Küssnacht am Rigi (official name since 2004: Küssnacht) is a village and a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

Schwyz Schwyz (; ; ) is a town and the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The Federal Charter of 1291 or ''Bundesbrief'', the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the ''Bundesbriefmuseum''. The of ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The municipality consists of the three villages Küssnacht, Immensee, and Merlischachen, the hamlet ''Haltikon'', the industrial area ''Fänn'', and the alp ''Seeboden''. It is situated at the north shore of

Lake Lucerne Lake Lucerne (, literally 'Lake of the four Waldstätte, forested settlements' (in English usually translated as ''forest cantons''), , ) is a lake in central Switzerland and the fourth largest in the country. Geography The lake has a compli ...

and at the south shore of

Lake Zug __NOTOC__ Lake Zug () is a lake in Central Switzerland, situated between Lake Lucerne and Lake Zurich. It stretches for between Arth and the Cham- Zug bay. The Lorze as the main feeder river empties its waters into the lake at its northern ex ...

below mount

Rigi The Rigi (or ''Mount Rigi''; also known as ''Queen of the Mountains'') is a mountain massif of the Alps, located in Central Switzerland. The whole massif is almost entirely surrounded by the water of three different bodies of water: Lake Lucerne ...

().

History

Küssnacht is first mentioned around 840 as ''in Chussenacho'' though this is from an 11th Century copy of the original document. In 1179 it was mentioned as ''Chussenacho''. In 1424 Küssnacht became a ''district'' of the Canton of Schwyz. Its etymology comes from the German words Küss and Nacht, meaning Kiss and Night respectively. According to the legend of

Wilhelm Tell William Tell (, ; ; ; ) is a legendary folk hero of Switzerland. He is known for shooting an apple off his son's head. According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albrecht Gessler, ...

, the hero shot the

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...

Gessler at the ''Hohle Gasse'' near the ''Gesslerburg'' with his

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an Elasticity (physics), elastic launching device consisting of a Bow and arrow, bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar f ...

: On August 29, 1935, Queen

Astrid of the Belgians Astrid of Sweden (Astrid Sofia Lovisa Thyra; 17 November 1905 – 29 August 1935) was a member of the Swedish House of Bernadotte and later became Queen of the Belgians as the first wife of King Leopold III. Following her marriage to Leopold in ...

was killed here in a road accident. A memorial chapel ("Königin-Astrid-Kapelle") was built at the accident scene. On March 4, 1989, the chapel was demolished by youths, to be restored later that year. The well known

Klausjagen The Klausjagen ("Nicholas chase") festival takes place in the Swiss town of Küssnacht on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day. The festival, attended each year by about 20,000 people, consists of a parade of around 1,500 participants, and lasts far into ...

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...

chase") festival takes place in Küssnacht every year on the eve of

Saint Nicholas Day Saint Nicholas Day, also called the "Feast of Saint Nicholas", observed on 6 December (or on its eve on 5 December) in Western Christian countries, and on 19 December in Eastern Christian countries using the old church Calendar, is the feast d ...

(December 5). The festival, attended by about 20,000 people, consists of a parade of around 1,000 participants, and lasts far into the night.

Geography

Küssnacht has an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 55.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 26.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 16.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 1.3% is unproductive land. In the 2004/09 survey a total of or about 9.2% of the total area was covered with buildings, an increase of over the 1982 amount. Over the same time period, the amount of recreational space in the municipality increased by and is now about 2.07% of the total area. Of the agricultural land, is used for orchards and vineyards, is fields and grasslands and consists of alpine grazing areas. Since 1982 the amount of agricultural land has decreased by . Over the same time period the amount of forested land has increased by . Rivers and lakes cover in the municipality.Regionalporträts 2017: Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 18 May 2017 The municipality is at the foot the Rigi mountain between the

Lake of Lucerne Lake Lucerne (, literally 'Lake of the four Waldstätte, forested settlements' (in English usually translated as ''forest cantons''), , ) is a lake in central Switzerland and the fourth largest in the country. Geography The lake has a compli ...

and Lake Zug. It consists of the villages of Küssnacht, Immensee and Merlischachen as well as the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Haltikon and Seebodenalp. It is the capital and only municipality of the district of Küssnacht.

Demographics

Küssnacht has a population () of . , 21.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. In 2015 a small minority (642 or 5.2% of the population) was born in Germany. Over the last 5 years (2010–2015) the population has changed at a rate of 1.63%. The

birth rate Birth rate, also known as natality, is the total number of live childbirth, human births per 1,000 population for a given period divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registr ...

in the municipality, in 2015, was 10.4, while the

death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of d ...

was 7.9 per thousand residents. Most of the population () speaks German (87.5%), with Albanian and Serbo-Croatian being each spoken by about 2.7% of the population.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 31-Aug-2009 , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 62.4% of the population and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.0%. In 2015 there were 5,252 single residents, 5,620 people who were married or in a civil partnership, 570 widows or widowers and 981 divorced residents. In 2015 there were 5,360 private households in Küssnacht with an average household size of 2.27 persons. In 2015 about 40.6% of all buildings in the municipality were single family homes, which is less than the percentage in the canton (50.4%) and much less than the percentage nationally (57.4%). Of the 1,980 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 45.5% were single family homes and 32.0% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 16.6% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 15.9% were built between 1991 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen
accessed 5 May 2016 In 2014 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 6.21. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.82%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:12500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:2500 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:500 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:2788 text:"2,788" bar:1860 from:start till:2633 text:"2,633" bar:1870 from:start till:2860 text:"2,860" bar:1880 from:start till:3179 text:"3,179" bar:1888 from:start till:2924 text:"2,924" bar:1900 from:start till:3562 text:"3,562" bar:1910 from:start till:3955 text:"3,955" bar:1920 from:start till:4099 text:"4,099" bar:1930 from:start till:4430 text:"4,430" bar:1941 from:start till:5152 text:"5,152" bar:1950 from:start till:5680 text:"5,680" bar:1960 from:start till:6287 text:"6,287" bar:1970 from:start till:7956 text:"7,956" bar:1980 from:start till:8091 text:"8,091" bar:1990 from:start till:9461 text:"9,461" bar:2000 from:start till:10704 text:"10,704" bar:2010 from:start till:12208 text:"12,208" bar:2015 from:start till:12423 text:"12,423"

Heritage sites of national significance

The

Gesslerburg Castle Gesslerburg Castle is a castle in the municipality of Küssnacht of the Canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. See also * List of castles in Switzerland This list includes castles and fortresse ...

and the '' Hohle Gasse'' with the Tell Chapel are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. The village of Küssnacht am Rigi and the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Merlischachen are part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...

. Kuessnacht-Gesslerburg.jpg, Ruins of Gesslerburg Castle Hohle Gasse.jpeg, Tell Chapel in the ''Hohle Gasse''

Politics

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the FDP with 32.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (29.9%), the CVP (20.6%) and the SP (11.0%). In the federal election, a total of 4,700 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 57.3%. The 2015 election saw a large change in the voting when compared to 2011 with the percentage received for the FDP increasing from 24.2% to 32.9%. In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 36.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (25.6%), the FDP (21.6%) and the SPS (12.1%).

Education

In Küssnacht about 72.9% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

or additional higher education (either university or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

'').

Transportation

The municipality has three railway stations: , , and . All three are located on the Lucerne–Immensee line. The ferry terminal at Küssnacht am Rigi (See) is a short distance from the Küssnacht am Rigi railway station and has service to multiple destinations on

Economy

Küssnacht is classed as a regional business center. , there were a total of 6,849 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 306 people worked in 114 businesses in the primary economic sector. The

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...

employed 2,659 workers in 191 separate businesses. There were 31 small businesses with a total of 779 employees and 13 mid sized businesses with a total of 1,449 employees. Finally, the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

provided 3,884 jobs in 821 businesses. There were 64 small businesses with a total of 1,626 employees and two mid sized businesses with a total of 256 employees. In 2015 a total of 6.2% of the population received social assistance. In 2011 the unemployment rate in the municipality was 1.6%. In 2015 local hotels had a total of 61,077 overnight stays, of which 55.6% were international visitors. In 2015 the average cantonal, municipal and church tax rate in the municipality for a couple with two children making was 3% while the rate for a single person making was 9%. The canton has a slightly lower than average tax rate for those making and one of the lowest for those making . In 2013 the average income in the municipality per tax payer was and the per person average was , which is greater than the cantonal averages of and respectively It is also greater than the national per tax payer average of and the per person average of .

Religion

From the , 7,891 or 73.7% are

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, while 1,152 or 10.8% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. Of the rest of the population, there are less than 5 individuals who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, there are 146 individuals (or about 1.36% of the population) who belong to the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

, and there are 17 individuals (or about 0.16% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There are less than 5 individuals who are

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and 501 (or about 4.68% of the population) who are

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic. There are 76 individuals (or about 0.71% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 563 (or about 5.26% of the population) belong to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 354 individuals (or about 3.31% of the population) did not answer the question.Canton Schwyz Statistics
accessed 27 August 2009

Crime

In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the

Swiss Criminal Code The Swiss Criminal Code (SR/RS 311, , , , ) is a portion of the third part (SR/RS 3) of the Swiss law, internal Swiss law ("Private law - Administration of civil justice - Enforcement") that regulates the criminal code in Switzerland. The orig ...

(running from murder, robbery and assault to accepting bribes and election fraud), in Küssnacht was 33.6 per thousand residents. This rate is only 52.0% of the average rate in the entire country. During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 6.5 per thousand residents, which is 65.7% of the national rate. The rate of violations of immigration, visa and work permit laws was 2.8 per thousand residents, which is only 57.1% of the rate for the entire country.Statistical Atlas of Switzerland
accessed 5 April 2016

Notable people

Hekuran Kryeziu Hekuran Kryeziu (born 12 February 1993) is a Kosovan professional football coach and former player who is the assistant manager of Kosovo national under-21 team. Club career Zürich On 31 May 2018, Kryeziu signed a three-year contract with Swis ...

(born 1993), professional footballer *

César Ritz César Ritz, born Cäsar Ritz (23 February 1850 – 26 October 1918), was a Swiss hotelier and founder of several hotels, most famously the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Hôtel Ritz in Paris and the The Ritz London Hotel, Ritz and Carlton Hotel, London, Ca ...

, hotelier

References

External links

Official webpageTourist webpageFuture plans of Küssnacht
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kussnacht Cities in Switzerland Municipalities of the canton of Schwyz Districts of the canton of Schwyz Populated places on Lake Lucerne Populated places on Lake Zug Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Schwyz