![csebastian:
//bryonie:liquidnight:
Das Löwendenkmal [The Lion Monument], Lucerne, Switzerland, late 19th/early 20th century
The Lion of Lucerne is an allegorical memorial for 760 fallen and 350 surviving members of a regiment of Swiss guards who fought to defend the Tuileries Palace as it was being stormed by the people of Paris during the French Revolution.
Designed by sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and executed by Lukas Ahorn in a former sandstone quarry, the creation of the monument [between 1820-21], was initiated in 1818 by Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, an officer of the massacred Swiss regiment who had been on leave in Lucerne at that time of the battle.
Mark Twain described the monument in his book A Tramp Abroad [1880], Chapter 26: The Nest of the Cuckoo-Clock, as “…the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.
“The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff—for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. How 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.”
[Photo from the Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kykoi41xZk1qzhl9eo1_400.jpg)
Das Löwendenkmal [The Lion Monument], Lucerne, Switzerland, late 19th/early 20th century
The Lion of Lucerne is an allegorical memorial for 760 fallen and 350 surviving members of a regiment of Swiss guards who fought to defend the Tuileries Palace as it was being stormed by the people of Paris during the French Revolution.
Designed by sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and executed by Lukas Ahorn in a former sandstone quarry, the creation of the monument [between 1820-21], was initiated in 1818 by Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, an officer of the massacred Swiss regiment who had been on leave in Lucerne at that time of the battle.
Mark Twain described the monument in his book A Tramp Abroad [1880], Chapter 26: The Nest of the Cuckoo-Clock, as “…the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.
“The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff—for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. How 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.”
[Photo from the Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln]
