«Einladung zum geschützten Flanieren im Jahr 1820, Kolorierte Aquatinta, Johann Jakob Meyer (F2a/VEDUTEN/112)»

Among Lucerne’s most famous landmarks are its two wooden bridges: the Kappelbrücke and the Spreuerbrücke, built in the 14th and 16th century as part of Lucerne’s city fortification. Many tourists but also many locals do not know that there used to be a third wooden footbridge called Hofbrücke, built in the 13th century. It was the longest of the three bridges and was adorned with framed triangular paintings like the other two. The paintings on the Hofbrücke depict events from the Old and New Testament of the Bible. The Hofbrücke connected the city with the collegiate church of St. Leodegar, the Hofkirche. When the bridge was demolished in the 19th century, the paintings were stored in magazines or used as art objects in public buildings. After the fire on the Kapellbrücke in 1993, the city of Lucerne took backup photographs of the Hofbrücke paintings. Some paintings are no longer traceable. The numbers attached to the images belong to image inventories created at different times by different people. The differences in numbering can therefore be explained by different cycle interpretations.

Challenge

The City Archives of Lucerne invites you to help create a virtual tour where people can experience a walk on the Hofbrücke with its paintings, the view over the city, the lake and the alpine panorama. For this simulation, you can use the photographs of the paintings, which are accessible on the ZentralGut website: Brückenbilder Hofbrücke - ZentralGut. A picture gallery with paintings and constructional drawings of the bridge and its immediate surroundings is on the website of the City Archives of Lucerne: Stadt Luzern - Zeitlicher Brückenschlag: Virtueller Gang über die Hofbrücke. These pictures shall help visualising where the bridge was located, how it looked, and how it integrated into the cityscape.