In Rathausen there was a former Cistercian monastery, which was founded in 1245. In 1251 a building was built that was called Domus Consilii, House of the Council, or Rathausen. In the course of secularization, the monastery was closed in 1848. The Canton of Lucerne took over the property. After staying in several places (including the Capuchin monastery in Vézelise), the nuns moved permanently to the Thyrnau monastery in 1902.
From 1849 to 1867 the buildings were used as a cantonal teacher training college, in 1871 to accommodate interned Bourbaki soldiers and in 1881 as a home for isolating smallpox patients. In 1882 the Grand Council of the Canton of Lucerne decided to set up a catering and educational institution for poor children. In 1951, the canton transferred its property to a private foundation, which ran the Rathausen reformatory under the name Kinderdörfli Rathausen until 1988.
In 1989, this foundation was dissolved and transferred to the Lucerne SSBL Foundation for the Severely Disabled.
Source: Wikipedia