The Old Town of Zug is one of the most perfectly preserved medieval townscapes in Central Switzerland — a compact labyrinth of cobbled lanes, painted facades, Gothic church towers, and half-timbered merchants’ houses that has survived seven centuries with remarkably little alteration. Unlike the better-known old towns of Bern, Lucerne, or Zurich, which have been substantially rebuilt, commercialised, or absorbed into modern urban grids, Zug’s Altstadt retains the scale, texture, and atmosphere of a late-medieval Swiss market town. It is a place where history is not performed for tourists but simply inhabited, where the butcher and the baker still occupy ground-floor premises in buildings that were standing when the Habsburgs controlled the region.
This walking tour covers the essential landmarks of Zug’s Old Town in approximately ninety minutes of comfortable walking, with recommended stops for architecture, history, and refreshment. The route is entirely flat, on paved surfaces, and accessible year-round.
Starting Point: Landsgemeindeplatz
Every walking tour of Zug properly begins at Landsgemeindeplatz, the generous lakeside square that has served as the town’s civic gathering place since the late Middle Ages. The square takes its name from the Landsgemeinde — the open-air democratic assembly in which all male citizens of the canton gathered annually to vote on legislation by show of hands. Canton of Zug abolished the Landsgemeinde in 1848 in favour of representative government, but the square retains its ceremonial function: it is the site of the annual Chriesisturm cherry race, the Swiss National Day celebrations on August 1st, and the starting point for the lakeside promenades that extend north and south along the Zugersee shore.
The square’s orientation — facing due west across the lake — makes it one of the finest sunset-viewing locations in Central Switzerland. On clear evenings, the silhouette of Mount Pilatus dominates the horizon, its jagged profile turning from grey to gold to deep violet as the sun descends. The waterfront cafes and restaurants that line the square’s western edge trade heavily on this view, and an early-evening aperitif at one of these establishments is among the most civilised experiences available in small-town Switzerland.
At the square’s northern corner stands the landing stage for the Zugersee boat services, connecting Zug with Walchwil, Arth, Immensee, and Cham. The dock’s presence is a reminder that, for most of Zug’s history, the lake was the town’s primary transport corridor — more important than any road.
The Zytturm: Zug’s Defining Monument
From Landsgemeindeplatz, walk north along the Unter Altstadt (Lower Old Town) for approximately one hundred metres. The Zytturm — the clock tower — rises above the roofline ahead, its blue-and-white tiled roof unmistakable against the sky. This 52-metre tower is Zug’s most iconic building and one of the most photographed structures in Central Switzerland.
The tower dates in its current form from the mid-fifteenth century, though its lower courses incorporate masonry from an earlier thirteenth-century fortification. The distinctive polychrome roof, laid in a geometric pattern of glazed ceramic tiles, was added during a major renovation in the sixteenth century. The pattern — alternating bands of cobalt blue and white — was chosen to echo the cantonal coat of arms, and it has been maintained in every subsequent restoration, most recently in 2004.
The Zytturm’s clock mechanism, visible through the tower’s upper windows, is a fascinating assemblage that has been continuously upgraded since the original installation. The current astronomical clock face, which displays not only the time but also the moon phase and the position of the sun in the zodiac, dates from a 1574 renovation commissioned by the cantonal government. The clock’s hourly chime — a sequence of bells audible across the entire Old Town — remains the unofficial timekeeping system for Zug’s residents, many of whom set their daily rhythms by its sound rather than by their watches.
The tower is not regularly open to the public, though guided tours can be arranged through the Zug Tourist Office for groups. The interior houses a steep wooden staircase leading to the bell chamber and a small viewing platform with 360-degree views of the Old Town, the lake, and the Zugerberg ridge.
Unter Altstadt and Ober Altstadt: The Two Halves of the Medieval Town
Zug’s Old Town is divided by a gentle slope into two distinct zones: the Unter Altstadt (Lower Old Town), which fronts the lake and historically housed the fishing community and market traders, and the Ober Altstadt (Upper Old Town), which sits slightly higher and was traditionally the domain of the town’s administrative, religious, and mercantile elite.
The Lower Old Town
The Unter Altstadt is characterised by narrow, parallel lanes running perpendicular to the lakeshore — Fischmarkt, Untergasse, and Neugasse — lined with three- and four-storey buildings whose ground floors were originally open-fronted market stalls. Many of these buildings retain their sixteenth- and seventeenth-century facades, painted in the characteristic earthy palette of Central Swiss vernacular architecture: ochre, terracotta, sage green, and dusty pink. The facades frequently bear Lüftlmalerei-style painted decorations — coats of arms, religious scenes, and ornamental borders — though Zug’s painted traditions are more restrained than those of the Bavarian and Tyrolean towns to the east.
The most historically significant building on the Unter Altstadt is the Rathaus (Town Hall), a solid stone structure dating from 1505 that served as the cantonal parliament until the modern Regierungsgebäude was built in the nineteenth century. The Rathaus’s council chamber, with its carved oak panelling and painted ceiling, is one of the finest surviving examples of late-Gothic civic architecture in Switzerland. It can be visited during office hours.
The Upper Old Town
Walking uphill through the Schmidgasse or Kirchgasse brings you to the Ober Altstadt, a quieter, more residential zone centred on the St. Oswald’s Church and the Burg complex. The architecture here is generally grander than in the lower town — these were the houses of the patrician families who governed the canton — and several buildings display the characteristic Erker (oriel window) projections that are a hallmark of Swiss-German Renaissance domestic architecture.
The Burg, located at the highest point of the Old Town, is a fortified complex comprising a defensive tower (the Pulverturm), a residence, and a walled courtyard. The complex dates from the thirteenth century and served variously as a noble residence, a cantonal arsenal, and a prison before its conversion to a museum in the twentieth century. The Museum in der Burg (Museum in the Castle) houses an excellent collection covering Zug’s history from the prehistoric lake settlements through the medieval period to the modern era, with particular emphasis on the 1435 Zug landslide disaster that destroyed a significant portion of the original waterfront town.
St. Oswald’s Church: Gothic Grandeur
St. Oswald’s Church, the principal parish church of the Old Town, stands at the junction of the upper and lower towns. This late-Gothic hall church, begun in 1478 and consecrated in 1545, is one of the largest and finest churches in Central Switzerland. Its construction was funded primarily by the wealthy Zurlauben family, whose coat of arms appears repeatedly in the church’s decorative programme.
The exterior is relatively plain — as befits the Swiss Reformed aesthetic that prevailed even in Catholic cantons during the sixteenth century — but the interior is richly appointed. The nave features a network vault ceiling of considerable complexity, supported on slender octagonal columns. The choir retains its original fifteenth-century stained glass, including a remarkable series of windows depicting the life of St. Oswald (the seventh-century Northumbrian king whose cult was popular in the German-speaking lands during the late Middle Ages). The carved wooden choir stalls, dating from 1484, are among the finest in Switzerland and reward close examination for their misericord carvings of animals, grotesques, and scenes from daily medieval life.
The Chriesisturm: Zug’s Cherry Heritage
No account of Zug’s Old Town would be complete without reference to the cherry. Canton of Zug’s identity is inseparable from the cherry tree — the Kirschbaum — which has been cultivated on the terraced slopes above the lake since at least the fifteenth century. The cherry orchards that clothe the hillsides between Zug, Walchwil, and Oberägeri produce the fruit that forms the basis of the canton’s most famous culinary creation, the Zuger Kirschtorte (Zug cherry cake), and that drives the annual Chriesisturm, one of the most distinctive folk traditions in Switzerland.
The Chriesisturm — literally “cherry charge” — takes place each year in late June, on the day the cantonal government officially declares the cherry harvest open. At the sound of a cannon shot fired from the Zytturm at noon, cherry pickers race from Landsgemeindeplatz through the streets of the Old Town and up the hillsides to claim the best cherry trees. Historically, the cherry orchards on the common land above the town were available to all citizens on a first-come, first-served basis, and the race was a genuine competition for the most productive trees. Today, the Chriesisturm has evolved into a festive spectacle — participants run with wooden ladders on their shoulders, cheered by spectators lining the streets — but it retains a competitive edge, and the winners are celebrated with considerable civic pride.
The cherry blossom season itself, typically from late April through mid-May, transforms the Old Town’s surroundings into a canopy of white and pale pink. Walking the orchard paths above the Ober Altstadt during peak bloom is one of the most beautiful experiences available in Swiss springtime, comparable in quality if not in scale to the famous cherry blossom viewing traditions of Japan and Washington, D.C.
The 1435 Catastrophe: History Beneath the Waves
A darker chapter in Zug’s history is written beneath the lake. On March 4, 1435, a section of the Old Town’s waterfront — approximately sixty metres of buildings along what is now the Vorstadt — collapsed into Lake Zug in a catastrophic landslide triggered by the unstable lacustrine sediments on which the town was built. Twenty-six people died, and a significant portion of the medieval town was lost beneath the water.
The disaster reshaped both the physical layout and the psychology of the town. The waterfront was rebuilt further inland, on more stable ground, and stringent building regulations were introduced that limited the weight and height of structures near the lake — regulations that, in modified form, persist to this day. The Museum in der Burg devotes a major section to the catastrophe, including archaeological finds from the submerged buildings and a compelling digital reconstruction of the pre-1435 waterfront.
For divers with appropriate certification, the submerged ruins of the 1435 collapse can be visited as an underwater archaeological site — one of the few accessible medieval underwater ruins in Europe.
Practical Walking Tour Information
Duration: Approximately 90 minutes for the full circuit, or 2–3 hours with museum visits and refreshment stops.
Starting Point: Landsgemeindeplatz, accessible on foot from Zug railway station (8 minutes), or by Zugersee boat service.
Route: Landsgemeindeplatz → Unter Altstadt (Fischmarkt/Untergasse) → Zytturm → Rathaus → Schmidgasse → St. Oswald’s Church → Burg/Museum → Cherry orchard viewpoint → return via Kirchgasse to Landsgemeindeplatz.
Guided Tours: The Zug Tourist Office (Zug Tourismus, located at Bahnhofstrasse 22) offers guided Old Town walking tours in German, English, and French. Group tours can be booked in advance; public tours run on Saturdays during the summer season (May through September).
Best Times: Early morning (before 10:00) for photography and quiet atmosphere. Cherry blossom season (late April–mid-May) for the orchards. The Chriesisturm festival (late June) for the full cultural spectacle. Christmas market season (late November–December) for atmospheric evening visits.
Accessibility: The Unter Altstadt is fully accessible on flat, paved surfaces. The Ober Altstadt involves moderate inclines on cobbled streets. The Museum in der Burg has limited wheelchair access; contact the museum in advance.
Refreshments: Numerous cafes, bakeries, and restaurants throughout the Old Town. Confiserie Speck (Alpenstrasse 2) is the traditional source for authentic Zuger Kirschtorte — purchase a slice or a whole cake to take away.
Zug’s Old Town does not compete with Bern’s arcaded grandeur or Lucerne’s Chapel Bridge for photographic drama. Its appeal is subtler and, for the historically inclined visitor, more rewarding: a town that has grown organically over seven centuries, that wears its history unselfconsciously, and that continues to function as a living community rather than a museum piece. In an era when many European old towns have been reduced to tourist set-pieces, Zug’s Altstadt remains the genuine article.