Probably the most visited attractions in Lucerne are the two wooden bridges, the Sproerbrücke and the Kapellbrücke, located on the river Reuss not far from each other.
The history of the Sproerbrücke bridge begins in the 13th century. At that time it was small and reached only to an island on the river, where the water mills rose. In 1408 it was built up to the opposite bank of the Reuss, where the city's most famous bakeries were located. Accordingly, flour could be easily transported across the bridge directly to the kitchens of cooks and pastry chefs. Well, the millers threw the production waste directly from the bridge into the river, because of which it was called Myakinny. In the middle of the 16th century there was a flood in Lucerne, as a result of which the Sproerbrücke bridge was damaged. It was rebuilt, and a few years later, after reconstruction, it was widened by adding a neat chapel of the Virgin Mary with a sharp-angled red roof topped with a weather vane.
Thousands of tourists visit this bridge every year to admire the original triangular-shaped frescoes placed under the slope of the roof. Their author is considered to be the artist Caspar Meglinger. He worked on a series of 67 paintings for 9 years in the first half of the 17th century. They are painted on wooden panels and are united by one subject popular in past centuries. Before the stunned viewers appears a canvas, broken into fragments, called "The Dance of Death". Death gathers representatives of all classes and leads them into oblivion. Even the powerful - dukes, noble ladies, kings, scientists and priests - cannot escape it. Only one fresco depicts Jesus Christ, the only one who could defeat death.
