Maria Theresa Monument, Bronze monument at Maria-Theresien-Platz, Vienna, Austria.
The Maria Theresa Monument is a 19.36-metre-high bronze and stone ensemble on Maria-Theresien-Platz, centred on a seated figure of the empress on a throne, with four allegorical female figures on the cornice and four equestrian statues of field marshals on the diagonal axes. The stepped base and chain stand are Mauthausen granite, the pedestal brown hornblende granite from Bohemia, and the columns serpentinite from South Tyrol.
In 1874 Kaspar von Zumbusch won the competition, chosen by Emperor Franz Joseph I, and spent about 13 years on the bronze figures, which weigh 44 tons; Karl von Hasenauer designed the architecture. The monument was unveiled on 13 May 1888, the empress's 171st birthday, before the imperial family, with a Te Deum sung by Cardinal Ganglbauer and 20 bishops while all Vienna's church bells rang. It was conceived after Austria's defeats in the Austro-Prussian War and the Third Italian War of Independence to recall the monarchy's past standing.
Each side of the plinth carries a relief with a free-standing statue in front of it: Kaunitz for the empress's advisers, Haugwitz for the administrators, Prince Liechtenstein for the military, and the physician Gerard van Swieten for science and art. The science relief shows the Old University with Eckhel, Pray, Gluck, Haydn and Mozart as a child.
The monument stands on Maria-Theresien-Platz, reached from the Ringstrasse between the two museums; the square is open and level, with the stepped granite base and its chain barrier visible from the surrounding sidewalks. Tram and metro stops on the Ringstrasse lie a short walk away.
The empress holds a scroll in her left hand representing the Pragmatic Sanction, which allowed female succession to the Habsburg throne for the first time. This detail at the statue marks a turning point in European dynastic history.
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