Rhone Children

This historical monument is dedicated to the "children of the Rhone". The Rhone, besides being a river, is a department of France, whose municipality is Lyon. The monument is a tribute to soldiers, born in Lyon, who fought during the wars of 1870/1871 when France went to war against Germany, then Prussia, to prevent Prince Leopold taking the throne of Spain. 140,000 people died on each side, France also had 140,000 injured and 320,000 sick, mostly because the country was made poorer by war and didn't have enough food for all its inhabitants. The statue is a stone hemisphere with columns and a white stone pedestal in the centre guarded by a carved lion.