Wasserturm Kapellbrücke

About this audio guide

This guide to the Wasserturm, the octagonal river tower beside Lucerne's Chapel Bridge, traces its centuries as a fortress, dungeon and treasury on the Reuss. Built by a medieval abbot to assert his grip on the city, its ground floor held prisoners in total darkness from the late thirteen hundreds through the early eighteen hundreds. It also follows how the tower's stone walls fared through the Chapel Bridge fire of nineteen ninety-three. Best heard looking up at the timber roofline, where birds still circle each spring.