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Switzerland, Lucerne: Lion Monument in Lucerne

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Gletschergarten Lowendenkmal is massive heartrending stone relief which was carved to remember the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution when defending Louis XVI. Swiss Guards were and are famous as brave sentries. Today, they still surround the Pope. When the revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, more than 800 were killed during the fighting, after surrender, or died in prison of their wounds. 300 lucky survived because they were with the detachment which King Louis XVI had sent to Normandy to escort grain convoys. Two surviving Swiss officers went on to become senior ranked guards for Napoleon.

In 1880, Mark Twain had this to say about it ” His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His 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.”

Germany: Munich – White Rose Nazi Resistors

From June 1942 to February 1943, Munich was the center of the White Rose, a student resistance movement WhiteRosewhich was known for an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign. The group was in active opposition to dictator Adolf  Hitler’s regime. Six well-known members were arrested and be-headed following a distribution of leaflets in Munich University by Hans and Sophie Scholl.

You can see the black granite monument to the White Rose Movement in the Hofgarten. Their words carved on it say that every human being has the right to live in freedom of their faith and welfare.

www.muenchen.de/int/en/tourism.html