A cliff walk above the lake that Audrey Hepburn called home.
St. Jost Chapel
The same bell has called pilgrims up this ridge since 1385.
Chronicles place the first chapel on this ridge above Lake Lucerne around 1340, making it the oldest structure in the municipality of Ennetbürgen. Pope Clement VI granted the site an indulgence letter in 1346, and pilgrims have climbed here ever since. The bell that still rings today was cast in 1385.
The building has changed more than once. In 1518 a longer nave replaced the original chapel, though the tower and choir remained. Late eighteenth-century renovations added a vaulted ceiling and classicist stucco altars, covering the medieval wall paintings beneath. A federal restoration between 1970 and 1978 returned the interior closer to its original state.
St. Jost holds around eighty people and draws couples for weddings as much as walkers for a quiet moment. The chapel stands along the hiking route toward the Bürgenstock plateau, with the Buochserhorn rising across the water. It is open every day, no key required.
Usually visited together
More in Lucerne
Grass, lake wind, and the spot where three cantons once swore an oath.
The mountain opens its roof once the wind takes over.
High above the lake, the air smells of hay and quiet water.
The lake shrinks to a ribbon of light before the gondola even reaches the top.