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Below is a photograph of one of Lucerne’s most famous tourist attraction. You may recognize it as the “Lion of Lucerne”— a rock relief sculpture of a mortally wounded lion hewn into the rocky face of a large cliff in a former sandstone quarry near Lucerne, in central Switzerland. The monument was dedicated in memory of the Swiss Guards who lost their lives defending the Tuileries Palace in Paris during the 1792 French Revolution. The dying lion symbolizes the soldiers’ courage, strength, and willingness to die rather than to betray their oath of service.
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Swiss mercenary soldiers had a long tradition of serving foreign governments. Long renowned for their valor, they were in particularly high demand in France and Spain throughout the Early Modern period of European history. The incident at Tuileries Palace took place on 10 August 1792, when a mob of working-class Parisians stormed into the palace, and overwhelmed and massacred the Swiss Guard as the royal family fled through the gardens. More than six hundred Swiss Guards defending the Tuileries perished during the fighting. Around two hundred more died in prison of their wounds or were killed during the September Massacres that followed.
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A second lieutenant Carl Pfyffer von Altishofen, who survived because he was home on leave was determined
to create a memorial to his unit. He started raising funds to hire sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen to design it.
He came up short of money but hired Thorvaldsen anyway. When he found out he wasn’t going to be paid
in full, he decided to get even and added some last minute changes to his sculpture. He didn’t alter the
sculpture itself, out of respect of the fallen soldiers. Instead, he changed the shape of the alcove around it.
Two different sculptors did the actual stone carving faithfully following the Thorvaldsen design.
Paybacks are a bitch.
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