Su questo luogo
Tucked into a peaceful garden on the northern edge of Lucerne's Old Town, the Löwendenkmal is one of Switzerland's most beloved and emotionally charged sights. Ten metres long and six metres tall, the wounded lion was designed by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn directly into the living rock by stonemason Lukas Ahorn between 1820 and 1821. It commemorates the roughly 760 Swiss Guards who died on the tenth of August 1792 while defending King Louis the Sixteenth during the storming of the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Reflected in the still pond at its feet and framed by ivy and trees, the monument draws around 1.4 million visitors a year, who fall silent before the great beast slumped over a shield bearing the French royal lily, a broken spear still lodged in his flank.
Fatti principali
- 1821 year completed — Stonemason Lukas Ahorn finished chiselling the lion into the cliff, working from a design by Bertel Thorvaldsen
- 760 guards — Swiss soldiers who fell defending the French king, recorded on the monument in Roman numerals as DCCLX
- 10 metres long — The span of the mortally wounded lion, which stands about six metres tall in the sandstone rock
📍 Kreuzmattweg, 6004, Luzern