Sleeping Lion (Gliwice)

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The Lion Monument

The sleeping lion in Gliwice was part of the lion monument in the city park (today Chopin Park ). While the original lion has not been found, a copy was placed in the city in 2011.

history

Draft from 1890 to relocate the monument to the promenade; page 1
Draft from 1890 to relocate the monument to the promenade; page 2
The Sleeping Lion from 2011
The Lion Monument

The sleeping lion was a gift from the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. To the city of Gleiwitz. He discovered the newly cast copy of Theodor Kalide's Sleeping Lion in the Royal Ironworks when he visited Gliwice in October 1846 for the opening of the railway line to Katowice. Friedrich Wilhelm IV decided that the lion should decorate a grave site of Prussian soldiers in Gleiwitz and took over the costs for the lion, the base and the fencing. In the cemetery in the Neudorf colony lay 65 soldiers who died in Gliwice hospitals during the Napoleonic wars.

The monument was unveiled in 1849 in a cemetery near Gliwice train station . This cemetery, which no longer exists today, was located on Löwenstrasse named after the monument (originally part of Tarnowitzer Chaussee, later Tarnowitzer Landstrasse). At the end of the 19th century, the cemetery and memorial had to give way due to the planned city expansion.

In 1890 the memorial and the exhumed remains of the soldiers were moved into the resulting promenade (later the city park).

In 1945 the German inscriptions were removed from the memorial during the de-Germanisation of monuments in Gleiwitz. Later the monument was completely dismantled and the lion was put into storage. The grave of the soldiers has remained unmarked since then. An installation of the lion in front of the so-called castle was initially planned, but not implemented. According to contemporary witnesses, the sleeping lion is said to have stood next to the waking lion in front of the Villa Caro for a short time . The Sleeping Lion has disappeared from Gleiwitz since the 1960s.

The sleeping lion has not been found to this day. In the spring of 2011, a new copy of the lion was placed in Gliwice, but in a completely new place, on the Valenciennes green area next to the city ​​administration . The sculpture stands there without any information boards.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Lew śpiący ( Memento of the original of December 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on zobacverbindiwice.pl (in Polish) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zobacstensiwice.pl