From Altbüron to Murgenthal with highlight: Former Abbey Grounds at St.Urban

Saturday March 7, 2026 -- With lots of Sahara dust currently affecting visibility, but with continuing mild weather, we chose a hike which wasn't dependent on our having views of the mountains. 

I had long wanted to visit the former Cistercian (women's) Monastery in St.Urban in Canton Luzern, an imposing site and even more imposing monastery church building (currently the parish church). We chose to include it on a 13-km walk along Regional Trail no.65: "Grenzpfad Napfbergland" (i.e. border trail in the Napfberg Region of Canton Luzern), heading north from Altbüron to Murgenthal on the Aare River, passing along forest trails, pastoral landscapes, and water courses, mostly following the border of Cantons Luzern and Bern along the Rot River which forms that border. (Later, north of St.Urban, it was the Rot and Murg Rivers which formed the border ot Cantons Aargau and Bern).  It was an easy 13-km walk with lots of sunshine, but it was a shame that we could not see the Jura mountains as we headed northwards, due to the desert dust. 

The church at St.Urban was indeed a fantastic structure, with so much artwork and stucco sculptures and gilded details. The most impressive were the hand-carved choir chairs behind the altar. 

Another interesting feature of this walk is that we passed the point at which three Cantons meet: Bern, Luzern and Aargau.... 

After just less than two hours of travel time, we reached the village of Altbüron, where we started on our hike with a visit to the little church on the hill. 

We passed this interesting laid-out garden on the steps up to the church. The little model church there is kind of cute!

The church in Altbüron is called The Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua, built in 1683. It is a pilgrim church and popular for weddings. 

The interior of the church had some very nice paintings, and a cute little organ. 

Close-up of the main and two side altars. 

In this case, the organ is next to the altar instead of up in the balcony. But the wood was nicely painted. 

Details of the inside of the little chapel in Altbüron. There was a very attractive wooden carved picture of the last supper decorating the main altar. 

Starting in Altbüron at about 10:15, we walked for 13½ kilometers northwards mostly along Regional Trail no.65: "Grenzpfad Napfbergland" to St.Urban, and then on to the train station in Murgenthal, which we reached at 3:20 p.m.  

Heading off on our walk, we passed some nice yards full of new crocuses!

Our map seemed to indicate that there was a castle up on that hill, so we headed up there, but it was just a private residence. From there we continued along the top of the hill. 

Heading up the hill from Altbüron. 

Looking back to the chapel on the hill. There is a lot of Sahara dust in the air, and visibility is very poor on this day. 

Views of the pastoral landscape to the west as we head north along the top part of the hill. 

Along the trail we had planned to follow, we ran into a section where there was forestry work going on. Unfortunately, our map did not indicate that the trail was closed here. We talked to a fellow who lived right here if he knew about the status of the operations. He said there was no work going on at the weekend, but that the trail might be blocked with downed trees. Usually one is allowed to walk forest trails on weekends, so we gave it a try, as we are used to climbing over downed trees. 

As it turns out, there were really a lot of trees and wood across the road and it was tough going to climb over or around all the downed trees. So at some point we decided to head uphill out of the forested section and continue along the edge of the forest instead. 

Forestry work on the forest road where the trail actually went through. On weekdays, when the machines are at work, it is not possible to walk here. 

Finally we left the forested section and joined regional trail no.65: "Grenzpfad Napfbergland". We are headed to St.Urban, which is an hour and 15 minutes from here. 

A description of Trail no.65: It is a 115-km trail starting near here at the city of Langenthal, and ending at the Brünig Pass via Mt. Brienzer Rothorn. We had done several sections of this trail, and hope to complete it one day. 

Further on through the next forested section, we found out that we were walking on an historical transportation route, mentioned in documents as far back as the 15th Century as a connecting route to the Medieval monastery at St.Urban. The painting here shows what the site might have looked like: It is an acquarelle painting (print copy) from 1630.

Here we are approaching a large farm called Ober Berghof. It is now just after noon, and we are keeping our eyes open for a convenient bench for our lunch break!

A look behind us as we pass by the Ober Berghof Farm, as we reach that convenient bench we had been hoping for!

Perfect timing as we found our lunch-bench at 12:15!

The hazy view we had from our lunch bench. 

That farm below has its own little private chapel. You see that once in a while here. 

Continuing northwards now after our lunch break, we have the double-towers of the St.Urban church building in our sights. In the far background and just barely visible due to the Sahara dust in the air this weekend is the Jura range of mountains to the north.  

Zoomed view of St.Urban Monastery church. There are a couple of large orchards that we passed later, and cows out in the pastures already. 

The last long flat stretch to St.Urban. Unfortunately, we had to walk along the main busy road for a stretch (Up ahead). 

This is a farm called Neuscheuerhof on the outskirts of St.Urban. 

At 1:20 p.m. we have arrived at the former Cistercian Monastery grounds. 

At both the south and north entrance of the compound were diagrams of the history of the monastery and Cistercian order (grounded in 1194) as well as the various buildings and their uses. The Monastery was disbanded in 1848 and is now the site of a psychiatric clinic. We would have been interested in the old mill and bakery (building 13) and even though we rested on a bench right next to it, immediately forgot to have a look.

There are large parks here on the grounds with benches, where we took a break before heading into the former Abbey Church (now the St.Urban parish church).  

This interesting sculpture in front of the monastery buildings is a tribute to various world religions. The monastery church in St. Urban, built between 1711 and 1717, is a combination of Baroque and Cistercian architecture.

First impression of the vast interior of the church as you walk in the front door. The original romanesque-gothic building was converted to a Baroque church in the 17th Century. 

Looking toward the entrance and the fantastic organ. Translated from the website https://www.st-urban.ch/kloster/klosterkirche/ : "This masterpiece was built between 1716 and 1721 by the organ builder Joseph Bossard. With 40 stops, over 2,500 pipes, and 3 manuals, the instrument is one of the largest largely preserved Baroque organs in Europe."

So much detail everywhere. Urs didn't really like all the gilded details. The altar area was cordoned off, but there was a hallway on the side from where you could access the choir area behind the iron "gate". 

Here we are now behind the altar and church area, looking toward the organ side. These wooden hand-carved choir chairs were magnificent. 

So much detail on the wooded choir seats. These works of art were created by local sculptors from Solothurn in the very early 1700's.

Magnificent!

The intricate iron lattice-work gate separates the parish church section from this part of the building, which used to be reserved for only the monks living here. 

And now, from the iron gate separating the church's altar from the choir chairs, there is another magnificent altar even further back. This is the "high altar" and this part of the church was once reserved for only the monks living here.  

More beautiful artwork on the high altar at the far back of the church, displaying statues of the four Evangelists, among others.  

A couple more details. We didn't go into the hallway behind that magnificent doorway in the rightmost photo, although it probably wasn't off-limits. 

After spending 20 minutes inside the grandiose church building, we left the grounds on the north side and continued on the final leg of our journey. 

On the northern edge of the city of St.Urban, the borders of three Swiss Cantons (Bern, Luzern, Aargau) meet up here at this point. For the final stretch of our walk (4½ kilometers) to the train station in Murgenthal, we follow the course of the Rot and Murg Rivers on the Aargau side, those rivers forming the border with Canton Bern. 

Old mills and water wheels remind us how important the rivers were in times before we had electricity! This site is called "Säge", a sawmill. 

For the rest of our hike, the main river (Rot River) was on our left (to the west) with a smaller canal (Rotcanal) on the right. It is always pleasant to walk along water courses, with the sound of the flowing water. 

This old building is at the north end of a small community called Walliswil, where the Rot River (which we had been following) joins another river from the west to form the Murg River, which enters the Aare River just a short distance to the north. 

The trail here continues along the Rot Canal, with the Murg River on the west side. 

A look behind us at the path next to the Rot Canal. 

A cute house as we enter the outskirts of the city of Murgenthal. (Interesting note: As the Murg River forms the border of Cantons Aargau and Bern, this part of the town is in Canton Aargau, and only a few meters to the west, the part of the city called Obermurgenthal is in Canton Bern). 

An interesting style of older building which you see a lot in regions where industry originally started. 

We had been hurrying to make sure we caught the 15:27 train out of Murgenthal, but managed to get here with almost 10 minutes to spare!

The 15:27 train to Olten right on time, for our altogether 90-minute trip back home!

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps. Our trail runs parallel to the Rot River, which forms the border with Cantons Luzern and Bern south of St.Urban, and then between Cantons Aargau and Bern north of St.Urban. 

These are all the hikes we have done in this region just west of the city of Olten, many of them around the Jura mountains, which we did not see this day. 

On the way to Olten, the train passes the beautiful castle at Aarburg. 

Location of St.Urban within Switzerland