Swiss Guard - MSN Encarta

Windows Live® Search Results

Swiss Guard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Swiss Guards is the name that has been given to Swiss mercenary soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign European courts from the ...
The Swiss Guard - Duties
Daily Life: At this point we should take a look at the normal routine of the Guard's day. Every day two thirds of the ...
The Swiss Guard - History
The "Helvetians": Not many of the visitors to Rome, who pose for a photograph in front of the Swiss soldiers on guard at the gates of Vatican City, are familiar ...

See all search results in
Windows Live® Search Results

Swiss Guard, papal guard of the Vatican in Rome, formed about 1505 by Pope Julius II. It consists of 6 officers and 110 men. Only Swiss can enter the guard, and the privates are not allowed to marry. The men wear colourful uniforms that were supposedly designed by Michelangelo. The institution of the Swiss Guard dates from the time, between the 15th and the 18th centuries, when Swiss mercenaries were a prized fighting force in the armies of Europe. The most famous of these were the Swiss guards in the French army, who defended the Tuileries Palace in Paris against insurgent forces on August 10, 1792, during the French Revolution. About 500 of their number were slain, but their heroism was commemorated in 1821 by a great sculpted lion outside one of the gates of Lucerne, cut out of rock after a model by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.