Scenic Trains
Glacier
Express
Bernina
Express
Golden
Pass Line
Wilhelm
Tell Express
Mont
Blanc - St Bernard
Palm
Express
Excursion Trains
Jungfraujoch
Chocolate
Train
Gornergrat
Matterhorn
Mt
Rigi Railway
Roches
De Naye
Lucerne Attractions
Lake
Lucerne Cruises
Mt
Pilatus Rail-Aerial
Transport
Museum
Rosengart
Collection
Glacier
Garden
Bourbaki
Panorama
Wagner
Museum
Chronoswiss
Workshop
LUCERNE ATTRACTIONS
GLACIER GARDEN OF LUCERNE
On a crisp morning of November in 1872 Josef Wilhelm Amrein-Troller
was watching the digging of a wine cellar for his mansion in a suburb
just beyond the city walls of Lucerne, when his workmen uncovered some
very strange rock formations. Smooth round boulders and deep potholes
in the solid stone of the hillside. What he had uncovered was the remaining
record of the glacial Ice Age in Switzerland. A year later, the Swiss
entrepreneur opened his “Glacier Garden” (Gletschergarten)
to the public. They had already been coming to the Bourbaki Panorama
just down the hill, and would now marvel as his own tourist attraction.
130 years later, the Amrein-Troller house survives with its Glacier Museum.
A path underneath a canvas canopy leads through the exposed geologic
formations of potholes created by the force of water unable to escape
under the weight of slow-moving glaciers. Round granite boulders, one
as heavy as five tons, strewn about the hillside, were carried by the
moving ice from high in the mountains to where they now rest. The house
itself is a beautiful example of a 19th Century Swiss house of the the
rising Bourgois. It remains much as when the Amrein-Troller family had
lived inside, with Biedermeier antique furniture and Baroque bedroom
designs. Much of the lower portion of the house is given to the Glacier
Museum, with interactive exhibits explaining the formation and action
of glaciers. In the GeoWorld Luzern exhibit, the evolution of ice age
man and geologic history of Lucerne is presented with large scale oil
paintings depicting Lucerne during the Ice Age. On the lower level below
the house, the Hall of Mirrors of the Alhambra, created for the Swiss
National Exhibition in Geneva in 1899 creates optical illusions, framed
in ornate gilt gold.
The Glacier Garden is located on Denkmalstrasse, near the weary lion sculpture symbol of Lucerne. The Gletschergarten Luzern is open daily from 9 to 6 from April 1 through October 31, and 10 to 5, November 1 through March 31. Admission for adults is 12 Swiss francs and 7 Swiss francs for children. You can get a Lion Pass that includes the Glacier Garden and Bourbaki. With a Swiss Pass, the museums are free.
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