The Tell museum displays extensive collections of documents and objects of historic and artistic kind from six centuries, all to do with the Swiss national hero Wilhelm Tell.

The charming village of Tell, Bürglen, situated on the fortified Staldenhügel, is very old. A deed of donation from King Ludwig the German testifies that Bürglen was already under the rule of the convent Fraumünster in Zurich in 857. Bürglen has always been considered as home of Wilhelm Tell.

Uri and Wilhelm Tell

Uri and Wilhelm Tell are closely related to each other. The Tell museum in Bürglen shows an extensive collection on the Swiss national hero Tell, and every four years the play "Wilhelm Tell" by Schiller is performed on the stage of the Tell playhouse in Altdorf. The historic sites Rütli, Schillerstein and Tellsplatte on the Lake of Uri are easily reachable on foot or by ship.

Tell chapel
Donated in 1582. It is placed at that very spot where Tell’s house is supposed to have been standing. On the façade and in the interior, it contains a fresco cycle well worth seeing and which dates back to the construction period of the chapel. These are the oldest Tell frescos noted. They were discovered in 1949 under some worthless paintings and consequently revealed to the public.  

Tell fountain
Tell with a boy, charming statue by sculptor Josef Benedikt Curiger from Einsiedeln, dating back to the year 1786. In former times, it was placed on a pillar in the middle of a fountain standing in Altdorf and was the first Tell monument from Altdorf. It has been given as a present to the people of Bürglen by the people of Altdorf.

Ludwig room
This room is to be found on the first floor of the hotel Tell beneath the Tell museum. When the king of Bavaria, Ludwig II, came to Bürglen in 1865, he spent the night in this room. That is where it has its name from.

Tell educational trail from Bürglen to the Tell monument in Altdorf
All along the way from the Tell museum to the Tell monument you can experience the Tell story very close. Eight plates along the idyllic path narrate and explain the story about the Swiss national hero William Tell. From the Tell monument in Altdorf you can take the bus to get back to Bürglen.

Rütli - Heart of Switzerland
The Rütli is considered to be the founder site of Switzerland. The legend says that in 1291, the deputies of the founder cantons met on this clearing, slightly raised above the Lake of Uri, opposite Brunnen and the Mythen mountains, beneath Seelisberg, and sweared the oath of allegiance. This oath is thought to have determined the collective proceeding against the foreign bailiffs in their valleys.  "We want to be a close group of people who keep together, like brothers do, and not break up with each other in times of misery and danger!" ("Wir wollen sein ein Volk von Brüdern, uns nicht trennen in Not und Gefahr!")