Night watchman’s lantern

The one carried by the watchman who calls the hours from the cathedral tower, every night.

Every evening, a little before ten, a watchman climbs to the very top of the cathedral’s bell tower, above the Cité. He reaches a small room perched there, puts on a long dark coat and a felt hat, and hangs a lantern on the parapet. When the ten strokes have finished ringing, he turns to the east, hands cupped around his mouth, and calls out to the sleeping city: “C’est le guet ! Il a sonné dix !” (“This is the watch! It has struck ten!”) Then he picks up his lantern, walks round the gallery and repeats the call towards each of the three other horizons. He goes up again in this way every hour, until two in the morning, without a single night off.

The archives mention him as early as 1405. In those days, his trade was a useful one: watching the roofs to signal the slightest flame, pulling the bell ropes, telling the time. The 20th century took it from him piece by piece. The bells became automatic, fire sirens were installed in 1907, and the firemen no longer needed anyone up there. He stayed.

In 1960 the City wanted to cut back his nights, which then began at nine o’clock and lasted until daybreak. The public was upset, the press demanded that he be kept, and the letters pages overflowed for weeks. His service was shortened, never abolished: few European cities can boast a watchman at his post without a break since the Middle Ages. In 2021, the first woman joined the team that stands in for him.

You can go up and see him in the evening, by booking. And every autumn, children climb up in their turn, a little lantern in their fist, to announce the hour at his side.

Sources: City of Lausanne, “Le guet de la Cathédrale”; State of Vaud, intangible heritage inventory, “Le guet de la cathédrale de Lausanne”; swissinfo, “Le guet, veilleur des nuits lausannoises”.