Vue de la Petite Isle d’Altstadt sur le Lac de Lucerne,

Title

Vue de la Petite Isle d’Altstadt sur le Lac de Lucerne,

Description

View shows Lake Lucerne with a view of the small Isle d'Altstadt, with the Freedom Monument created by the famous Abbé Raynal in honour of Helvetic freedom.

c. 1786

Artist

Gmelin

Historical Description

The earliest known mentions of the place are ad monasterium Lucernense or ad Lucernense monasterium, monasterium Luciaria and in quodam loco, qui Lucerna ex antiquitate est dictus. The derivations of Latin lucerna "luminary" compares to this day "luminary city of Lucerne. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Germanic Alemanni took ever greater possession of the area from the 7th century onwards. The Alemannic language gradually replaced the Latin. In 1250 Lucerne already reached the size it maintained until the 19th century. In the 13th century, Lucerne was characterized by party fights between supporters of the emperor and the pope and seemed to have already possessed a municipal self-government with a council and a citizens' assembly. Especially from the second half of the 14th century, Lucerne successfully began to strengthen its influence in the surrounding rural areas and to bind lordship rights to itself. In 415, Lucerne was granted imperial freedom by King Sigismund and was thus an imperial city until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Lucerne formed a strong member of the confederation. The city expanded its territorial rule, levied taxes and appointed civil servant bailiffs. In 1798, nine years after the beginning of the French Revolution, the French army invaded Switzerland. The Old Confederation disintegrated and the rule of the patricians was transformed into a democracy, the Helvetic Republic was born, of which Lucerne was the capital for a short time.