__NOTOC__ Lake Zug (german: Zugersee) is a lake in

Central Switzerland Central Switzerland is the region of the Alpine Foothills geographically the heart and historically the origin of Switzerland, with the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Lucerne and Zug. Central Switzerland is one of the NUTS 2 Stat ...

, situated between

Lake Lucerne __NOTOC__ Lake Lucerne (german: Vierwaldstättersee, literally "Lake of the four forested settlements" (in English usually translated as ''forest cantons''), french: lac des Quatre-Cantons, it, lago dei Quattro Cantoni) is a lake in central S ...

and

Lake Zurich __NOTOC__ Lake Zurich (Swiss German/ Alemannic: ''Zürisee''; German: ''Zürichsee''; rm, Lai da Turitg) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zürich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or ''Zürichsee'' can be used to ...

. It stretches for 14 km between

Arth Arth is a village, a town, and a municipality in Schwyz District in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The municipality consists of the villages Arth, Oberarth, and Goldau. The four settlements Rigi Kulm, Rigi First, Rigi Klösterli, an ...

and the

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albania ...

Zug , neighboring_municipalities = Cham, Baar, Walchwil, Steinhausen, Unterägeri , twintowns = Fürstenfeld (Austria), Kalesija (Bosnia-Herzegowina) Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo r ...

bay. The

Lorze The Lorze is the main river of the Canton of Zug, Switzerland. It flows from Ägerisee through Lake Zug into the Reuss Reuss may refer to: * Reuss (surname) *Reuss (river) in Switzerland *Reuss (state) or Reuß, several former states or countries ...

as the main feeder river empties its waters into the lake at its northern extremity, but 1 km (0.6 mi) further west issues from the lake to pursue its course towards the Reuss. Due to this poor feeding, Environmental protection is very important as the lake would suffer long term damage if polluted as the second of the rivers, ''Rigiaa'', feeds only a marginal amount into the lake at its southern end. Already a great part of the fauna in the deep parts of the lake has been lost.

Background

The lake is mostly within the borders of the

Canton of Zug The canton of Zug, also Zoug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: , rm, Chantun Zug, french: Canton de Zoug, it, Canton Zugo) is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. It is located in central Switzerland and its capital is Zug. At the cant ...

, with about at its southern end in the canton

Schwyz The town of Schwyz (; french: Schwytz; it, Svitto) is 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 ' ...

, while the Canton of Lucerne claims about to the north of Immensee. Toward the south-west extremity of the lake the

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 ...

descends rather steeply to the water's edge, while part of its east shore forms a narrow level band at the foot of the 1,583 m (5,194 ft)

Rossberg The Wildspitz is the highest summit of the Rossberg, a mountain of the Schwyzer Alps The Schwyz Alps (german: Schwyzer Alpen) are a mountain range in Switzerland. They form part of the North-Eastern Swiss Alps and are bordered by the Glaru ...

, and the Zugerberg. The culminating point of the lake's drainage basin is the summit of the Rigi at 1,798 m. At its northern end, the shores are nearly level, while on the west shore the wooded promontory of Buonas (with its castles, old and new) projects picturesquely into the waters. The principal place on the lake is the town of

. Three railways follow the shore of the lake, one from Zurich via Zug and

Arth-Goldau Arth-Goldau railway station (german: Bahnhof Arth-Goldau) is a railway station in the Swiss canton of Schwyz and municipality of Arth. The station is located in the centre of the village of Goldau, which forms part of Arth. The station is an i ...

to the St Gotthard, one from Lucerne via Arth-Goldau to the St Gotthard, and the third from Zurich via Zug to Lucerne. Many fish (including

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

and carp of considerable weights) are taken in the lake, which is especially famous for an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

kind of

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

(''Salmo salvelinus'', locally called ''Rolheli'').

History

The first steamer was placed on the lake in 1852. In the early 20th century, a railway (formerly part of the St. Gotthard main route) ran along its eastern shore past

Walchwil Walchwil is a village and a municipality in the canton of Zug in Switzerland. History Walchwil is first mentioned in 1283 as ''Walchwile''. Geography Walchwil has an area, , of . Of this area, 41.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while ...

at its south end, which was connected initially by a steam tramway with the

station of the St Gotthard line. This line runs from

along the western shore to Immensee, where it bears south-west to Lucerne, while from Immensee another railway leads (at first some way from the shore) to

, west of Zug.

Settlements

**Gängigen *Buonas *

*Chämleten * Immensee *

Risch Risch is a municipality in the canton of Zug in Switzerland. It is also promoted as Risch-Rotkreuz. Four villages (Rotkreuz, Risch, Buonas and Holzhäusern) belong to the municipality ''Risch''. On 24 November 2007 it was decided to promote t ...

**Lorzen **Oberwil

Public Transportation

Public transportation on Lake Zug is done by the Zugersee Schifffahrt / Schifffahrtsgesellschaft für den Zugersee AG (SGZ) .Die Flotte
/ref>

References

External links

Zugersee Schifffahrt lake cruises
{{Authority control

LZug Lucerne–Schwyz border Lucerne–Zug border Schwyz–Zug border