Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden

Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden is a wooden pedestrian bridge between the city of Rapperswil and the village of Hurden crossing the Obersee (the upper part of Lake Zurich) in Switzerland.

Wooden structures enabling lake crossings in the same area were already built thousands of years ago.

The water area between Rapperswil and Hurden is the narrowest and shallowest part of Lake Zurich.

The oldest remains of bridges or possibly wooden footpaths that were found at the archaeological site Hurden Rosshorn date back to the era of the Horgen culture.

Many traces of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age lake-crossing structures were discovered on the western side of the dam at the Hurden Rosshorn site.

Between 1358 and 1360, Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, built a wooden bridge across the lake.

The lake area near the Heilig Hüsli chapel and the small islands between the timber bridge and the dam are designated as a nature reserve.

For this reason, fishing from the wooden bridge is prohibited, as is swimming and mooring boats in the area.

The wooden bridge and the bridge chapel Heilig Hüsli . Rapperswil and Rapperswil Castle in the background.
The bridge as seen from Hurden