Home | Maria Theresa Monument
- CountryAustria
- Town:Vienna
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Year of creation:1888
- Rider(s):Maria Theresia Monument
Maria Theresa (1717–1780) started her 40-year reign when her father, Emperor Charles VI, died in 1740. Maria Theresa married Francis Stephen of Lorraine (Franz I) and had sixteen children, including Marie Antoinette – later Queen of France – and two Holy Roman Emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II. There was no rest for Maria Theresa during pregnancies or around the births. She carried on with war and childbearing simultaneously. She was expected to cede power to Francis and Joseph, who were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, but Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign, who ruled by the counsel of her advisers. Although she is said to have been intellectually inferior to both Joseph and Leopold, she understood the importance of her public persona and was able to simultaneously evoke both esteem and affection from her subjects. She promulgated financial and educational reforms, promoted commerce and the development of agriculture, and reorganized Austria’s ramshackle military, all of which strengthened the country’s international reputation.
source Wikipedia
- Sculptor(s):Zumbusch, Kaspar von
(1830 –1915) was a German sculptor, who became a pre-eminent sculptor of neo-Baroque monuments in Vienna.
He went at the age of eighteen to study in Munich. At first unsuccessfully at the Academy and then Polytechische Schule under Johann Halbig. He continued his studies in Rome. He won the competition in 1866 for a monument to Maximilian II of Bavaria in Munich, that was unveiled in 1875. In 1873 he was called to Vienna as professor in the academy, a post he held until 1901. His most important works are a statue of Count Rumford, Munich; and the monuments to Prince August of Prussia (Bellevue Park, Berlin), Beethoven (1873-1880, Vienna), Maria Theresa (1887, Vienna), and to Emperor William I (1896, Wittekindsberg, Westphalia). Also, in Vienna are his monuments to Count Radetzky (1891) and to Archduke Albrecht (1898-1899).
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In 1888, the Maria Theresa monument was inaugurated; a monument of superlatives. The project took 15 years and 800,000 guilders to complete. The surface is more than 600 square metres, the height some 20 metres and the weight of all the bronzes totals more than 44 tons. The inauguration was quite an event, with swarms of doves, a Te Deum by the archbishop and 20 other bishops, hymns, 101 cannon shots and all the church bells of Vienna ringing when the monument was unveiled. The Emperor, the Empress and 10,000 of their guests attended the ceremony.
Carl Hasenauer designed the monument that shows Maria Theresa on a throne, surrounded by her most important political and military advisers. Kaspar von Zumbusch made all the bronzes, including the four equestrian statues of her field marshals.
