Bourbaki Panorama

The Bourbaki Panorama is a circular panoramic painting depicting the internment of the French Armée de l'Est in neutral Switzerland at the end of the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War.

The army, led by General Charles-Denis Bourbaki, had been defeated in the field while attempting to raise the Siege of Belfort and fled to Switzerland in the aftermath.

Castres and a team of ten artists produced a circular painting, measuring 115 metres (377 ft) in length, to be viewed from the centre.

The subject of the painting is the movement of French General Charles-Denis Bourbaki's Armée de l'Est to neutral Switzerland in February 1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War.

Bourbaki's army had been defeated during the 15–17 January Battle of the Lisaine, whilst unsuccessfully attempting to relieve the Siege of Belfort, so they sought internment in neutral Switzerland.

Some 88,000 men marched into Switzerland via Les Verrières, abandoning 11,000 horses, 1,150 wagons, 285 artillery pieces, 7,200 rifles and 64,000 bayonets.

[1] The rest of the scene shows a line of weary and wounded French soldiers trekking through a snow-covered valley to pile their arms under the supervision of the Swiss Bernese Battalion.

[9][1] The panorama is currently exhibited in a wooden rotunda surrounded by a modern glass and steel structure housing shops, a cinema and restaurant.