Bourbaki Panorama
Bourbaki Panorama features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Lucerne. Give it roughly ~45 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type museum
- Suggested visit ~45 min
- Lucerne Lucerne guide
About Bourbaki Panorama
A giant circular panorama painting from 1881 by Edouard Castres, wrapping viewers inside the scene of Bourbaki's defeated French army being interned in neutral Switzerland during the Franco-Prussian War.
The Bourbaki Panorama is a giant circular painting housed in a purpose-built rotunda on Löwenplatz, and one of only a few large nineteenth-century panoramas to survive anywhere in the world. Measuring roughly 110 metres around and about 10 metres high, it wraps completely around the viewer. It was painted in 1881 by the Geneva artist Edouard Castres, who had witnessed the events as a Red Cross volunteer and worked with a team of some ten assistants, among them the young Ferdinand Hodler.
The painting depicts the internment of General Bourbaki's French Army of the East, which crossed into neutral Switzerland in February 1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. Defeated and starving, roughly 87,000 soldiers were disarmed and cared for, in one of the earliest depictions of Red Cross humanitarian aid. First shown in Geneva, the work moved to Lucerne in 1889.
Did you know? The painting runs roughly 110 metres around and about 10 metres high, wrapping viewers completely. It is one of only a few giant nineteenth-century panoramas, an early rival to cinema, still surviving worldwide.
How long is a visit to Bourbaki Panorama?
Set aside roughly ~45 min for Bourbaki Panorama. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Bourbaki Panorama worth your time?
Bourbaki Panorama is among the 15 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Lucerne, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Lucerne
Sources and further reading
Where to check the facts about Bourbaki Panorama and read more:
Day 2 of the Lucerne in 2 days itinerary →
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Hear the story of Bourbaki Panorama
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