"Barren, gloomy, melancholic"

Early tourists were annoyed by poor footpaths in Zug, or the fog. Others recorded their enthusiasm for Lake Zug in poetry.

When the clergyman Philippe Bridel climbed the Ägeri valley around 1790, there was no paved road, let alone a bus. He celebrated after making the rigorous ascent, and recorded in his notebook: "Here I discover, vue d'oiseau (in bird’s eye view), one of the most beautiful valleys of inner Switzerland." Even today, more than 200 years later, many inhabitants of the Ägeri valley would probably still agree with him – even though  the townscape has changed significantly due to the steady growth.

It was fashionable to travel to Switzerland at that time, at least among the aristocratic and bourgeois nature lovers and writers. They also noted down their impressions. These show that the Zug region was a "somewhat sleepy, but quite a charming region to stay, and was also a place for passers-by to change their mode of transport". This can be read in a book about tourism in the canton of Zug (see footnote).

Not everyone liked what they saw. The Zurich pastor Johann Häfeli found: "It is strange that the city itself does not have the smallest tincture of the sights of the area – it is so barren, gloomy, melancholic – its inhabitants show such dullness and servitude – it is as if all the charms of the lake and the two shores had bounced back from its walls." What do you think he would say today?

Another writer was annoyed by the footpaths: "In the Canton of Zug, the footpaths have been paved with stones in many places, but they had not infrequently worn out or broken, and walking on them is more arduous than on the most undeveloped paths," says the travel writer Christoph Meiner. If he had come to Zug in 2021, he would certainly have been more  satisfied (except with the bike lanes!)

Photo 1: Romanticisation of the lake and its moods: a skiff in the reeds between Zug and Cham, with a heavily-coloured-in background.
Picture: Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archaeology of the Canton of Zug

Photo 2: Outline engraving by Peter Biermann around 1791, showing Cham and Zug.
Museum Burg Zug, Inventory Number 250

Photo 3: There has been building here since: Cham and Zug today.
Photo 4: The view of the Rigi today.
Photos: Matthias Jurt (Hünenberg am See, 11 March 2021)
 

Lake Zug seemed to captivate many travellers
Many of them were simply enthusiastic about the landscape. The Englishman William Coxe, for example: "Zug is exquisite ... in a fertile valley that has an abundance of grain, meadows and fruit trees." Many of them were especially enthusiastic about Lake Zug, including  the writer Heinrich Zschokke:

The trembling splendour of a lake, unfolding four hours far into the bosom of the dark high mountains, is ringed by gently swelling hills and mountains. The graceful terrain waltzes all around like an amphitheatre, up to the pyramids of the Rigi and the Pilatus which, sharply cutting into the blue sky, form the foreground of the Alps and the glaciers."

The stay of the farmer Ulrich Bräker was less pleasant. According to his self-described "poor man in Tockenburg", he found himself surrounded by the dense Zug fog: "... I didn't see a sign of the lake and its shores. A-thick fog hid all the view."

And how does the canton of Zug describe itself today? In the self-portrait on the official website one reads: "The canton of Zug is characterised by two picturesque lakes, by rolling hills and by the charming pre-Alps." And thanks to the "excellent infrastructure", Zurich and Lucerne can be reached in less than 30 minutes.

So when it come to infrastructure, the criticism seems to have been acted upon. With regard to the landscape, on the other hand, there was and will hardly be anyone who is not at least impressed by Lake Zug and its surrounding mountains.

Some things never change.

In this series, stories are presented about tourism in Zug. In this first part, you can read about the beginnings. Source: "Sonne, Molke, Parfümwolke” (Sun, Whey, Perfume Clouds), written by Michael van Orsouw in 1997.