The Ghost in Furrengasse and the Toggelis
At the beginning of the 17th century, a ghost haunted Furrengasse in Lucerne. A tall, gaunt man with a large, crooked nose would climb the stairs to the town hall square and walk through Furrengasse. Suddenly, he would transform into a towering ghost, as tall as a house, dragging a long tail behind him. The ghost never harmed anyone and disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.
At the same time, demons of the night — so-called Toggelis — would slip through open windows into the chambers of sleeping people. A Toggeli would sit on the chest of a sleeper, pressing down so heavily that they struggled to breathe.
The Lucerne scholar Renward Cysat explains that the Toggeli corresponds to the “Schrätelin” or the Latin Incubus. The Incubus was described as a “lover-robber,” a night spirit who deceives sleepers with the illusion of love and desire.
But a Toggeli could also creep into a woman's dreams, exploring the depths of her mind. It would then deceive the helpless sleeper, making her believe it was the man of her dreams. The dreaming woman would imagine herself in the arms of her beloved, spending a passionate night together. By morning, the Toggeli would vanish, leaving the woman unsure whether she had merely dreamed — or if it had truly happened.
The maids of Lucerne whispered such stories among themselves, but no one ever dared to write them down.
Nearly two centuries later, a Swiss painter named Johann Heinrich Füssli (1741 Zurich – 1825 London)— later known as Henry Fuseli — travelled to London. There he created his famous painting “The Nightmare” — nothing other than our Lucerne Toggeli brought to canvas.
