Beaumarchais
This bronze statue of the playwright Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799), the author of The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, among other plays, is on display Read More …
Tag: Sculpture
Neues Museum (The New Museum)
If you ever have the duty of naming a new museum, you would be well advised to call it something else, rather than “The New Museum”, because 165 years later Read More …
The first King of the Belgians
In the Restoration period of the nineteenth century, every self-respecting European country had to have a King. So when Belgium declared its independence from the Netherlands in 1830, finding a Read More …
Aachen Cathedral
Around 792 A.D. Charlemagne ordered the building of the Palatine Chapel on this site, and the rest of the cathedral was gradually built up around it. On Christmas Day of Read More …
The Money Fountain in Aachen
No, this is not the kind of fountain where you throw in a coin and make a wish. It is a fountain which symbolizes ‘The Circulation of Money’ (in German Read More …
Equestrian statues in Copenhagen
Since the bicycle wasn’t even invented until the 19th century, earlier people like Archbishop Absalon (about 1128 –1201) had to make do with horses. Absalon was a typical archbishop of Read More …
Sculptures in Weikersheim
Every summer since 2008, the city of Weikersheim has hosted an outdoor sculpture exhibition of works by a prominent contemporary sculptor. When I was in Weikersheim in the summer of Read More …
The Long Table in Wuppertal
Quinquennially, that is once every five years, the city of Wuppertal holds a mid-summer celebration called ‘The Long Table’ (der lange Tisch) in honor of the city’s founding in 1929, Read More …
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
For years I was mildly puzzled about who Saint Germain was, but only mildly. Now that I have finally looked him up, it turns out he was born around the Read More …
Louis XIII at the Place des Vosges
Louis XIII (1601-1643) has not gone down in history as one of France’s outstanding kings. He was not a popular swashbuckler like his father, Henri IV, nor was he an Read More …