Brunswick Lion

The Brunswick Lion (German: Braunschweiger Löwe) is a monument and probably the best-known landmark in the city of Brunswick (German: Braunschweig). It stands on the Burgplatz square in front of Dankwarderode Castle and Brunswick Cathedral. Within Brunswick it is thus commonly known as the "castle lion" (Burglöwe).

Henry the Lion (born 1129/30; died 1195), Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, had the lion statue built during his reign in his Residenz at Brunswick around 1166 as a symbol of his ducal authority and jurisdiction.

The Brunswick Lion is the oldest, preserved large sculpture from the Middle Ages north of the Alps and the first large hollow casting of a figure since antiquity. The bronze casting by an unknown artist, probably from Brunswick, weighs 880 kilogrammes, has a height of 1.78 metres, a length of 2.79 metres and a maximum thickness of 12 millimetres.

Around the world, but mainly in Germany, there are several replicas of the Brunswick Lion. For example, in front of Ratzeburg Cathedral (erected in 1881), in the interior of Weingarten Abbey, in front of Wiligrad Castle, set up in 1913/14 by John Albert of Mecklenburg (from 1907 to 1913 ruler of the Duchy of Brunswick), disappeared after 1950, in Blankenburg im Harz in 1915 on the terrace of the Great Castle, since 1953 in the Baroque Gardens of the Little Castle and in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Other replicas are located here:

Cambridge, MA:
Lion in front of Adolphus Busch Hall, Harvard University.

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