Best Lion Monument Day Trips & Things to Do

This monument in Lucerne commemorates the Swiss Guards killed protecting King Louis XVI and the royal family when Tuileries castle was attacked in 1792, during the French Revolution. Second lieutenant Carl Pfyffer von Altishofen, who was on leave at the time, advocated the building of the monument. Bertel Thorvaldsen designed it in 1819, and stone mason Lucas Ahorn carved the 20-foot-tall by 33-foot-long monument from 1820-21. The sandstone lion lies above a pond on the east end of town under a Latin inscription that says: To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss.