Bürgenstock

The Bürgenstock is a mountain in Switzerland ( above sea level). It is located partway along the shore of Lake Lucerne. Bürgenstock is also the name of a resort located at 874 m a.s.l. on the same mountain. The lookout point at the summit of the Bürgenstock Mountain is the Hammetschwand. The mountain is almost entirely surrounded by Lake Lucerne. The small resort of Bürgenstock can be reached by road or with the Bürgenstock Funicular, which starts from the boat landing pier at Kehrsiten-Bürgenstock on Lake Lucerne. The highest summit of the Bürgenstock can be reached from the resort by foot and by means of a cliff-side path followed by the Hammetschwand Elevator. When viewed from Lucerne, the Bürgenstock has the typical mountain shape of a Stock. In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the term "Stock" is used for a number of mountains whose shape of summits are clearly set off from the bulk. A good example is Stockhütte. The term Bürgenstock, composed of the descriptive words "Bürgen" and "Stock", has evolved since the mid-19th century into the geographical name for the distinctive mountain on the "Bürgen" peninsula as seen from Lucerne. From the early Middle Ages on, the mountain on this peninsula was called Bürgenberg; an arbitral settlement from the year 1378, putting an end to over 38 years of dispute between the Lucerne and Nidwalden estates about the affiliation of the region extending from Kehrsiten to Mattgrat, uses the name Bürgenberg in its records. Old maps and frontier records of the Corporation of Lucerne, which mention the – in those times – disputed forest call it the Stadtwald am Bürgenberg (forest on the Bürgenberg) or Bürgenbergwald (Bürgen mountain forest). On the Dufourkarte (Dufour Map), the topographic map of Switzerland from 1844 to 1864, the mountain ridge as a whole had no name. The highest crest was referred to as Hametschwand. The geographical name Bürgenstock was first documented in 1836 by Aloys Businger in his book “Der Kanton Unterwalden”. Businger calls the entire Bürgen peninsula the Bürgenberg.