Lucerne

Lucerne stands where the Reuss leaves Lake Lucerne, a crossing town at the northern approach to the Gotthard trade route. Its early growth centred on the Benedictine monastery of St Leodegar, founded around 750 and later acquired by Murbach Abbey. The town gained independence from Murbach's jurisdiction in 1178, while the fourteenth-century wooden Chapel Bridge joined its banks. In 1332 Lucerne allied with Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, entering the Swiss Confederacy.

Victory over the Habsburgs at Sempach in 1386 opened a period of territorial expansion, and Lucerne gained imperial immediacy in 1415. During the Reformation the city remained Catholic, and in 1567 it welcomed Jesuits supported by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo of Milan. An elaborate Passion play was performed annually from 1453 to 1616, lasting two days. In the Swiss Peasants' War of 1653, a rebel army besieged Lucerne, which swiftly made peace with the insurgents. The French invasion of 1798 brought the old Confederacy to an end.