Skyscrapers alongside herds of cows

The Swiss Landscape Conservation Foundation has added the Lorzen Plain to its list of celebrated landscapes. This is both an honour and a responsibility for the award winners.
 

Over the past few days, cyclists have been weaving their way, with varying degrees of skill, along the path beside the Brüggli bathing area, where water-filled potholes and slippery paving slabs have made passage difficult. Despite the construction work on the site, many people were already enjoying the sunny weather last week with a view of Lake Zug. The Brüggli has always been cherished by the people of Zug as a popular local recreation area.

And now it’s even more than that: as part of the Lorzenebene (Lorzen Plain), it’s one of the outstanding areas in the canton of Zug, and the Swiss Landscape Conservation Foundation (SL-FP VStiftung Landschaftsschutz Schweiz), based in Bern, has named the Lorzenebene as Landscape of the Year 2026. The award recipients are the Zug Corporation, the canton and the city of Zug, as well as the municipalities of Baar, Cham and Steinhausen.

Zug’s ‘green lung’ thereby joins a list of regions such as the Isenthal wildflower landscape in Uri (2016), the Val Sinestra in Graubünden (2011), the bog forests of the Ibergeregg in Schwyz (2019) and the hamlet landscape on the Frienisberg plateau in Bern (2024). Through this award, the foundation “communicates the values of Swiss landscapes, raises awareness of the threats they face and recognises local commitment to landscape conservation”. This is stated in the foundation’s press release; the foundation has been awarding the prize, worth CHF 10,000, since 2011.

There were once other plans for the area
In 2004, the cantonal structure plan enshrined in law that the Lorzen Plain must be protected from development. A clear boundary defines how far settlements are permitted to extend. 140 years earlier, things looked very different: there were plans for a major city on the Lorzen Plain. The goldsmith Johann Jakob Leinbacher designed ‘St. Europ’ to cover 108 square kilometres with over 46,500 buildings, which were intended to accommodate 1.2 million people. It never came to that – quite the opposite.

The Lorzenebene is also known as ‘green lung’ of Zug.     
A city of over a million people was once planned for the Lorzenebene        Photos: provided/Andreas Busslinger
 

In 2012, a working group led by the Zug Cantonal Office for Spatial Planning and Transport (Amt für Raum und Verkehr) drew up a policy statement for the Lorzenebene. It essentially sets out the co-existence of agriculture, recreation and nature in the area, and aims to reconcile these three uses in the long term. This also means that the Lorzenebene is ‘not designated for future development’ and will remain free from new building developments. And: “The Lorzenebene is not a space for motorised private transport, but for non-motorised transport and agricultural traffic.”

The Swiss Landscape Conservation Foundation (Stiftung Landschaftsschutz Schweiz) has words of praise in its press release: “A good ten years after the adoption of the guiding principles, important measures have been implemented.” It cites, for example, the former campsite in Brüggli, which has made way for a near-natural area, the newly designed Choller shooting range with a dog-friendly open space, and the Lorzenweg footpath.

“Throughout the entire process, the Zug Corporation, as one of many landowners, the Canton of Zug, and the municipalities of Baar, Cham, Steinhausen and Zug all pulled together,” continues the Foundation. The Lorzen plain is a “model example of how these landscapes – even in regions with a growing population – can be safeguarded and developed to a high standard.”

No ‘picture-postcard landscape’ was chosen this year
in response to an enquiry, Ihe Director of Zug Public Works, Florian Weber wrote that the award is “first and foremost a great tribute to the planning, small and large-scale projects, and political decisions of the last 25 years in the Lorzenebene”. This year, the Swiss Landscape Conservation Foundation has not focused on a ‘picture-postcard landscape’, but on a landscape in an urban setting. This is characterised by a multitude of interests with all their contradictions: ‘skyscrapers next to herds of cows, dog parks next to protected moors, or secretly quiet spots next to motorways’.

The Zug Corporation is also delighted with the award. In response to an enquiry, its president, Urban Keiser, writes: “For the Zug Corporation, the award is, on the one hand, a great honour and, on the other, an even greater responsibility.” He also notes that there is considerable pressure on the agricultural use of parts of the Lorzenebene, and cites the Hertiallmend, where “new areas for sport and leisure are to be zoned in on a large scale”. The area lies outside the zone that is protected from development. But, as he also explains, when it comes to the Lorzenebene, people think “in terms of generations rather than legislative periods”, which ensures that “our grandchildren” will also be able to benefit from the quality of the area.

The city of Zug also does not wish to “leave the future of the Lorzenebene to chance”, as City Councillor and Head of Planning Eliane Birchmeier writes. Rather, the future of the area will be planned “in a forward-looking and participatory manner”. This is thanks, in particular, to the recognition that has now been granted.

According to Florian Weber, Zug’s Director of Building and Planning, it’s not yet clear exactly how the prize money of CHF 10,000, donated by the Migros Cooperative Association and Balthasar Schmid from Meggen, will be used. The official award ceremony will take place from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday, 13th June, at the Brüggli – and the Director of Building and Planning has indicated that the intended use of the funds will be announced then.

Hopefully without water-filled potholes and slippery paving slabs, but with plenty of sunshine.