Bourbaki Panorama in Lucerne undergoes major renovation

The Bourbaki Panorama in Lucerne, Switzerland, a monumental 19th-century circular painting measuring 112 meters in length and 14 meters in height, underwent significant renovation in 2024. The work commemorates the disarmament and internment of 87,000 French soldiers at the Swiss border in winter 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War. Painted by Édouard Castres, a Red Cross volunteer who witnessed the event, the panorama was completed in Geneva in 1881 and moved to Lucerne in 1889. The recent restoration focused on the optical structure—a canopy, velum, and sunshades that filter natural light to create a three-dimensional effect. Specialists in acrobatic restoration replaced 1,600 square meters of fabric weighing 200 kilograms, upgraded lighting to variable-intensity LEDs, and restored original seating and balustrades. The building now houses a multimedia museum, cinema, café, restaurant, and event space. The Bourbaki Panorama is one of only about thirty surviving panoramas from the 19th and early 20th centuries, a precursor to cinema and digital projection invented by British painter Robert Barker in 1787.