Ninety seconds on Jesuit Church
Stepping in from the Reuss, you enter the first large baroque church built in Switzerland. It is one undivided hall of white and gold stucco, lit by three tiers of windows.
The Jesuits built the church as the school church of their grammar school next door, modelled on the Gesù in Rome. Nave and choir run as one space with no break, unlike the Hofkirche, which is built up room by room.
Stucco does the work that stone and carved wood did in older churches. The walls, the side altars and the high altar were all shaped by stuccoists, so the decoration is part of the building rather than furniture set inside it.
The great pink high altar looks like marble but is made of stucco and plaster. It was designed as the end point of the whole room, which is why your eye runs straight to it from the door.
Look up at the ceiling. A cycle of frescoes from the middle of the 18th century covers the vault, and in one painting St Francis Xavier rides to heaven in a carriage pulled by elephants and other animals.
In the second side chapel on the right, a life-size Brother Klaus stands in a plain brown habit, the one sober figure among all the ornament. The two towers on the front are later additions, put up in 1893.
Quieter outside service times, the church opens straight off the riverside, with no ticket to buy. Stand at the back of the nave first, where the whole room reads as one space ending at the high altar.
Walk up the nave slowly with your eyes on the ceiling, then work along the side chapels. Visitors usually see the main hall and the chapels; the vestry, which holds the vessels used in services, is closed to the public.
The fine acoustic is why the church also serves as a concert venue, and organists are taught here.
Four services are held on Sundays, and services, rehearsals and concerts can close parts of the church. If one is under way, stay at the back and keep the camera down.
You do not need a guide: the interior is one room and is easy to read on your own. For the story behind the stucco, the church's prefect, Hansruedi Kleiber SJ, gives tours by arrangement.
Ring the church secretariat on 041 240 31 34, staffed on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, to set one up. Most walking tours of Lucerne's old town also stop here.
Organ vespers fill the church on Tuesday evenings in the vespers cycle, from 18.15 to 18.45, after a short introduction in the sacristy at 18.00. There is a collection at the door; check the church's own programme for the current dates.
From the Rathaussteg footbridge you get a clear view of the church, and a long lens can frame its towers against Pilatus. Photographs without flash are tolerated outside services, but never of people at prayer.
Shoulders and knees should be covered, since this is a working church.
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