Here’s something you might not know: Everybody dies! No, this isn’t an episode of the television series House this is just the 13th century, when literally everybody was dying, you know, because of the Black Death. That event is remembered inside the rafters of the covered roof of the Spreuerbrücke, which crosses the Reuss River in Lucerne, Switzerland. The Spreuerbrücke is not as famous as Lucerne’s other wooden footbridge, but features historic paintings of skeletons and reapers collecting souls. The bridge’s roof panels, painted by Caspar Meglinger between 1626 and 1635, depict how the plague affected society during the ‘Danse Macabre.’
No matter one’s station in life, whether old or young or rich or poor, the ‘Dance of Death’ unites all. Of the 67 original paintings, the 45 that survive show a skeleton or a group of skeletons coming to drag various people, even monks and nuns, to the afterlife. If you’re looking for a peaceful and rustic bridge, this probably isn’t the best choice, unless you’re into this sort of thing.
