The Bavarian Lion is an attraction located in the town of Nafplio in Argolis, in the Provonia district, and near the cemetery on Michael the Doctor.

Carved with fine art on the rock, the Lion of Bavaria is one of the first outdoor sculptures of the modern Greek state, a work of German sculptor Professor Christian Siegel of the University of Athens.

The monument was commissioned by the Bavarian king Ludovikos I, to pay tribute to his son Otto`s Bavarian soldiers who died in a typhus epidemic in Greece in 1833 – 34.

The impressive stone lion of Bavaria, pretending to be asleep, was built in 1836 to model the Lucerne of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (in honor of the Swiss fallen of the French Revolution) and symbolizes the power and generosity of the people. The animal`s sleep symbolizes their death.

Underneath the monument, there is an engraved inscription informing in German and Greek that the Bavarian Lion is dedicated by officers and soldiers of the royal Bavarian division to their comrades who died in 1833 and 1834 and that it was carried out at the behest of King L. Next to these words is the sculptor`s name and year of construction in three languages (German, Greek, English).

The space in front of the monument has become a park today.

The Nafplians had previously referred to the Bavarian Lion as Anguoron after saying that the Bavarians were dying from the many oysters they ate.

The Bavarian soldiers had been buried in the cemetery of Saints and in what was then known as Bavarian memorials. Later, their bones were deposited in the crypt of the Catholic Transfiguration Church of Nafplio.