Climate friendly travel
By train and without traffic jams comfortably to Leipzig.
By train to Leipzig: Plan arrival
After about 500 steps, partly through narrow staircases, the visitor is at the top. From the viewing platform of the Leipzig Monument to the Battle of the Nations, you have a tremendous panoramic view - and the site is remarkable in other respects as well.
By train to Leipzig: Plan arrival
From 16 to 19 October 1813 raged at Leipzig a brutal battle. The troops of Napoleon and his allies were defeated by allied armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden, thus ending the French commander's campaigns of conquest on German soil. A total of 600,000 soldiers of various origins took part in this Battle of the Nations, 100,000 of whom were killed or wounded. But that was not all: a typhus epidemic that accompanied the war cost the lives of around ten percent of Leipzig's inhabitants.
To this event to be recorded for eternal reflection, the German poet Ernst Moritz Arndt suggested the construction of a monument as early as 1814. However, it was to take a long time before the project was realized. It was not until 80 years later that an association was founded to collect donations for the construction of the structure. Four years later, the sum was sufficient to lay the foundation stone. In 15 years of construction under architect Bruno Schmitz, the enormous monument (made of granite porphyry in the visible areas) weighing about 300,000 tons was erected. In 1913, it was inaugurated as a national monument in the presence of the German Emperor Wilhelm II and the Saxon King - as the largest monument of its kind in Europe with a height of 91 meters.
The construction of superlatives crowns a massive dome, which is adorned in its upper part by 324 equestrian reliefs. The monument stands in the southeast of Leipzig in the Probstheida district: where the main battles of the Battle of the Nations took place. The four-hectare complex also includes the "Forum 1813" museum, which provides information on many details of the history of the Battle of the Nations.
The special tip: In addition to the well-known highlights, Leipzig has many alternative cultural offerings, such as the Kulturfabrik in Kochstraße - with theater, women's café, queer disco and creative workshops for children and young people as well.
By the way, you can find tips on how to travel comfortably and inexpensively on long-distance and local trains with Deutsche Bahn here.
Cover image: ©stock.adobe.com/ahoiadventures.com
