Löwendenkmal | |
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 Interactive map of Lion Monument | |
| Location | Lucerne,Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 47°03′30″N8°18′38″E / 47.05833°N 8.31056°E /47.05833; 8.31056 |
| Designer | Bertel Thorvaldsen |
| Type | Memorial |
| Material | Sandstone |
| Beginning date | 1820 |
| Completion date | 1821 |
TheLion Monument (German:Löwendenkmal), or theLion of Lucerne, is arock relief inLucerne, Switzerland, designed byBertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn. It commemorates theSwiss Guards whowere killed in 1792 during theFrench Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed theTuileries Palace inParis. It is one of the most famous monuments in Switzerland, visited annually by about 1.4 million tourists.[1] In 2006, it was placed under Swiss monument protection.[2]
American authorMark Twain praised the sculpture of a mortally woundedlion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."[3]
From the early 17th century, aregiment ofSwiss Guards had served as part of theRoyal Household of France. On 6 October 1789, KingLouis XVI had been forced to move with his family from thePalace of Versailles to theTuileries Palace in Paris. In June 1791 he tried toflee to Montmédy near the frontier, where troops under royalist officers were concentrated. In the10th of August Insurrection (1792), revolutionaries stormed the palace.[4]
Fighting broke out after the Royal Family had been escorted from the Tuileries to take refuge with theLegislative Assembly. The Swiss Guards ran low on ammunition and were overwhelmed by superior numbers. A note written by the King, half an hour after firing had commenced, has survived, ordering the Swiss to retire and return to their barracks.[5] Delivered in the middle of the fighting, this was only acted on after their position had become untenable.[6]
Around 760 of the Swiss Guards defending the Tuileries were killed during the fighting[7] or massacred after surrender.[6] This number is possibly too high, according to late 20th-century research.[8] An estimated two hundred more died in prison of their wounds or were killed during theSeptember Massacres that followed.[9]
Apart from about a hundred Swiss who escaped from the Tuileries, the only survivors of the regiment were a 300 strong detachment which had been sent to Normandy, under the king's orders, to escort grain convoys a few days before August 10.[10] The Swiss officers were mostly amongst those massacred, although MajorKarl Josef von Bachmann — in command at the Tuileries — was formally tried andguillotined in September, still wearing his red uniform of the Guard. Two surviving Swiss officers achieved a senior rank underNapoleon.[10]
Among the Swiss Guards in France who survived the insurrection and soldiers from the eleven disbanded Swissline regiments, about 350 later joined theRevolutionary Armies of theFrench Republic. Others joined thecounter-revolutionaries in theWar in the Vendée. In 1817, theSwiss Federal Diet awarded the commemorative medalTreue und Ehre (Loyalty and Honor) to 389 of the survivors of the regiment.[11]
KarlPfyffer von Altishofen, an officer of the Guards who had been on leave in Lucerne at the time of the August fight, later wrote a book detailing the regiment of Swiss Guards during the French Revolution. This book created a strong reaction throughout conservative circles in Switzerland, which motivated him to organize a public subscription to finance a commemorative monument. He began collecting money in 1818, primarily from European Royal houses.[7] He commissionedDanish sculptorBertel Thorvaldsen to design the image, and contractedstonemason Lukas Ahorn to fashion the monument in a formersandstonequarry near Lucerne.
The monument is dedicatedHelvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti ("To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss"). Carved into the cliff face, the monument measures ten metres in length and six metres in height. The dying lion is portrayed impaled by aspear, covering ashield bearing thefleur-de-lis of theFrench monarchy. Beside him is another shield bearing thecoat of arms of Switzerland. The inscription below the sculpture lists the names of the officers, and gives the approximate numbers of soldiers who died (DCCLX = 760), and survived (CCCL = 350).[12] The work was completed in 1821.
Even before the monument was built, there was concern for its political message glorifying theancien régime.[7] It immediately elicited a combination of praise, national pride, and public criticism, with some displeased that a monument was built to honor Swiss citizens dying for a foreign monarchy. Swiss liberals felt that the personification of Switzerland as a lion seemed to glorify a conservative, counter-revolutionary mindset, and some threatened to saw off one of the lion's paws in protest.[7]
In 1880, Mark Twain wrote of the monument:
The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff—for he is carved from theliving rock of the cliff. His size iscolossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion—and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.
— Mark Twain,A Tramp Abroad (1880)
I was far away, standing in the rain before the sleeping lion of Lucerne, a colossal, noble, stoic lion carved from the rock of a low cliff.
