The ''Tellskapelle'' ("Tell's chapel") is located on the ''Tellsplatte'' or ''Tellenplatte'' ("Tell's slab") on the 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 ...

at the foot of the Axenberg cliffs (an offshoot ridge of

Glärnisch The Glärnisch is a mountain massif of the Schwyz Alps, overlooking the valley of the Linth in the Swiss canton of Glarus The canton of Glarus ( ; ; ; ) is a cantons of Switzerland, canton in east-central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus ...

, 1,022 m), in the

Sisikon Sisikon is a municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. It is situated on the shore of Lake Lucerne. Geography Sisikon has an area, , of . Of this area, 30.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 44% is forested. Of the rest of the ...

municipality,

canton of Uri The canton of Uri ( ; ; ; ) is one of the cantons of switzerland, 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss ...

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 ...

. It is across the Bay of Uri (''Urnersee'') from the

Rütli Rütli () or Grütli (; ) is a mountain meadow on Lake Lucerne, in the Seelisberg municipality of the Swiss canton of Uri. It is the site of the Rütlischwur in traditional Swiss historiography, the oath marking the foundation of the origi ...

, some 4.3km away. The Catholic chapel marks the site of the ''Tellensprung'' ("leap of Tell") where, according to legend,

William 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, ...

leapt from the boat of his captors during a storm and escaped, allowing him to assassinate the tyrant Gessler and initiate the rebellion that led to the foundation of the

Old Swiss Confederacy The Old Swiss Confederacy, also known as Switzerland or the Swiss Confederacy, was a loose confederation of independent small states (, German or ), initially within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerlan ...

. The ''Tellenplatte'' is first mentioned in 1470 in the

White Book of Sarnen The ''White Book of Sarnen'' () is a collection of medieval manuscripts compiled in the late 15th century by Hans Schriber, state secretary (''Landschreiber'') in the Swiss Confederation canton Obwalden. This volume, 258 pages in length, was give ...

, as ''Tellen blatten''. The current chapel was built in 1879. It is decorated with four frescos by

Ernst Stückelberg Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg (baptised as Johann Melchior Ernst Karl Gerlach Stückelberg, full name after 1911: Baron Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg von Breidenbach zu Breidenstein und Melsbach; 1 February 1905 – 4 September 1984) was a S ...

, realized in 1880-1882.

In music

The incident of the ''Tellensprung'' is depicted in the character piece for piano "La chapelle de Guillaume Tell" by

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

, the first composition in the collection '' Années de pèlerinage'', first year (Switzerland).

In music

References

Further reading