Neptune Fountain Gloriette Schonbrunn Palace Garden Vienna VTG Austria Souvenir

Description

Neptune Fountain & Gloriette – Schonbrunn Palace Garden Vienna Incised Carved Grand Tour Framed Medallion
A fantastic antique carved medallion typical of a Grand Tour souvenir, depicting the Neptune Fountain and Gloriette at Schönbrunn Palace.
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Medallion measures:     3 ¾” x 3”
- Frame measures:
8 ¼” x 7 ½”
Schönbrunn Palace the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, Vienna. The 1,441-room Rococo palace is one of the most important architectural, cultural, and historic monuments in the country. Since the mid-1950s it has been a major tourist attraction. The history of the palace and its vast gardens spans over 300 years, reflecting the changing tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs.
At the end of the seventeenth century Emperor Leopold I commissioned the Baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, who had received his training in Rome, to design an imperial hunting lodge for his son, Crown Prince Joseph, later to become Emperor Joseph I. Replacing the château de plaisance built on this site for the dowager empress Eleonora of Gonzaga in 1642, it was to grow into a palatial imperial residence over the course of the eighteenth century.
The park at Schönbrunn Palace was opened to the public around 1779 and since then has provided a popular recreational amenity for the Viennese population as well as being a focus of great cultural and historical interest for international visitors. Extending for 1.2 km from east to west and approximately one kilometre from north to south, it was placed together with the palace on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.
Designed as the crowning element of the Great Parterre, and sited at the foot of the hill behind the palace is the Neptune Fountain, which was conceived as part of the overall design of the gardens and park commissioned by Maria Theresa in the 1770s.
Under the direction of court architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg, excavations for the basin were started in 1776, and work was completed four years later, just before the death of the empress. It was very probably designed by Hetzendorf von Hohenberg, while the sculptural group of Sterzing marble was executed by Wilhelm Beyer.