Spreuer Bridge

Why go

The bridge rewards a slower crossing. Its triangular roof panels hold Caspar Meglinger’s Dance of Death, a sequence that turns an ordinary walk over the Reuss into an encounter with Lucerne’s seventeenth-century art. Looking upstream adds another piece of the river story: the Needle Dam that helps regulate Lake Lucerne’s level.

What to look for

• Dance of Death paintings fill triangular panels beneath the bridge roof.
• Donors’ coats of arms and verses appear among the painted scenes.
• The Needle Dam is visible upstream from the crossing.

The full story

Spreuer Bridge began in the thirteenth century as a link from Mühlenplatz to mills in the Reuss; it reached the opposite bank in 1408. Its name comes from Spreu, or chaff, which could be thrown into the river here because this was Lucerne’s farthest downstream bridge. A flood destroyed it in 1566, and it was rebuilt. The paintings under the roof came later, in the seventeenth century. They form a Totentanz, or Dance of Death, in which death appears across different walks of life. Look beyond the figures for the donors’ coats of arms and the verses on the frames: the crossing preserves both a moral story and traces of the Lucerne residents who paid for it four centuries ago.

Useful to know

• Walk slowly enough to look up at the painted panels, not just across the river.
• Pair the crossing with a Reuss riverfront walk; it lies downstream of Chapel Bridge.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.