Radio-City and Collegiate Church, Beromünster to Sursee

Wednesday March 18, 2026 -- Forecast was for lots of sunshine in most parts of Switzerland, but also strong cold Bise (northeasterly) winds in the lower areas. Although I try to avoid walking when the Bise and North Winds are blowing, we thought we'd try it out anyway, with a 3-hour walk once again in the back-country of Canton Luzern, in a region where we very seldom get to because most of the walking trails are along paved roads, and we usually try to avoid that.

We started in the 1000-year-old town of Beromünster in the Wynental between Lakes Baldegg and Sempach, a town I had never been to yet, although Urs did visit it when there used to be a railway line up here. It is a very pretty town with a cute main street, some lovely half-timbered homes, and a spectacular 1000-year old collegiate church which you can see from far off. (Plus a very sad history of a devastating fire in 1764).

The very first book printed in Switzerland was a 600-page text printed in the year 1470 in the town's ancient tower. Beromünster is also the site of a medium-wave radio station, a Swiss Public broadcaster which operated from 1931 to 2008. During the Second World War, the Beromünster radio station was one of the few free mass media infrastructures not controlled by dictatorial regimes.

On our walk down to Sursee, a city on the north end of Lake Sempach, we ended up following a trail called the "Beromünster Radio Trail", which featured several boxes where you could press a button and listen so some of those original broadcasts....

As beautiful as the town of Beromünster was to visit, the walk down to Lake Sempachersee was quite uncomfortable (cold and windy) and even with great views of the Alps, not really enjoyable. We changed our plans and walked to Oberkirch through the marshlands along the north end of the lake, instead of through the city of Sursee, which we had visited back in April 2025. (Photos HERE). Ironically, at that time we had planned to do this same hike, but nixed it because it was way too windy on that day!

Here is another ironic note and history: There was a devastating fire on March 12, 1764, where the core of the old market town of Beromünster was destroyed within three hours. The houses, still largely built of wood, could not be saved. The fire started in the horse stall of a local inn, and the flames were swept across the streets and gables—ironically by exactly these winds we were experiencing this day. Approximately 368 people, distributed across 95 households, lost their homes. Amazingly, the heart of the town was rebuilt in just four years.

– Information from https://www.hauszumdolder.ch/docs/Dokumentation_Fleckenbrand_1764.pdf

PART I: The Journey to Beromünster and a visit of the 1000-year-old Town

To get to Beromünster, you have to take a bus out of Luzern, a 40-minute ride. This photo here is of the most westernmost part of the city wall in Luzern, featuring two of the wall's nine towers.

Along the way to Beromünster, we spotted this cute church on a hill. This is in a tiny hamlet called Gormund, somewhat south of Beromünster, and which we can easily reach on a future hike I am already planning!

A typical landscape here, this is the town of Neudorf, just south of Beromünster, which we later saw from our walk along the hills in the background. This town will also be included on my next hike through here!

Having left home at about 9:45 a.m. (hoping that the later we started, the warmer it would get!) we reached the main part of Beromünster (called Flecken) at 11:10. The first thing we did was walk toward the parish church of St.Stephan at the east end of the main road. This here is the town hall (i.e. parish hall) next to the church.

The first church in Beromünster stood here at the site of the newer St.Stephan parish church. The original church can be dated back to the 9th Century and was probably a wood structure. The current building is from 1683, after several other, always larger, buildings were erected here.

Interior of the St.Stephan parish church. It's not the typical Baroque interior I am used to. The artwork is much more tasteful.

Lots of nice and fine stucco details on the walls and ceiling.

Lots of details in the pretty interior of this church.

This is the back side of the the parish hall (the half-timbered house), and the little chapel is probably a mortuary, but it was locked.

The coat of arms above the door of the mortuary has a script which reads "Jacob Oth, Scribe of Münster, passed away on December 25, 1612"

Heading up the main street now, we pass a bakery. This is always Urs' first stop on every excursion we undertake....

A view down the main street in Beromünster Flecken, toward the St.Stephan church and parish hall. Back in Medieval times, this road was all wooden houses, which burned down in the devastating fire of 1764. (368 people lost their accommodation). Amazingly, the entire street was rebuilt within 4 years, better and prettier than before.

We discovered this old building inscribed with "Schmiede Aeschimann", an old smithy. We went to have a look into the window....

...and were invided inside to watch how they are hand-forming custom iron "plugs" of some sort. Very interesting, but we didn't stay long, because the hammering on the anvil is loud, and there were some fine particles in the air which made me cough. But it's amazing to see such a craft still practiced by hand.

Heading up a side street to the main bus turning point in the town, we discovered what must have been the former train station. In 1906 a railway line to Menziken and Beinwil am See was inaugurated. This railway line was discontinued in the year 2000, but Urs has ridden the line as he was doing a railway apprentiship in this region at the time.

We also discovered this lovely medieval tower, now the "Castle Museum", which counts as the oldest book printing site in Switzerland. In the year 1470, a religious manual called the "Mammotrectus" was printed here by a church cleric named Helias Helye.

We then returned to the main road at the top of which is the site of the Collegiate Church of St.Michael, first mentioned in documents of 1086.

A stairway between these two buildings (the one on the left is the Collegiate Theater) leads up to the grounds of the Collegiate Church.

First we walked around the courtyard reading the old gravestones, before an older gentleman passing through brought to our attention that we can enter the building through that door....

These gravestones honour local (probably collegiate scribes) people who lived in the late 1700's. Of interest is the tombstone on the left, whose engravings indicate that a Jost Joseph Dangel was born on the 31st of September (!!) and lived to be about 130 years of age, which seems impossible at that time. Are these "printing" errors? An Internet search shows quite a large family history by the name of Dangel very active here in the Collegiate Church and in Beromünster, but not quite this person. (Link HERE).

The interior of the Collegiate Church in Beromünster. Unfortunately we could not get into the section with the beautifully carved wooded choir chairs (like the ones we saw recently on our hike to the former St.Urban Monastery. Photos HERE).

Apparently this is still the original Early Romanesque Architecture from the build of the church in the 11th Century.

Some details of the church. The baptismal font is particularly impressive.

Another stunning organ.

Other details of the interior of the church building, including a smaller organ by the choir chairs behind the main altar, which we did not have access to. Lots of gilded details.

Interesting display of family coats of arms at the front entrance to the church building.

The Collegiate Church of St.Michael's was founded by Count Bero of Lenzburg in the early 1000's. According to ancient legend, his son lost his life in a fight with a bear. The count then had the monastery built as a burial place for his family. This is also where the name of the town comes from, as "Münster" = "Minster" or "Cathedral".

These are the grounds west of the main church building, and we headed through these grounds to start out on our hike toward Sursee, after spending about an hour admiring this town.

Unusual cemetery plots with their attractive iron crosses and small, trimmed hedge "boxes".

More of the many buildings which form part of the Collegiate Church site.

A map of the site of the St.Michael's Collegiate church, which includes about 45 buildings altogether. The site was establisched in the 10th Century, and the Church itself built in 1034/1036 and is still almost completely in its original form.

PART II: Heading out of Beromünster and Along the "Radio Trail"

Originally we were going to walk a longer trail via the villages of Büel and Bach, but decided on a shortcut through the forest above Schenkon. Even with the shortcut, this was an 11-km, 3-hour walk, made less pleasing due to the strong winds. After spending about an hour in the city of Beromünster, we headed out at 12:10, and got to the Oberkirch train station at 15:35.

This was our first surprise, as we were not aware that we would be starting out our walk on what is called the "Beromünster Radio Trail". The Swiss radio broadcast provider (in operation from 1931 to 2008) was one of the only European radio stations not controlled by dictatorial regimes during the Second World War, and citizens could actually get accurate news updates. You can press buttons to hear snippets of the original programs. It was very loud, though, and I felt bad for the neighbours!

Just above the town of Beromünster now, we get this great view of the Nidwalden Alps to the south.

Heading out of Beromünster now to start on our actual walk toward Sursee.

There is a small forested section above the town called the Waldcathedrale, i.e. "Forest Cathedral" (from above it looks like the layout of a cathedral) from where you get this nice view down over the town of Beromünster.

There were all kinds of interesting things along the "Beromünster Radio Trail", besides several of these radio boxes. Next to this box was a display of erratic boulders left in the region by the retreating glaciers. Additionally, a 1581-erected roadside chapel that is under monument protection, and a Jerusalem cross erected in 1632.

Passing via a hamlet called Huebe, where the very recent birth of a baby named Loris is extensively celebrated.

Now we can see the (defunct) radio station tower to the west. The Beromünster Radio Broadcaster provided medium-wave services to the locals from 1931 to 2008. There has been talk of the towers being removed, but the locals want them to remain.

Heading south now along a paved road, we get these great views of the Alps of Central Switzerland, including Mount Rigi (the large dark one). Down below is the town of Neudorf, which we passed through with the bus on our way to Beromünster from Luzern.

Another bit of information displayed here: This whole region (including Zug where we live as well as Zurich and Luzern) was once buried in glacier ice. The site here was under 150 meters of ice at the time. Since about 12,000 years, we are currently in a period of "warming". All around the area you can find erratic blocks left behind by the retreating glaciers.

There's another radio box here! This looks like it might have been a dairy.) I'd hate having to live besides one of these boxes!) Now we head towards the radio tower and down the hill to the west toward Sursee.

PART III: Descent through Farm Country to Lake Sempachersee

A neat little wooden barn (granary) which we see in many places in the Central Plateau regions.

Passing the radio tower.

Can you tell from this photo how cold I am? As a side note, the forecast for wind strength was for 25 km/hr winds with gusts of 40 km/hr. (Another side note: This was the same day that the gondola was blown off the cable on the Engelberg-Titlis cable-way).

It would be a perfect day with sunshine and views of the mountains, if not for the very uncomfortable cold winds blowing.

There was a guardian dog herding these sheep in this pasture. But they didn't look too thrilled about being told where they had to go.

Heading down to the little farm community called Waldi. As it was now already past 1 p.m. and we hadn't had lunch yet, we were looking for a sunny bench out of the wind to stop for a break!

More old granaries. This one had a date of 1736 inscribed above the door.

Urs suggested we could have our lunch here inside this little cable car cabin, as it would surely be protected from the wind! But I felt it would be claustrophobic, so we continued on to the next farming hamlet called Grüt.

A look behind us at the dainty radio-tower as we make our way down to Grüt.

We did find a bench hier in Grüt in the sunshine (at 1:30 p.m.) and somewhat protected from the wind. So we took about a 15-minute break here.

These girls are looking forward to soon being able to walk freely in the pastures.

In this hamlet called Grüt was a chapel, but a very atypical one. We did not look inside. From here we had planned a longer trek via other such hamlets, but it was already quite uncomfortable, so we took the fastest way down to Sursee from here.

After a lovely forested section (called Chäseriwald) we reached the outskirts of the city of Sursee (Schenkon) with our first view of the lake. (Sempachersee).

View of the lake and the Alps of Central Switzerland.

A cute sculpture on the grounds of the Schenkon Gemeindehaus (Town Hall).

More stunning views of the Nidwalden Alps with Mt.Titlis on the far right.

PART IV: Along the Sempachersee Moosweg and Zellmoos Nature Reserve

View of the Alps looking south across Lake Sempachersee. Instead of heading through the city of Sursee to the main train station there, we decided to walk through the moorlands along the north part of the lake, to the smaller community of Oberkirch.

These are protected moorlands called "Zellmoos" and you can walk along little bridges and paths through these rushes.

The sign suggests that if the path is too wet (which it was), you can take off your shoes and walk here barefoot (which we did not!)

The whole way to the train station at Oberkirch, we were able to enjoy these beautiful views over the flat moorlands to the snow-covered alps.

View of Mt.Pilatus across the Moorlands

View of Mt.Rigi across the Moorlands.

It is always a thrill when storks fly nearby!

Looking behind us we can see the radio tower up above, and the forested section we walked through.

Other birds you often find in these marsh-lands are the lovely gray geese.

As we left the marshlands and got closer to the train station, we passed several farms and many apple orchards.

Lots of well-kept orchards here. In a few weeks these will be very nice to see in full bloom!

We got to the Oberkirch train station at 15:33, just a few minutes to spare till the 15:37 train back to Sursee (where we changed to the train to Luzern). The mountain that looms large here is Mt.Pilatus to the south.

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps

PART V: One-hour train trip back home, via Luzern

Heading south now along Lake Sempach from Sursee, we can just barely make out the Beromünster radio tower on the top of the small hill, where we walked down from.