Lakes of Lucerne 2026: 19 lakes, three big ones shared

Lucerne shares three big lakes. Which one is its own? ↓

Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug, Lake Hallwil: Lucerne shares three big lakes with its neighbours. The largest lying entirely within the canton is the Sempachersee, 14.4 km², ahead of the Baldeggersee.

Number of lakes in Lucerne: 19

19 lakes of half a hectare or more, and yet the national map shows 722 bodies of standing water in Lucerne. The gap is not imprecision; it is a way of counting.

Anyone reading a different figure has almost always drawn a different line: count every water surface and Lucerne has 722; count only lakes over one square kilometre and you get 5. Even a plain name such as "Weiher" counts as official: what decides is the entry in the swissNAMES3D gazetteer. Namesakes more than 50 m apart count separately, which is why "Weier" in Hitzkirch appears twice in the list. Our count states where the line is, so it can be checked.

Lake Finder: find any lake in Lucerne

Largest lake in Lucerne: Sempachersee

The largest lake touching Lucerne is the Vierwaldstättersee (113.9 km²), but only 36% of its surface lies in the canton. The largest lake belonging entirely to the canton is the Sempachersee: 14.4 km² at 504 m.

Highest lake in Lucerne: Tuetisee

Even the highest lake in Lucerne lies lower than 78% of Swiss lakes: the Tuetisee in Menznau at 606 m, 2.3 ha.

The canton's lowest-lying lake is the Zugersee at 414 m. The canton's median lake sits at 496 m. Elevation is the water level in the landscape model; for reservoirs it varies with how full they are.

Shared lakes: which lakes Lucerne shares

68% of the lake surface in Lucerne lies in lakes it does not own alone. Lucerne shares 3 of its 19 lakes with other cantons; the table shows how much of each lies in the canton.

List of lakes in Lucerne

17 of the 19 lakes in Lucerne together cover less area than a single lake, Sempachersee: 10.6 km² against 14.4 km². An official name does not make a lake: 21 of the 40 named bodies of water in Lucerne measure less than half a hectare. The list shows all of them by area, the 19 lakes first, the smaller ones marked.

Lakes by size: 11 of 19 under 5 ha

11 of the 19 lakes in Lucerne are smaller than five hectares. 8 are larger than ten hectares, which puts Lucerne at rank 9 of the 26 cantons.

Measured by area, the small lakes almost vanish: the 11 of the 19 lakes of half a hectare or more that stay under five hectares together cover less than 1% of the lake surface in Lucerne. Vierwaldstättersee, counting only its part in the canton, alone covers 62%.

Lake names in several languages

Some lakes in Lucerne carry official names in several national languages. They come from swisstopo's gazetteer; none is our translation.

• Vierwaldstättersee · Lac des Quatre-Cantons · Lago dei Quattro Cantoni · Lai dals Quatter Chantuns
• Zugersee · Lac de Zoug · Lago di Zugo · Lai da Zug
• Sempachersee · Lac de Sempach · Lago di Sempach · Lai da Sempach

More lake pages

Written by

Marco Gisler

ConvivaPlus Editor · Data & Switzerland

Writes about Switzerland in figures – official data recalculated, counting method explained.

• Population
• 26 cantons
• Waterways
• Official data

Researched & sourced · for Switzerland

Profile & all articles →·Our editorial teamUpdated 25.10.2026

Source: swisstopo (swissTLM3D, swissNAMES3D, swissBOUNDARIES3D, 2026 edition), analysis by ConvivaPlus. Switzerland as a whole: 891 lakes out of 17'873 water surfaces; parts with the same name no more than 50 m apart count as one lake. Area = water surface at the shoreline of the landscape model; reference works using a different shoreline or water level sometimes give other values.