Battle of the Nations Monument – Leipzig, Germany

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I had the opportunity to visit Leipzig this past weekend and while there stopped briefly by the monument to the 1813 Battle of the Nations from the Napoleonic Wars.  At the Battle of the Nations the Sixth Coalition consisting of Prussia, Britain, Russia, and Austria fought the French Army of Napoleon and over the course of three days defeated him and forced him to retreat back to France.

I only had about 20 minutes at the monument and Leipzig is on my list of places to see again as one day was not enough to see all that I wanted to see.  The monument is currently undergoing renovation in preparation for events surrounding the 200th anniversary of the Battle next year. It is maintained by a private charity the Förderverein Völkerschlachtdenkmal e.V. (in German).  It is huge and you can walk inside it to the top of the monument, but I didn’t have time to do so.  The Wikipedia entry about the monument is fairly decent.  The monument is supposed to be located at the site of one of the bloodiest parts of the battle and near or at where Napoleon ordered the retreat of the French Army. So says Wikipedia and also the guide I had taking me around the city.

Below are the photos I managed to take of the monument looking across the reflecting pool to the monument.  I plan on returning to Leipzig in the spring and doing a much more extensive study of the monument and the battlefield.

View of the monument across the reflecting poll in front of it. The water in the reflecting poll is pretty muddy, which kind of ruins the effect. The crane from renovation blocks portions of the view as well.
This is the best shot I could get of the Statue of the Archangel Michael at the base of the monument.
The statues around the top of the monument. If you look closely, you can see people walking around “oohing and aahing” on the top.
The best zoom I could get of some of the statues from the top of the monument.
A view of the monument from across the street. The cars give a sense of the size of the monument which is another 300 yards beyond the parking lot.