Pallas Athene Fountain (Vienna)

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Pallas Athene fountain

The Pallas-Athene-Brunnen in Vienna is located in front of the Austrian parliament building on Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring in the 1st district , the inner city .

Building history

The fountain was designed by Theophil Hansen in 1870 as part of the parliament ensemble, but construction work did not begin until 1898 - 15 years after the building was completed. In 1873 an allegorical representation of Austria was planned as the main figure. However, this idea was rejected in favor of Pallas Athene, who was more neutral for the multi-ethnic monarchy.

The figures of the monument, unveiled in 1902, were made by sculptors from Lasa marble : Athene and the allegories of the Elbe and Moldau by Carl Kundmann , the river allegories of the Danube and Inn by Hugo Haerdtl and the allegories of the executive and legislature by Josef Tautenhayn . In 2005 the fountain was completely renovated.

description

In the middle of the symmetrically laid out fountain is a group of figures, the center of which is the four-meter-high statue of Pallas Athene standing on a column. The Greek goddess of wisdom holds a spear in her left hand and Nike, the goddess of victory, in her right . Next to the column are the allegorical representations of the legislative and executive powers - on their left the legislature with a book, on their right the executive with a sword.

The four most important rivers of Old Austria are depicted as reclining figures above two raised water basins in front of and behind the column: in front the Danube as a woman and the Inn as a bearded man, in the back the embracing female figures from the Elbe and Moldau . On either side there are two winged putti riding dolphins.

The fact that the goddess of wisdom turned her back on the parliament building led to various jokes and mockery in the Austrian vernacular, according to which wisdom was not to be found in parliament.

  • Pallas Athene

  • Goddess of victory Nike

  • executive

  • legislative branch

  • Inn and Danube

  • Elbe and Vltava

  • Winged putti riding on dolphins

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Pallas-Athene-Brunnen (Vienna)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 120 years of parliament building . Parliamentary Directorate-House Printing , 2003, ISBN 3-901991-07-7 , p. 31–33 ( PDF; 249 kB [accessed December 7, 2014]).
  2. ↑ parlament.gv.at - The Athene fountain in front of parliament is being thoroughly restored parlament.gv.at, 2005, no longer accessible on January 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ 120 years of parliament building . (PDF; 249 kB) Austrian Parliament, p. 19

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '28.6 "  N , 16 ° 21' 34.1"  E