Drove to the historical cities of Greifensee, Rapperswil, Einsiedeln (famous for the Black Madonna) and Schwyz. It’s amazing how far the history dates back to in these cities and how the fighting qualities of the Swiss made them one of the most feared and respected military powers in Europe. They were savages! As they make clear in the murals on their civic buildings.
The cathedral at Einsiedeln was beautiful surrounded by snow. Unfortunately, it was Sunday so they were having a mass. Quick look inside and then onto our next destination.
It was very cold so it was good to see the statue had his shawl and hat.
Onto the little town of Schwyz with their beautiful church with the skeleton remains of Saint Lazare (ie Lazarus in English) and Saint Polycarp.
A bit of history: The Battle of Morgarten occurred on 15 November 1315, when a 1,500-strong force from the Swiss Confederacy ambushed a group of Habsburg soldiers near the Morgarten Pass in Switzerland. The Swiss victory consolidated the Everlasting League of the Three Forest Cantons, which formed the core of modern Switzerland. The Swiss Confederates prepared a roadblock and an ambush at a point between Lake Ägerisee and Morgarten Pass, where a small path led between a steep slope and a swamp. When the Confederates attacked from above with rocks, logs and halberds, the Habsburg knights had no room to defend themselves and suffered a crushing defeat, while the foot soldiers in the rear fled. About 1,500 Habsburg soldiers were killed in the attack. The Swiss Confederates, unfamiliar with the customs of battles between knights, brutally butchered retreating troops and everyone unable to flee. Some infantry preferred to drown themselves in the lake rather than face the brutality of the Swiss.
The warriors of the Swiss cantons had gradually developed a reputation throughout Europe as skilled soldiers, due to their successful defense of their liberties against their Austrian Habsburg overlords, starting as early as the late thirteenth century, including remarkable upset victories over heavily armoured knights at Morgarten and Laupen. By the fifteenth century they were greatly valued as mercenary soldiers, the principal remnant of the practice is the Pontifical Swiss Guard at the Vatican. Shakespeare mentions them in Hamlet: Attend! Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door!
If you’ve ever watched Orson Welle’s 1949 film The Third Man where a character makes a outrageously inaccurate statement about the Swiss having 500 years of peace and achieving ‘nothing’ but the cuckoo clock, this information may come as a shock.
Had lunch in a castle at A Pro Schlossrestaurant.
And onto the beautiful town of Lucerne. We visited the old Kapellbrücke back in 1993 and only a few weeks later on August 18, 1993, it almost burned down destroying two thirds of its interior paintings. Shortly thereafter, the Kapellbrücke was reconstructed and again opened to the public. To our eyes it looked exactly the same as it had before it burned.
