Lucerne-Rüeggisberg - Roue of Lucerne
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120 km, walking time around 33 hours
Pilgrims who use the Lucerne Route start from the lake of Lucerne and travel through Lucerne’s catholic hinterland and the reformed Emmental to the Gantrisch region in the canton of Bern. The route from Lucerne via Willisau, Huttwil and Burgdorf to Rüeggisberg leads through a hilly landscape with pastureland and green fields cultivated by hardworking farmers. The small villages and towns along the route bear witness to a solid prosperity gained through hard and honest work by skilled and reliable business and trades-people. The trim villages, the wooden farmhouses with the broad roofs and the flower-decorated windows, but also the famous “Stöckli”( the small house beside the farmhouse, for the retired farmer after the farm has been transferred to a descendant); they all are reminiscent of old times as described in the narratives of the Swiss writer Jeremias Gotthelf. Many a cosy inn lies beside the road and invites pilgrims to make a stop. The “Willisauer Ringli” (a hard pastry deemed fit as provisions for the road) and the “world-famous” golden-brown “Bauernrösti” (fried potatoes) and the meringues from the Emmental are a very popular and nourishing pilgrim’s food.
Pilgrim stations, pilgrim’s way-posts, and the stone ritual
On the Lucerne Route of the Way of St. James, we come across some pilgrim stations, pilgrim’s way-posts and instructions for the stone ritual, mounted over 10 years ago in the course of a project for the promotion of the Way of St. James. Regretfully, some of them have been damaged or removed by vandals. In our route description, we point to those that still exist.
Important pointer:
The brief route descriptions have been edited and checked in voluntary work by helpers and association members after inspecting the routes and based on the situation as encountered. The accuracy of the contents, and in particular the conformity with the official Way of St. James way-posting cannot be guaranteed by the association “jakobsweg.ch” and the authors, also in the sense of a product liability. Pilgrims are therefore asked in any case to follow the official “Jakobsweg” way-posts, and to advise us of possible errors. Thank you!
Texts: Winfried Erbach, Joe Weber and Klaus Augustiny (manuscript reader)
Translated from German by Hans Bamert.
Pictures: Wolfgang Hörer, Winfried Erbach, and others
Copyright: Verein jakobsweg.ch