Austriabrunnen, 19th-century fountain in Freyung square, Innere Stadt, Austria.

The Austriabrunnen on Freyung square has an octagonal granite basin around a white Kaiserstein column. Atop the column stands a crowned bronze Austria with lance and shield bearing a cross. Around the column stand four bronze river allegories—Elbe, Danube, Vistula and Po—each holding a rudder or oar; a male figure stands behind Austria.

The fountain was designed in 1844 by the Munich sculptor Ludwig von Schwanthaler, and Ferdinand von Miller cast the bronze figures in Munich by 1846. Only the four-lobed basin was made in Vienna, from Mauthausen granite. The completed fountain was ready in 1848, under Emperor Ferdinand I, whose new Vienna water supply it accompanied.

The four figures surrounding the fountain represent major rivers of the Habsburg territories. They show how Austria was connected to different parts of Europe through water and trade routes that linked these regions together.

The fountain sits on the busy Freyung square in the city center and is freely accessible throughout the year. It is easy to view and explore from the street, especially when you are walking through the inner district.

Schwanthaler broke with Roman tradition by showing the river figures standing rather than reclining, and each holds a rudder or oar as a sign of navigability. Because the rivers are named in German rather than Latin, the Danube, Latin Danubius, appears as a woman. A legend held that cigars were smuggled inside the statues; the last restoration disproved it.