Lion Monument

The Lion Monument, or the Lion of Lucerne, is a rock remedy in Lucerne, Switzerland, designed with the aid of Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by way of Lukas Ahorn. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Mark Twain praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as the maximum mournful and shifting piece of stone in the global.

The initiative to create the monument changed into taken with the aid of Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, an officer of the Guards who have been on depart in Lucerne at that time of the fight. He started out gathering cash in 1818. The monument turned into designed by means of Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and hewn in 1820–21 by means of Lukas Ahorn, in a former sandstone quarry near Lucerne. Carved into the cliff face, the monument measures ten meters in period and 6 meters in height. The monument is devoted Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti. The demise lion is portrayed impaled by using a spear, masking a protect bearing the fleur-de-lis of the French monarchy; beside him is some other guard bearing the coat of palms of Switzerland.