The Pig of Lucerne

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. In the last two centuries, hundreds of millions of tourists have seen this monument, which Mark Twain described as “the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world". But few people realize, when they look at the monument, that there are not one but two different animals carved in the rock face. Photo credit: Churchil Angelio/Flickr 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. One of the Swiss guards, second lieutenant Carl Pfyffer von Altishofen, happened to be on home leave in Lucerne when the dramatic events at the Tuileries took place. Pfyffer remained in service until 1801, when his regiment was disbanded, and he returned to Lucerne. Back home, Pfyffer began preparing plans for a monument that would honor and memorialize his comrades who had fallen in Paris.