Zeitgeist, created by Richard Kissling in 1907 for the gateway to Lucerne station built in 1896. — *Zeitgeist*, created by Richard Kissling in 1907 for the gateway to Lucerne station built in 1896. The allegorical figure above the railtracks reaches boldly out to the future. The past travels with it: the wings by the wheel hubs are a reference to the Greek god Hermes. Protected beneath the wing span, two workers prepare the way hunched over their tools. Wikimedia / James Steakley

A tour of Lucerne reveals the spirit of the Belle Epoque

Swiss cities such as Lucerne experienced an epochal transformation around 1900. Its medieval centre was expanded to include prestigious residential and commercial buildings, stations, postal and administrative offices, school buildings, hotels and villas. However, architecturally this modernisation bore the hallmarks of the past. Time for a virtual tour of Lucerne.

Kurt Messmer

Kurt Messmer (1946-2025) was a historian with a focus on history in public space.

Tangible presence is key. Unlike the written word, buildings can draw us in through their sheer presence. The monumentality of historicism, the cold austerity of classicism, the elegant playfulness of the rococo style – it only takes a few examples to unleash a cosmos of expression forms. Their tangible presence allows us to perceive buildings, ensembles and squares simultaneously with different senses. Granted, taste and preference also play a part, thus ensuring a subjective experience. Nonetheless, the architectural and urban quality predominate.

Cathedral from the industrial era beside the historicised knight’s castle

Around 1800, it would have taken a coach driver 19 hours to travel from Lucerne to Basel by horse and cart. One hundred years later, the same journey was 2 hours and four minutes by train. Josef Zemp, who later became a Federal Councillor, started out travelling by stagecoach from Entlebuch to Bern as a member of parliament, before he switched to rail in 1875. The new method of transport for people and goods was a leap forward for civilisation.

Lucerne station around 1900, shortly after it was built. The importance of rail could not have been expressed in more monumental fashion. The trains’ steam engines were in the station, the hotels’ horse-led carriages waited outside on the square. hephaestus.ch

The next stage was electrification. The future belonged to the railway, yet the station building itself harked back to the past with its cathedral-like appearance. The imposing dome is over 40 metres high and can be seen over the lake from the hotels on the opposite shore. This was not to everyone’s taste. The dome, the most elegant architectural motif, the preserve of places of worship, was criticised. Meanwhile, sacred solemnity and technological progress were brought together. The baroque appearance of Lucerne station has a steel skeleton, an innovation presented at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Festhütte, purpose built for the Swiss federal shooting competition held in Lucerne in 1901 — *Festhütte*, purpose built for the Swiss federal shooting competition held in Lucerne in 1901: a medieval castle in the city’s most exposed location, used subsequently as an International Museum of War and Peace. As if by chance, the steam ship *Winkelried* is in the foreground to enhance the picture postcard. Master marksman Tell unsurprisingly found reinforcements in Lucerne. ETH Library Zurich

The city of Lucerne went above and beyond for the 1901 shooting competition. The Festhalle (festival hall) was 115 metres long, 50 metres wide and 18 metres high with room for 4,500 people. With its three aisles, the hall is reminiscent of a basilica, even though it was not built during the Middle Ages. Architect Hans Siegwart built the roof with reinforced concrete beams named after him as the inventor. A pioneering technical achievement. The walls were also built using state-of-the-art materials. ‘Schweizerische Bauzeitung‘, a construction magazine in Switzerland, reported in 1901: “Following several attempts, the builders succeeded in making tiles from reinforced cement infused with wire mesh, reminiscent of old-grey and weathered sandstone walls. Ivy and all types of climbing plants were on the walls, moss was on the pinnacles and shaded areas of the roof.” Reinforced concrete that looks like it dates from the Middle Ages.

A trial run in villa form. Two years before the construction of the festival hall for the Lucerne shooting competition in 1901, Hans Siegwart built the home and studio Farnburg at Reckenbühlstrasse 2 for his brother, sculptor Hugo Siegwart. — A trial run in villa form. Two years before the construction of the festival hall for the Lucerne shooting competition in 1901, Hans Siegwart built the home and studio *Farnburg* at Reckenbühlstrasse 2 for his brother, sculptor Hugo Siegwart. It was built in the romantic castle style of the time. Kurt Messmer

As wonderful as a festival hall or villa may look, they still do not qualify as castles. But romanticisation and historicisation were the style around 1900.

New town with old features

Wilhelm Keller completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer in his father’s business in Seetal, in the canton of Lucerne. He then learned drawing from a friar and architect and founded a construction company and moved to Lucerne in 1865. The following year, he began to build a group of houses in the style of a castle, which he developed over three stages into a monumental residential and commercial property by 1884. The building is located on Lucerne’s main thoroughfare, Pilatusstrasse.

A castle in the modern part of Lucerne, the Kellerhof, named after the architect who built it: Wilhelm Keller. — A castle in the modern part of Lucerne, the *Kellerhof*, named after the architect who built it: Wilhelm Keller. The building contractor, architect and master builder who was as prolific as he was successful, had his head office in the building, which is defined by its neo-gothic design features. *Kellergotik* (Keller gothic) became common parlance. Post card from around 1900, photographer unknown. hirschmatt-neustadt.ch

Keller’s company was very active in the Lucerne area: over 40 church and chapel new builds, with more than 90 extensions added to them, 34 school buildings, 19 hotels and guesthouses, several hundred private houses in the city and surrounding countryside. The Kellerhof marked the start of a major urbanisation drive in 1866. Around 1800, Lucerne was home to about 4,500 people. By 1850 it was 10,000 and that figure had doubled by 1890. In the two decades from 1890 to 1910, the number of inhabitants doubled again to 40,000. Living space was in demand and it was created in what is now the modern part of the city, systematically, in a criss-cross progression. Exquisite diversity in unity, as still shown by a passageway through the part of town between the station and Obergrund area.

**The modern part of Lucerne in 1910 with a characteristic block structure: enclosed blocks of houses around a shared courtyard, located beside the road.** Cantonal monument preservation Lucerne / annotation Kurt Messmer

It was an unprecedented leap forward. Paradoxically, the street names for the new part of town came straight from the Swiss history books. Frankenstrasse is a reference to the empire of Charlemagne; Murbacher- and Habsburgerstrasse are from the handover of the city from Murbach to Habsburg; Waldstätterstrasse stands for something similar to the federal end of history. The neighbourhood streets are named after illustrious battles: Morgarten 1315 / Sempach 1386 / Winkelried / Dornach 1499, the Swabian War. The flags captured from those battles were on display as frescoes in the nearby Franciscan church around 1900, similar to a hall of fame.

**The Franciscan church in Lucerne, the left wall of the central nave displays paintings done after 1622 of the original captured flags from the victorious federal battles.** Dany Schulthess

The modernisation drive and obsession with the past are interconnected: the faster the tempo of change, the greater the need to preserve the past by keeping history alive.

Sacred expressions

After 1850, historic styles of architecture and art were revived, hence the term “historicism”. This was not a faithful imitation of historic styles. The free approach to architectural history as a whole was rather to evolve into a unique style in keeping with the sophisticated educated classes of the 19th century.

from the left: parish church Schötz LU, parish church Grosswangen LU, parish church Eschenbach LU — Three of many examples, from the left: Schötz (LU) parish church, based on the Romanesque style, but built in 1879 instead of 1100, Neo-romanesque / Grosswangen (LU) parish church, based on the Gothic style, but built in 1867 instead of 1400, Neo-gothic, *Keller* *gothic* / Eschenbach (LU) parish church, based on the Baroque style, but built in 1912 instead of 1700, Neo-baroque. Wikimedia / A6 Architekten / Wikimedia

Historicism was especially prominent during the church building boom. It met the need of young nation states for time-honoured heritage.

Simultaneity of the non-simultaneous

The second half of the 19th century saw great technological advancements. One after the other: Europe’s first cogwheel railway on the Rigi in 1871; the world’s longest railway tunnel in the Gotthard in 1882; the world’s steepest cogwheel railway on the Pilatus in 1889. Engineers and interested people also came from all over Europe to visit Thorenberg power station in Littau near Lucerne. This alternating current power plant made Lucerne the first city in Switzerland (in 1886) to have a power station delivering electricity via a six-kilometre transmission line to a distribution network. The Hotel Schweizerhof at Lucerne quay was one of the first customers. The popular promenade then had electric lighting at night, so people could see and be seen. The hotels were also equipped with telephones around that time. In 1883, Lucerne had 61 telephone subscribers, compared to 1,026 in 1900. Another milestone was achieved with the transition from the washbasin to the tap. In 1876, 53% of households in Lucerne were connected to the water mains, by 1900 it was 93%.

Château Gütsch hotel in Lucerne, built in 1888 — Full steam ahead for technology and civilisation, in contrast to the romanticisation of hotel construction. *Château Gütsch* hotel in Lucerne, built in 1888, received its current castle-like design in 1901. Wikimedia / Bohao Zhao

Forward-looking inventors, engineers and pioneers on the one hand – historically-minded building contractors and architects on the other? It actually wasn’t that straightforward. Take Lucerne’s Gütsch hotel as an example. Not all the hotel’s features are the real article, for example the top of the main tower looks as if it were stone, but in reality it’s a wooden structure covered with white sheet metal. Architect Emil Vogt was influenced by the castle romanticism of Neuschwanstein. However, he still used modern construction materials, such as cast iron supports. Vogt also had a penchant for visually striking work. The main tower, roofscape and corner towers are in themselves masterful with a weightless elegance. The stylish way in which the two verandas face each other and align with the main structure, how subtly the facades are decorated with elements of the Italian renaissance and classicism, all indicative of an architect whose international star was on the rise, especially for hotels – from Kriens to Cairo.

An archetype of sorts

Say medieval city to people and the same things spring to mind: walls, towers, gates, city hall, market square, wells, streets, etc. However, there is no such thing as the medieval city, just countless variations of it, that morph into an archetype and provide the concept of an imaginary model. There is no such thing as the ideal-typical residential and commercial building circa 1900 either – but Gutenberghof in Lucerne comes close. Let’s take a closer look.

An array of historical styles: Gutenberghof on Frankenstrasse; intact, archetypal residential and commercial building, built in 1906 for Raeber printing plant. The name of the building honours the inventor of the printing press. — An array of historical styles: *Gutenberghof* on Frankenstrasse; intact, archetypal residential and commercial building, built in 1906 for Raeber printing plant. The name of the building honours the inventor of the printing press. Kurt Messmer

The main functions of the building are clear from the facade: the two lower floors, with natural stone cladding, are the business section; above that, in light rendering are the three residential floors. Stylistic pluralism is back. Each floor has different window shapes. The balconies of stone and slender wrought iron represent an architectural repertoire. The bay windows cover several floors and are crowned with small cupolas. The central bay tower gives a triumphant finish. And there is more: two historical figures, almost lifesize, sculptures from the printing business, coats of arms – a facade could hardly include any more historical features.

An architectural visiting card

When the Gotthard building was completed on Schweizerhofquai in 1889, the Gotthard railway had yet to reach Lucerne. The Immensee – Lucerne line only opened in 1897. Seen from the front, the administrative building makes a statement in terms of urban development and architecture, imposing and authoritative in equal measure.

Administrative building of Gotthard Railway Company in Lucerne, built in 1889 — What a prestigious building looked like around 1900. This is a contemporary image of the administrative building of Gotthard Railway Company in Lucerne, built in 1889. Today it’s the headquarters of both Social Law Divisions of the Federal Supreme Court. Wikimedia / SBB Historic

Above a base storey of stone blocks there are three floors. The facade of the prominent building is imposingly put together with three protruding sections, known as risalites. The middle risalite, in contrast to the two in the corner, is three window axes wide and goes up one extra floor, which adds to the building’s palatial look. Colossal Corinthian columns go up two floors, highlighting the vertical sides and measuring up well against the strong horizontal risalites. The window decoration on the first floor is particularly elaborate. Above the ledge-shaped window finials there are heads between the columns at the intersection of the segment and triangular gables. It’s the epitomy of attention to detail and class. The same could be said of the allegories that enhance the building even further. Above the columns of the middle risalite, there are four female statues and each one embodies a symbol of technological progress. At the base of each of the two corner risalites, there are two female and two male statues symbolising the four alpine rivers: the Rhine, Reuss, Ticino and Rhone.

Gotthard building in Lucerne, four ladies bearing identifying symbols: engineering is represented by the slide rule, architecture by a compass, mechanics by a train wheel with wings, electrical engineering by a flash of lightning. Women are in demand as symbolic figures, but not as engineers, architects or technicians. Kurt Messmer

The Gotthard building by architect Gustav Mossdorf is the foremost Neo-Renaissance construction in the canton of Lucerne. As a representation of many outstanding buildings from the period around 1900, Gotthard exhibits an unparalelled creative statement and expression of creative power.

Role models and the serious side of life

There are definite architectural similarities between Säli school building and the Gotthard building: the structure, base storey, prominent central risalite, corner risalites. The main entrance is one-and-a-half floors up, the doors bear the Swiss cross and are so heavy that a child in the first class (about six years old) couldn’t open the classroom door unaided.

The soffits bear on all sides the coats of arms of the cantons. The former Sonderbund canton of Lucerne emphasises educational federalism. In addition to the decorative paintings, the intelligentsia of times past look down on the schoolchildren from a lofty height, giving them an air of detachment. Who’s who, rows of role models, all men.

La Belle Époque was not as great as the name suggests. In the 34 years between 1880 and 1914, the Swiss army was called on 39 times. The enemy within showed itself 39 times when the army moved against strikers and protestors.

Säli school building in Lucerne, built in 1898 following a nationwide competition: a school building that embodies the Zeitgeist. — *Säli* school building in Lucerne, built in 1898 following a nationwide competition: a school building that embodies the Zeitgeist. Kurt Messmer

Look up at the main entrance to Säli school building, read, and ponder the meaning of: Lern um zu leben. Leb um zu lernen, (Learn to live. Live to learn) writ large for posterity in gold lettering. Pestalozzi watches from above, Eduard Pfyffer is there too, enlightened liberal and prominent Lucerne educational policy maker. There are two more aphorisms in the stylish arabesque of the lucarnes: Diligens officii and Nulla dies sine linea. – The joy of duty and No day without a line [of writing]. Solemn, authoritative, imparting discipline. Education in the social context of the time (around 1900).

A second look

So, what can we conclude from our tour of Lucerne? First, we can recognise the mastery of taking styles and motifs from earlier epochs to create something new that can stand the test of time. Second, on a more general note, we need to take a second look and inspect things more closely. As the architecture from around 1900 shows, the first look needn’t be the last.

More of: 20th / 21st century Society Culture Architecture

Further posts

A visionary of medieval architecture: James of St. George

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Chillon Castle is just one of the magnificent structures shaped by the hands of the visionary medieval architect James of St. George.

How the chalet became a symbol of Switzerland

Hannes Mangold 30.03.2023 The chalet symbolises Switzerland more than any other building. But it was visitors from abroad who turned the simple log house into a tourist hit.

Chalet under the Chillon Viaduct in Villeneuve (Canton Vaud), 1985.

Baroque gardens in Switzerland

Julia Burbulla 28.12.2022 In France the layout of the Baroque garden was subject to strict rules, and its purpose was to illustrate power and wealth. Here in Switzerland, too, members of the aristocracy and the wealthy merchant classes constructed their gardens based on the French model – albeit with good Swiss simplicity.

The Baroque garden of Schloss Waldegg near Solothurn, laid out by Johann Viktor I von Besenval in around 1700.