Maria-Theresien-Denkmal - Vienna, Austria
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Metro2
N 48° 12.276 E 016° 21.640
33U E 601096 N 5339936
Maria Theresa was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress
Waymark Code: WMK43B
Location: Wien, Austria
Date Posted: 02/09/2014
Views: 30
Located on the plaza named after her, Maria-Theresien-Platz, this monument depicts the enthroned Empress. She is depicted as a middle-aged woman in this larger than life bronze work which was unveiled in 1988. She sits with a scroll and sceptor cradle in her left arm while she raises her right arm in greeting.
This website (
visit link) adds:
"13 May 1888 saw the unveiling of a large monument situated between the two Court Museums as part of the Ringstrasse ensemble. Still one of Vienna’s landmarks, it glorifies Maria Theresa, who sits enthroned, high and mighty above her advisors and generals. The monument depicts Maria Theresa in her best-known aspects, as a mother figure and as an enlightened yet absolutist reformer. Gathered around her as ‘pillars of the throne’ are her chosen political supporters and other contemporary figures."
The German Wikipedia page (
visit link) as translated by Google informs us:
"The Maria Theresa monument is the most important ruler of the Habsburg monarchy monument in Vienna. It is reminiscent of the Empress Maria Theresa, who ruled from 1740 to 1780 , and is since 1888 on the Maria Theresa Square on the Vienna ring road ( Castle Square) between the then Imperial Museums , in 1891 opened the Kunsthistorisches Museum and in 1889 opened the Natural History Museum, in front of the background of the Museum Quarter , then the imperial stables . This accompanied by Tritons and Najad Fountain Ensemble monument is a UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.
The Empire of Austria in 1859 and 1866 lost Lombardy and Veneto to the new Kingdom of Italy. It was in 1866 forced to resigned after the defeat of the German war , the Prussians had triggered by violation of the rules of the German Confederation from Germany, which in 1871 was constituted as German Empire under a new empire . 1867 had to agree to the formal division of the empire into a ruled from Vienna cisleithanische and ruled from Budapest trans leitha African half of the Empire , with Hungary increasingly presented himself not as a part of the empire , but as a largely independent state Emperor Franz Joseph I in Compromise with Hungary .
During the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna an economic crisis had occurred , the "founding noise " that devalued liberalism as the leading political movement and new mass parties , for the time being , the Christian Social Party , and later the Social Democrats , was formed. In addition, more and more national movements were felt in the multiethnic state .
This centrifugal and the imperial power eroding tendencies would be countered work by patriotic appeals to splendor and glory of the empire . Located on the under construction since 1858 and in 1865 opened new Vienna ring road around the old town was offered the chance. On the Maria Theresa Square center each subsequent Heldenplatz outside the Hofburg in 1860 and 1865 monuments of the two most important generals of the monarchy were built. For the Maria Theresa square , which should form the Heldenplatz an Imperial Forum , offered itself to erect a monument of historical mother of the nation . She was brought back by her marriage to Francis Stephen of Lorraine and his election as emperor , the Roman-German Empire to Vienna and the continuation of the dynasty , now as House of Habsburg - Lorraine, secured . She referred to a time when the development of the monarchy was not dependent on any political party nor by national political considerations, but by the wisdom of the rulers . Your reputation and popularity should radiate to the current empire."