("forested settlement") is a term which has been used since the early fourteenth century to refer to the wooded territories of the Alpine foothills of Central Switzerland. or three forested settlements collectively refers to the founding cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy of 1291, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. They were joined in 1332 by Lucerne, and these four give Lake Lucerne later its German name (from 16th century onwards), , "lake of the four forested settlements".