But back to the bridge. There’s a story here, about one of Switzerland’s most picturesque landmarks and an hour that changed everything.

The Kapell-Brücke, auf Luzern der Schweiz, is one of two oldest wooden bridges in Switzerland. It dates back to the 14th century, and is every bit as beautiful, no matter the time of day or quality of light.

Here’s a view of the bridge from the opposite direction, facing into the mountains:

photo courtesy of http://travelguide.all-about-switzerland.info

The Water Tower you see above has been used over the years as a dungeon, a treasury vault, and lately  a meeting space. All along the bridge, under the eaves, are a series of very old paintings — which further set the Lucerne bridges apart from most others in Europe. Originally, there were 110 of them, dating back to 1611.

In August 1993, in the space of less than an hour, the Kapell-Brücke burned. The better part of the bridge, except for water tower, pillars and bridgehead went up in smoke — to include 85 priceless paintings. Luzerners awoke the next morning to this:

Since 1993, the bridge has been rebuilt, though only 25 of the paintings survived. Despite assurances the bridge has been “fully restored,” I have to wonder if the were able to reconjure the  “magic” of the place as well.

]]> http://ewkrausecom.com/theportal/travel/chapel-bridge-lucerne-switzerland/feed/ 0 http://ewkrausecom.com/theportal/travel/mystery-header-photos/ http://ewkrausecom.com/theportal/travel/mystery-header-photos/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:02:19 +0000 EWKrause http://ewkrausecom.com/theportal/?p=192 Looking for nomads and wanderers — is that the same thing? — who might know where this photo was taken. If so, 1st person to post a comment here gets recognition on Twitter, no increase in fortune at all, and my eternal gratitude.

Pike Place Market, Seattle WA

Travel has always been a big part of my life, and the quality of my life. From time to time, you’ll see shots from those journeys. Trivia question for the day: does anyone recognize the header shot location? If you do, I’d love to hear from you and to have you share one or two thoughts about the place, if you’ve been there..