Poster Neptune Fountain and Gloriette, Schonbrunn Palace

"Neptune Fountain and Gloriette at Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria" by Catherine Sherman The formal garden at the rear of the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria, points towards a 60-meter-high (200 foot) hill, which since 1775 has been crowned by the neoclassical Gloriette structure. A gloriette (from the 12th-century French gloire meaning "little room") is a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to the surroundings. This structure is probably the largest and best-known gloriette. Schönbrunn Palace was the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, the 13th district of Vienna, Austria. The name Schönbrunn (meaning "beautiful spring") has its roots in an artesian well from which water was consumed by the court. The gloriette was built in 1775 as the last building constructed in the garden according to the plans of Austrian imperial architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg as a "temple of renown" to serve as both a focal point and a lookout point for the garden, it was used as a dining hall and festival hall as well as a breakfast room for emperor Franz Joseph I. Empress Maria Theresa decided the Gloriette should be designed to glorify Habsburg power and the Just War (a war that would be carried out of "necessity" and lead to peace), and thereby ordered the builders to recycle "otherwise useless stone" which was left from the near demolition of Schloss Neugebäude. Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780. The Neptune Fountain at the foot of the Gloriette hill was designed to be the crowning monument of the Great Parterre, the formal garden at the rear of the palace. Commissioned by Empress Maria Theresa, work on the fountain began in 1776 and was completed within four years, just prior to the death of the empress. The retaining wall of the Neptune Fountain merges into the slope of the Gloriette hill and includes a balustrade adorned with ornate vases. From a projecting semi-oval plinth, a rocky formation emerges with the sea-god Neptune and his entourage. The plinth is segmented by panels decorated with masks and separated and embellished with garlands. Neptune stands atop the grotto at the center of the figure group in a shell-shaped chariot holding a trident. A nymph is seated to his left. The sea-goddess Thetis kneels to his right, asking the sea god to favor her son Achilles on his voyage to Troy. Appearing at the base of the grotto are four tritons—creatures who are half-man and half-fish—who are part of the sea-god's entourage. Each holds a conch shell trumpet with which they can inspire fear. They are restraining the sea-horses who draw Neptune's chariot across the seas. This image of Neptune commanding the watery dominion was a common symbol in sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth-century art, to represent monarchs controlling the fate of their people. In the nineteenth century, a bank of evergreen trees was planted behind the white figural group to provide a dark contrast. The 1,441-room Baroque palace is one of the most important architectural, cultural, and historic monuments in the country. The history of the palace and its vast gardens spans over 300 years, reflecting the changing tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs. It has been a major tourist attraction since the mid-1950s. Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning Emperor of Austria, was born at Schönbrunn and spent a great deal of his life there. He died there, at the age of 86, on November 21,1916. Following the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy in November 1918, the palace became the property of the newly founded Austrian Republic and was preserved as a museum. The palace and its gardens were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996.