The Monument of Friendship, later Language Pyramid

Formerly a place of wisdom

The Monument of Friendship, later Language Pyramid

Though the rock space is empty today, in 1788 a monument was erected dedicated to friendship. After the destruction and renovation a new monument was placed here, the Language Pyramid.

The original monument of friendship bore the inscription "Amicitiae sacrum" - the holiness of friendship. The inscription was framed with eighteen wooden panels, each bearing a different epigram in a different language. For example the Persian panel bore the aphorism "What a shame, to die without having done good." After the revolutionary upheavals this place was redecorated at the beginning of the nineteenth century. A wooden obelisk was erected decorated with picture puzzles resembling hieroglyphs, representing worldly wisdoms. Additional epigrams are arranged around the obelisk, once again each in a different language. In 1813, twenty-one wooden panels in twenty-one languages were recorded. The monument is known as the Language Pyramid, and the remnants of it are kept in the Castle and the Wood Cabin.