Apollon, Statue in Nice, France
Apollon is a marble statue at the center of the Fontaine du Soleil in Place Masséna, Nice, France. Standing about 7 meters tall, it is surrounded by five bronze figures representing Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth.
The statue was created by sculptor Alfred Auguste Janniot, who began the work before the Second World War and completed it in 1956. The bronze figures were buried during the war to protect them and later recovered.
The statue shows Apollo, the Greek sun god, without his chariot, which is unusual for this figure. Instead, four bronze horses sit on top of his head like a crown, giving the work a singular appearance.
The statue stands in the middle of Place Masséna, the central square of Nice, which is easy to reach on foot. The square is busy during the day and in the evening, making a visit possible at any time.
In the 1970s, some women in the city found the statue inappropriate and painted a fig leaf over it to cover it. Years later, it was removed from the square and spent about 30 years near a sports stadium, until a journalist found it in 2007 near a water treatment plant.
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