Bourbaki Panorama

This circular building in Lucerne houses one of the few surviving giant panorama paintings of the nineteenth century, a form of mass entertainment that predated cinema. The canvas, more than a hundred metres around, depicts the French Bourbaki army crossing into neutral Switzerland during the Franco-Prussian War, where it was disarmed and cared for. Standing at the centre, viewers are surrounded by the wintry scene of exhausted soldiers and Swiss aid. The site frames the painting as an early monument to humanitarian relief.