Lake Lucerne

Lake Lucerne lies in Central Switzerland, with the city of Lucerne at its north-western end. Its German name, Vierwaldstättersee, means lake of the four forested cantons, after Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden (with Obwalden), whose shores it touches. The lake was shaped by glaciers during the Ice Ages and covers about 114 square kilometres, with a maximum depth of about 214 metres.

The lake is closely tied to the founding story of the Swiss Confederation. The Rütli meadow on the western shore of the Uri arm is where, according to tradition, representatives of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden swore an oath of alliance in 1291. The Tell legend is also set here, and the Tell Chapel near Sisikon marks the rock where William Tell is said to have leapt from a boat to escape.

Seen from above, the lake has an irregular shape with several arms bending between steep mountainsides. The south-eastern arm, the Urnersee, is the most fjord-like, running towards Flüelen at the start of the Gotthard route. Mountains rise straight from the shore: Rigi and Pilatus can both be reached by boat and mountain railway, and the Bürgenstock ridge juts into the water opposite the city. Villages such as Weggis, Vitznau, Brunnen and Beckenried sit along the shoreline.

Passenger boats of the Lake Lucerne Navigation Company link the towns around the lake, and the fleet includes historic paddle steamers. Many visitors combine a cruise with a cogwheel railway ride, such as the Vitznau to Rigi line, which opened in 1871 as the first mountain railway in Europe.

Boats run all year, with a fuller timetable from spring to autumn. Swiss Travel Pass holders travel free on scheduled boats, and tickets for mountain railways are sold separately or as combined excursions. Check the operator timetable before planning a round trip.

How large is Lake Lucerne?

Lake Lucerne is about 30 kilometres long at its longest and up to 20 kilometres wide, though most of its arms are only about 3 kilometres across. The surface sits at 434 metres above sea level, the average depth is 104 metres, and the lake holds about 11.8 cubic kilometres of water from a catchment of 2,124 square kilometres.

The Reuss flows in at Flüelen and leaves the lake at Lucerne, where it runs under the city's old wooden bridges. Other rivers enter at Brunnen (the Muota), Buochs (the Engelberger Aa) and Alpnachstad (the Sarner Aa), the last being the lower station of the Pilatus cogwheel railway. The shoreline measures roughly 144 kilometres.

The lake was a trade route long before it was a holiday area. Traffic over the Gotthard Pass has used it since at least 1230, and until 1863 the water was the only link along that route between Lucerne and Flüelen. Today the Lake Lucerne Navigation Company serves 32 landing stages and runs five steamships, one of the largest steamer fleets in Europe. For walkers, the Swiss Path, a 35 kilometre trail around the Urnersee, was built for the 700th anniversary of the Confederation in 1991 and passes the Rütli meadow, Seelisberg and Brunnen.