Lucerne in the context of "Switzerland"

The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland (German: Bundesgericht [ˈbʊndəsɡəˌʁɪçt] ; French: Tribunal fédéral [tʁibynal fedeʁal]; Italian: Tribunale federale [tribuˈnaːle fedeˈraːle]; Romansh: Tribunal federal; sometimes the Swiss Federal Tribunal) is the supreme court of the Swiss Confederation and the head of the Swiss judiciary.

The Federal Supreme Court is headquartered in the Federal Courthouse in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Two divisions of the Federal Supreme Court, the third and the fourth public law division (until the end of 2022 the first and second social law division and formerly called Federal Insurance Court, as an organizationally independent unit of the Federal Supreme Court), are located in Lucerne. The Federal Assembly elects 40 justices to the Federal Supreme Court. The current president of the court is François Chaix.

The Old Swiss Confederacy began as a late medieval alliance between the communities of the valleys in the Central Alps, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire, to facilitate the management of common interests such as free trade and to ensure the peace along the important trade routes through the mountains. The Hohenstaufen emperors had granted these valleys reichsfrei status in the early 13th century. As reichsfrei regions, the cantons (or regions) of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden were under the direct authority of the emperor without any intermediate liege lords and thus were largely autonomous.

With the rise of the Habsburg dynasty, the kings and dukes of Habsburg sought to extend their influence over this region and to bring it under their rule; as a consequence, a conflict ensued between the Habsburgs and these mountain communities who tried to defend their privileged status as reichsfrei regions. The three founding cantons of the Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, as the confederacy was called, were joined in the early 14th century by the city states of Lucerne, Zürich, and Bern, and they managed to defeat Habsburg armies on several occasions. They also profited from the fact that the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, for most of the 14th century, came from the House of Luxembourg and regarded them as potential useful allies against the rival Habsburgs.

The canton of Lucerne (German: Kanton Luzern [ˈkantɔn luˈtsɛrn]; Romansh: Chantun Lucerna; French: Canton de Lucerne; Italian: Cantone Lucerna) is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the country's central, German-speaking part. The population of the canton (as of 31 December 2020) is 416,347. As of 2007, the population included 57,268 foreigners, or about 15.8% of the total population. The cantonal capital is the city of Lucerne.

Lucerne District (German: Luzern) is a former Amt (administrative district) of the Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. It had a population of 176,710 (as of 2013) and consisted of 17 municipalities, of which the city of Lucerne is the largest and the district capital. On 1 January 2013 the Amt was divided into two Wahlkreis, Lucerne-Stadt and Lucerne-Land.

Pilatus, also often referred to as Mount Pilatus, is a mountain massif overlooking Lucerne in Central Switzerland. It is composed of several peaks, of which the highest (2,128.5 m [6,983 ft]) is named Tomlishorn.

The Kapellbrücke (from German 'Chapel Bridge') is a covered wooden footbridge spanning the river Reuss diagonally in the city of Lucerne in central Switzerland. Named after the nearby St. Peter's Chapel, the bridge is unique in containing a number of interior paintings dating back to the 17th century, although many of them were destroyed along with a larger part of the centuries-old bridge in a 1993 fire. Subsequently restored, the Kapellbrücke is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the world's oldest surviving truss bridge. It serves as the city's symbol and as one of Switzerland's main tourist attractions.