Weggis
Your child becomes the hero of a story set right here in Weggis — at the city's real landmarks, in the familiar streets, in front of the buildings they know from everyday life.
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Or become part of the history of Weggis
Below you find the historical tales of Weggis — from old legends to famous local events. Create a free account, pick one as your starting point, your child takes a role inside it.
Historical tales from Weggis
Real stories from the past of Weggis — pick one and your child takes a role
The ferrymen of Wattawis
A Celtic child helps ferry travellers across Lake Lucerne in the days when the village was called Wattawis. Discovering the sheltered bay where palm trees will one day grow, the child names the settlement and sets in motion centuries of history at the foot of Mount Rigi.
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The name Weggis derives from the Celtic word Wattawis, meaning Place of the Ferrymen — a reference to the settlement’s ancient role as a crossing point on Lake Lucerne. The name evolved through forms including Quatigiso, Guategisso, and Wetgis. The first documentary mention dates to 29 January 1116, when Pope Paschal II confirmed the possessions of Pfäfers Abbey, listing Weggis as Guategisso.
Mark Twain's three-day climb
A child joins Twain on his famously exaggerated Rigi ascent. Each rest stop reveals a different era of the mountain’s history — from medieval pilgrims to Niklaus Riggenbach’s first cogwheel railway in 1871 — all narrated by the wittiest writer in America.
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In August 1878, Mark Twain climbed Mount Rigi on foot, humorously claiming the ascent took three days. The chapter became one of the most famous in A Tramp Abroad (1880). In 1897, he returned to Weggis with his family, renting the Schlössli of the Pension Bühlegg for ten weeks. He wrote: I believe that this place is the loveliest in the world. In 2010, a Mark Twain theme trail was inaugurated — an 11 km hiking path retracing his literary footsteps.
The rose that bloomed in winter
A magical rose in Weggis refuses to stop blooming, even in December. A child follows its petals through the village’s mild microclimate, past palm trees and fig trees, to discover why the Riviera of Central Switzerland stays warm when the rest of the Alps is buried in snow.
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Weggis enjoys a subtropical microclimate thanks to Mount Rigi shielding it from cold northerly winds and Lake Lucerne providing thermal regulation. Palm trees, fig trees, magnolias, and Mediterranean flora thrive naturally in the gardens, earning Weggis the title Riviera of Central Switzerland. The Rosenfest (Rose Festival), founded in 1926 and inspired by the Daffodil Festival in Montreux, is held every first weekend of July, featuring the crowning of a Rosenkönigin and fireworks over the lake.
Rachmaninoff's lost melody
A child hears piano music drifting from the closed Villa Senar on the Hertenstein peninsula. Following the melody through the lakeside gardens, they piece together a composition Rachmaninoff never finished — discovering the beauty that kept the great composer rooted to this place until war tore him away.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) discovered the Hertenstein peninsula on Lake Lucerne and acquired a property there in 1930. Between 1931 and 1934, he built Villa Senar — a Bauhaus-style villa designed by Swiss architects Alfred Möri and Karl Friedrich Krebs. The name Senar is a portmanteau of Sergei, Natalia, and Rachmaninoff. He composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934) and the Third Symphony (1936) there. He left for the last time on 16 August 1939, before the outbreak of World War II.
The Queen of the Mountains
Mount Rigi tells her own story: how Albrecht von Bonstetten crowned her Queen in 1479, the daring engineer Niklaus Riggenbach who built Europe’s first mountain railway up her flanks in 1871, and the sunrise that left Mark Twain speechless on the summit.
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Mount Rigi rises directly above Weggis to a summit of 1,797 metres. The epithet Queen of the Mountains (Regina montium) was first applied by humanist scholar Albrecht von Bonstetten in 1479. On 21 May 1871, Europe’s first mountain railway opened from Vitznau to Rigi Staffelhöhe, designed by engineer Niklaus Riggenbach who patented his cogwheel rack-rail system in 1863. The inaugural run fell on Riggenbach’s own birthday.
The paddle steamer's last voyage
In the 1960s, the old paddle steamer Gallia is about to be scrapped. A child and the Dampferfreunde must rally the lakeside communities to save her before the last crossing from Weggis — learning that some treasures are worth more than their weight in modern convenience.
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Lake Lucerne hosts the world’s largest fleet of paddle steamers on an inland lake — five historic vessels (Uri, Unterwalden, Schiller, Gallia, and Stadt Luzern) built between 1901 and 1928. In the 1950s–60s, plans arose to scrap them for modern motor vessels. The preservation society Dampferfreunde Vierwaldstättersee successfully campaigned to save them. On 2 May 1980, Queen Elizabeth II travelled aboard the flagship Stadt Luzern during her Swiss state visit.
The chestnut children of Greppen
Set in the 1890s, when chestnuts were more valuable than milk, a child discovers that the ancient chestnut groves above Weggis hold a secret map. The Cheschtene-Chilbi becomes a treasure hunt through sixty stalls and centuries of harvest tradition.
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Chestnuts were first documented in Weggis in 1378. The sweet chestnut was the bread tree of the poor — just 120 years ago, revenue from chestnuts in the Weggis area exceeded revenue from milk. The Cheschtene-Chilbi (chestnut market) in neighbouring Greppen, organized by the IG Pro Kastanie Zentralschweiz, is the largest chestnut market in German-speaking Switzerland, held at the end of October with over sixty stalls.
The crystal bath of Rigi Kaltbad
A child wanders into the old bathing chapel of 1545 on Mount Rigi and follows the Three Sisters Springs underground. Emerging in Mario Botta’s modern spa with its crystal skylights, they experience 600 years of bathing history in one magical subterranean adventure.
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Above Weggis at 1,453 metres lies Rigi Kaltbad, whose bathing tradition originated in the 16th century with the first bathing chapel erected in 1545. Visitors bathed in the mineral-rich Three Sisters Springs. Since July 2012, a modern Mineralbad & Spa designed by Ticino architect Mario Botta continues this tradition, featuring a 30-metre-long stone wall with deep alcoves and glass skylights shaped like rock crystals. The aerial cable car from Weggis to Rigi Kaltbad has operated since 1968.
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