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The Lion of Belfort is a sculpture by Frédéric Bartholdi and located in Belfort, France. It was finished in 1880 and is entirely made of pink sandstone. The blocs it is made of were individually sculpted then moved under the Belfort castle to be assembled. The sculpture is 22 meters long and 11 meters height.
The lion symbolize the heroic resistance of Belfort during a 103 days long Prussian assault (from December 1870 to February 1871). The city was protected from 40,000 Prussians by merely 17,000 men (only 3,500 were from the military) leaded by the colonel Denfert-Rochereau.
Instead of facing the Prussia to the east as it was intended, it was turned the other way because of German protestations.
A copy of the statue stands at the center of the Denfert-Rochereau square in Paris.
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