie, on the bass viol. It bears mentioning that Satie is a favorite of mine, and that I enjoy playing all six of Satie’s Gnossiennes on the piano. We sat for the performance, again contemplating the idea of funny coincidences vs. miracles.

Walking Tour, continued. Back to the walking tour. We’d taken Lisa over the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), from which you can see the onion domes of the Jesuitenkirche

and, in the distance, on the ridge above the city, the Chateau Gütsch (looks like a frou-frou castle, but it’s a hotel).

The smaller grey building to the right of the Chateau is the place where Queen Victoria stayed for about a month in 1868. She was honoring her late husband, Prince Albert, who had climbed nearby Mount Rigi. She was in her seventh year of mourning for Albert. L-o-n-g mourning.

Walking around the Old Town of Luzern, we enjoyed the elaborate paintings of the building façades.

One verged on the grotesque. The one below is of the Hotel Fritschi, on the Sternenplatz.

The building has images that represent Luzern’s Mardi Gras (Fastnacht) festival, including depictions of Herr and Frau Fritschi in masks, throwing oranges. Zu jedem sein einigen Geschmack (‘to each his own taste’).

Have I noted the presence of swans on the waters of the River Reuss?

We’d also seen a lot of swans on the River Limmat in Zürich and on the Zürichersee. We were informed that these birds were descendants of a bevy of swans gifted to Switzerland by the French King Louis XIV, in thanks for the services provided to him by Swiss mercenaries. (It occurred to me that, if I had been a Swiss mercenary of the 17th century who had provided such service, I’d have preferred a gift that was a little more personal and a little more pecuniary. Just sayin’.)

We walked back to the car, crossing the other medieval bridge, the Spreuerbrücke (Mill Bridge), from which we saw parts of the Reuss River weir system. These were sluiceways constructed to prevent flooding of ice-melt water flowing into the Reuss from Lake Luzern.

For today, that’s all, folks! Tomorrow: Bern.