Lützelau

Geschichte

Lützelau is an island located, with the neighbouring island of Ufenau, in Lake Zürich in Switzerland between Rapperswil and Freienbach .GeographyLützelau lies in Höfe district in the Canton of Schwyz. Since the 13th/14th centuries, it has belonged to the community of Rapperswil (now called Ortsbürgergemeinde). The island measures 33480m2 in all, 430m from east to west and 150m from north to south. The highest point of the island is 414m above sea level or 8m above lake level at 406m.On occasion of the formation of the Alps, the fossilized sediments material of the body of water between the Ricken and Etzel chains unfolded. There arose the typical rock bands that form the Lindenhof hill in Rapperswil, or the islands of Ufnau, Lützelau and Heilighüsli. During the last Ice Age the island was under a thick layer of ice, and the hard layers of conglomerate rock and the sandstone ridge survived the sanding by the glacier.HistoryFirst mentioned in the year 741, there was formerly a nunnery here, given by the Alamannic noblewoman Beata, daughter of Rachinbert and wife of Landolt. In the year 744, the nunnery, or abbey, was sold to Einsiedeln Abbey. Historians mention a 10th-century ferry station assumably at the so-called Einsiedlerhaus in Rapperswil – in 981 AD as well as the vineyard on the Lindenhof hill – between Kempraten on lake shore, Lützelau and Ufenau island and assumably present Hurden, which allowed the pilgrims towards Einsiedeln to cross the lake before the prehistoric bridge at the Seedamm isthmus was re-built in 1358.