Category Archives: Parks and Plazas

Boston Common (Massachusetts, USA)

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Boston Common

The 20-hectare (50-acre) Boston Common (also known as the Common), a central public park in downtown Boston, is bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beacon Street, Charles Street, and Boylston Street.  The Common is part of the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways that extend from the Common south to Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and Dorchester.

Check out “Freedom Trail“

The southern end of Boston’s Freedom Trail, a visitors’ center for all of Boston is located on the Tremont Street side of the park. This public park, forming the southern foot of Beacon Hill, is managed by the Boston Park Department and cared for by Friends of the Public Garden, a private advocacy group which also provides additional funding for maintenance and special events.

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this park:

Boston Common originally included the entire block northeast of where Park Street is now, bounded by Beacon Street and Tremont Street. In 1660, the Granary Burying Ground was established on this land as part of the Common but, in 1662, the land was separated from the Common.  The southwest portion of the block, including the Granary and a house of correction, was taken for public buildings and the north portion of the block was used for housing.

The Site of Fox Hill Plaque – erected in 1925 to the southern pillar of the Charles Street gate to mark the site of one of the most prominent features of the early Common.

Here is a historical timeline of the park:

  • In 1634, the Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony bought the land from William Blaxton (often given the modernized spelling “Blackstone”), the first European settler of Boston.
  • During the 1630s, it was used by many families as a cow pasture.
  • Before the American Revolutionary War, the Common was used as a camp by the British.  From here they left for the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
  • Up until 1817, it was used for public hangings(most of which were from a large oak which was replaced with a gallows in 1769).
  • On June 1, 1660, for repeatedly defying a law that banned Quakers from the Colony, Quaker Mary Dyer (one of the four Quakers, known as the Boston martyrs, executed on the Common) was hanged there by the Puritans.
  • On May 19, 1713, in reaction to a food shortage in the city, 200 citizens rioted on the Common, later attacking ships and warehouses of wealthy merchant Andrew Belcher, who was exporting grain to the Caribbean for higher profits. During the riot, the lieutenant governor was shot.
  • Since 1728, Tremont Mall, the first recreational promenade (an imitation of  James’s Park in London), had been in place.
  • In 1804, the bordering Sentry Street was renamed Park Place (later to be called Park Street), acknowledging the reality of its becoming a park (renaming the Common as Washington Park was also proposed).
  • In 1830, Mayor Harrison Gray Otis formally banned cows from grazing on it. True park status seems to have emerged during that time.
  • By 1836, an ornamental iron fence fully enclosed the Common and its five perimeter malls or recreational promenades.
  • In 1913 and 1986, prehistoric sites were discovered on the Common indicating Native American presence in the area as far back as 8,500 years ago
  • In 1977, the Common was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
  • On February 27, 1987, it was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
  • On August 27, 2007, two teenagers were shot on the Common (one of the bullets fired during the shooting struck the Massachusetts State House). A strict curfew has since been enforced, which has been protested by the homeless population of Boston.

Blackstone Memorial Tablet, near the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street, was designed and erected in 1913 by R. Clipston Sturgis. It recalls the founding of Boston Common in 1634.

Today, the Common serves as a public park for all to use for formal or informal gatherings. Events such as concerts, protests, softball games, and ice skating (on Frog Pond) often take place in the park. Notable formal or informal gatherings that took place here include:

  • In early 1965, a hundred people gathered on the Common to protest the Vietnam War.
  • On April 23, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech here to protest racial imbalance in schools and housing.
  • On October 15, 1969, a second Vietnam War protest happened here, this time with 100,000 people protesting.
  • On August 31, 1967, Judy Garland gave her largest concert ever (100,000+) on the Common.
  • On October 1, 1979, Pope John Paul II said mass to an estimated 400,000 people.
  • On May 31, 1990, on his way to Washington D.C. to sign agreements with U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev gave a speech in the Common.
  • On October 21, 2006, 30,128 Jack-o’-lanterns were lit simultaneously around the park at the Life is good Pumpkin Festival, setting a new world record. The previous record, held by Keene, New Hampshire since 2003, was 28,952.
  • On January 21, 2017, approximately 175,000 people marched from the Common to the Back Bay vicinity to profess resistance to the perceived anti-women viewpoints held by president Donald Trump.
  • On August 19, 2017, in the wake of events in Charlottesville, VA the week before, approximately 40,000 people marched from Roxbury Crossing to Boston Common to protest hate speech and white supremacy. A right-wing “Free Speech” rally had been planned on Boston Common, which some feared would draw members of the KKK, Neo Nazis and other hate groups. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh deemed the “Fight Supremacy” counter protest a great success.

Boston Common Frog Pond, renowned for its winter skating program and skating activities, features public skating, skating lessons, and skating programs for students.

The Boston Common Frog Pond, sitting at the heart of Boston Common, is managed by The Skating Club of Boston in partnership with the City of Boston.  It is home to a winter ice skating rink and learn-to-skate school, a reflecting pool in the spring and fall, and a summer spray pool and children’s carousel. At the southwest corner of the Common lie softball fields.

John Paul II Plaque

A grassy area, forming the western part of the park, is most commonly used for the park’s largest events. Under this part of the Common lies a parking garage.  A granite slab there commemorates Pope John Paul II‘s October 1, 1979 visit to Boston.

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial

The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, a bronze relief sculpture unveiled on May 31, 1897 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, stands at 24 Beacon cor. Park Street, the northeast corner of the Common, opposite the State House It depicts Col.  Robert Gould Shaw leading the Afro-American 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as it marched down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863.

The 126-ft. high, Neo-Classical Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a victory column on Flag Staff Hill in the Common, was designed by Martin Milmore.  Erected in memory of Massachusetts soldiers and sailors who died in the American Civil War, its construction began in 1874 and the monument was dedicated on September 17, 1877.

Soldiers & Sailors Monument

The Boston Massacre Memorial, dedicated November 14, 1888, was designed by Robert Kraus.  The bas relief depicts the events before the Old State House on March 5, 1770, featuring Crispus Attucks, the first to fall. The bronze figure represents Revolution breaking the chains of tyranny.

One of four 8 foot high carved granite figures, at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, representing the northern, southern, eastern and western sections of the reunited nation

The Oneida Football Monument memorializes the Common as the site of the first organized football games in the United States, played by the Oneida Football Club in 1862.  Plaque to the Great Elm tree celebrates the legacy and importance of the Great Elm Tree to the Boston Common.  A major storm that included heavy winds toppled it on February 15, 1876.

Brewer Fountain

The 6.7-m. (22-ft.) tall, 6,800-kg. (15,000-pound) Brewer Fountain, standing near the corner of Park and Tremont Streets, by Park Street Station, is a bronze fountain cast in Paris and gifted to the city by Gardner Brewer. It began to function for the first time on June 3, 1868.

Memorial to the Nurses of the Armed Services

The Boylston and Park Street stations, the first two subway stations in the Western Hemisphere, lie underneath the southern and eastern corners of the park, respectively.  Both stations have been in near-continuous operation since the opening of the first portion of the Tremont Street Subway (now part of the MBTA‘s Green Line) on September 1, 1897.

Royal Navy Plaque, installed on the western entrance to Boston Common, bordering the Public Garden, is a token of gratitude from the Royal Navy to the people of Boston, for their hospitality during World War II.

The Parkman Bandstand, in the eastern part of the park, is used in musical and theatrical productions, concerts, rallies, and speeches. Recent notable gatherings include the Boston Freedom Rally and a 2007 Presidential Primary rally in which both Barack Obama and Deval Patrick gave speeches from the bandstand. It was built in 1912 from a design by Derby, Robinson & Shephard at a cost of $1 million on the site of the Cow Pond (also known as the Horse Pond).  It was restored in 1996. 

Parkman Bandstand

Boston Common: 139 Tremont St, Boston, Massachusetts 02111. 

Boston Public Garden (Massachusetts, USA)

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Boston Public Garden

The large Boston Public Garden (also known as Public Garden), adjacent to Boston Common, is the first public botanical garden in America. A part of the Emerald Necklace system of parks (a long string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted), it is bounded by Charles Street (which divides the Public Garden from Boston Common) to the east, Beacon Street (where it faces Beacon Hill) to the north, Arlington Street and Back Bay to the west, and Boylston Street to the south.  Connecting the Public Garden with the rest of the Emerald Necklace is the greenway, a strip of park that runs west down the center of Commonwealth Avenue towards the Back Bay Fens and the Muddy River.

Check out “Boston Common“

The Public Garden was established in 1837, when philanthropist Horace Gray petitioned for the use of land as the first public botanical garden in the United States. In October 1859, after submitting the detailed plan for the Garden to the Committee on the Common and Public Squares, Alderman Crane received approval and construction began quickly on the property.  The pond was finished that year and, in 1862, the wrought iron fence surrounding the perimeter was erected. George F. Meacham designed the 97,000 m2 (24-acre) landscape while city engineer, James Slade, and the forester, John Galvin laid out the paths and flower beds. Many of fountains and statues for the garden were erected in the late 1860s.

On January 6, 1913, the garden, along with the Boston Common, were placed by the City Council  under the direct management of the Public Grounds Department of the city. the Mayor’s Office, The Parks Department of the City of Boston and the non-profit Friends of the Public Garden jointly manages the Public Garden. In 1977, it was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission  and, on February 27, 1987, was declared a National Historic Landmark.

The Public Garden, rectangular in shape, designed in the style of an English landscape garden, mostly flat and varying in elevation by less than five feet, contains a pond, a bridge crossing over the pond, winding and asymmetrical pathways and a large series of formal plantings that vary from season to season and are maintained by the city and others.

The garden is planted with a wide assortment of native and introduced trees.  Weeping willows are found around the shore of the lagoon while European and American elms  line the garden’s pathways, along with horse chestnuts, dawn redwoods, European beeches, ginkgo trees and one California redwood. Permanent flower planted in the garden include numerous varieties of roses, bulbs, and flowering shrubs. Throughout the year, the beds flanking the central pathway are replanted on a rotating schedule, with different flowers for each season from mid-spring through early autumn. The city operates 14 greenhouses at Franklin Park for the purpose of supplying plants.

Arlington Street Gate

During the warmer seasons, the 16,000 m2 (4-acre) pond is the home of a great many ducks, as well as of one or more swans (the current pair are female mute swans named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearian couple). The Swan Boats, which began operating in 1877, is a popular tourist attraction where, for a small fee, tourists can sit on a boat ornamented with a white swan at the rear.

Jandy at the pond

A tour guide, sitting within the swan, pedals the boat around the pond. As the pond is no more than 3 feet deep at its deepest point, it easily freezes during the colder months. The north side of the pond has a small island, originally was a peninsula connected to the land but severed by John Galvin, the city forester, as the site became so popular with lovers.

Boston Public Garden Foot Bridge

The signature suspension bridge, over the middle of the pond, was designed by William G. Preston and opened in 1869. Before its conversion to a girder bridge in 1921, it was the world’s shortest functioning suspension bridge (the original suspension system is now merely decorative).

The author by the foot bridge

A flagpole, standing on the eastern side of the garden, close to Charles Street and just south of the main entrance there, has a circular granite bench was installed around it, with the work being done by the Friends of the Public Garden.

Equestrian Statue of George Washington

Maintained by the City of Boston, the city’s efforts are supplemented by the Friends of the Public Garden (also known as the Rose Brigade), a charitable organization that helped finance the repair of the Ether Monument in 2006.  They also hire specialists to help care for the trees and bushes. Regularly, volunteers meet to prune and maintain bushes. Private sources (such as the Beacon Hill Garden Club) also provide financial support.

Throughout the Public Garden are several statues:

  • The 16 ft. tall, bronze Equestrian Statue of George Washington, located at the Arlington Street gate and dominating the western entrance to the park facing Commonwealth Avenue, was designed and cast by Thomas Ball and unveiled on July 3, 1869. The statue stands upon a granite pedestal of 16 ft., for a total height of 38 ft.. Constructed entirely by Massachusetts artists and artisans, the statue was funded mostly by donations from local citizens.
  • The William Ellery Channing Statue, at 28 Arlington Street at the southwest corner of the garden, stands across from the Arlington Street Church where Channing, the leading Unitarian minister of his day, ministered from 1803 until his death in 1842. Sculpted by Herbert Adams and given to the city by John Foster, a member of that church, the  marble and granite statue went up in June 1903, the 100th anniversary of Channing’s birth.
  • The Charles Sumner Statue, a bronze and granite statue of the fiery abolitionist senator from Massachusetts during the Civil War era, was designed by Thomas Ball (the same sculptor behind the Public Garden’s far more famous George Washington statue) and set up in 1878.
  • The Tadeusz Kościuszko Statue, a bronze and granite statue of the Polish hero sculpted by artist Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, went up in 1927 to commemorate the 150th anniversary Kosciuszko’s enlistment in the Continental Army as a colonel.
  • The Thomas Cass Statue, a bronze and granite statue cast by Richard Edwin Brooks in 1899, depicts this Irish immigrant who rose to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army and commander of the 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and would die in Boston of wounds sustained in Virginia in 1862.
  • The Edward Everett Hale Statue of Bela Pratt, a bronze and granite statue of the clergyman and journalist sculpted by Bela Lyon Pratt (whose uncle was Edward Everett, namesake of the Boston suburb, and whose granduncle was Nathan Hale) at the east gate on Charles Street, was erected and presented to the city on May 22, 1913.
  • The Wendell Phillips Statue, a granite and stone depiction of abolitionist orator and lawyer along the south walk in the park, was sculpted by Daniel Chester French (best-known for sculpting the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.) and erected in 1915. Mayor John F. Fitzgerald appropriated funds of $20,000 for the statue.
  • Learning, Religion, and Industry, three bronze and granite sculptures right between the Boston Common Visitors Center and Tremont Street, were erected in 1961 to honor Boston philanthropist George Francis Parkman Jr.. The trio was sculpted by Arcangelo Cascieri and Adio diBiccari.
  • Triton Babies Fountain, created by Anna Coleman Ladd on the east side of the garden, is the first statue in the Garden that was made by a woman. Acquired by the garden in 1927, some people think the children are a boy and girl.  However, they are, in fact, her two daughters.
  • Make Way for Ducklings, located between the pond and the Charles and Beacon streets entrance, are a set of bronze statues by Nancy Schön, dating from 1987 and based on the main characters from the children’s story .

Edward Everett Hale Statue

The Marquis de Lafayette Plaque, at 5 Temple Place just back from where Tremont Street meets Temple Place, honors the famed aide de camp to General Washington during the Revolution who tried to spur similar idealism in his native France. This bas-relief, designed by John Francis Paramino, went up in 1924 on the 100th anniversary of Lafayette’s 1824 visit.  The plaque also commemorates the grand Lafayette Mall that used to run along that side of the Common. Opened in 1824 in honor of Lafayette’s visit to the city, it disappeared into present-day Tremont in the late 1890s to make way for the T.

Statue of William Ellery Channing

The 30 ft. tall, granite and red marble Ether Monument, located towards the corner of Arlington and Beacon streets in the northwest corner of the garden, is the oldest monument in the garden.  Commemorating the first use of ether as an anesthetic, it was designed by John Quincy Adams Ward and gifted to the city on June 27, 1868, by Thomas Lee.  The statue’s carved figures tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Statue of Tadeusz Kosiuszko

Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon’s granite and bronze memorial fountain to the Boston philanthropist George Robert White entitled “The Angel of the Waters,” created in 1924, is located just north of the Ether Monument.  The fountain, disabled in the 1980s, was repaired and restored 2016 by the Friends of the Public Garden at a cost of US$700,000.

Statue of Thomas Cass

“Boy and Bird,” a fountain on the west side of the garden, was made by Bashka Paeff, a Russian immigrant who did the model of it while she was working as a ticket taker at the Park Street Station of the MBTA.  A Japanese garden lantern, dating from 1587 (one of the oldest lanterns of its kind in existence) and installed at the edge of the pond in 1906, was gifted to Boston by Bunkio Matsuki. Made of cast iron, it was originally in the garden of the Momoya Palace at Kyoto.

Statue of Charles Sumner

The memorial to the 206 people from Massachusetts who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, designed by Victor Walker and dedicated in July 2004, is located just inside the Public Garden, at the corner of Arlington and Newbury streets. A plaque honoring United States Marine Lt. Michael P. Quinn, of Charlestown, killed in action in Vietnam on August 29, 1969, is located at the beginning of the bridge by the steps leading to the Swan Boats. It was dedicated in 1986 by the committee members of the Michael P. Quinn Scholarship Fund on Patriots Day.

Statue of Wendell Philips

Boston Public Garden: 4 Charles St., Boston 02116 Massachusetts.

Enid A. Haupt Garden (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

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Parterre of the Enid A. Haupt Garden

The 1.7-hectare (4.2 acre) Enid A. Haupt Garden, a public garden in the Smithsonian complex, adjacent to the Smithsonian Castle (formally the Smithsonian Institution Building) on the National Mall, replaced an existing Victorian Garden which had been built to celebrate the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976.

Check out “Smithsonian Castle”

Designed to be a modern representation of American Victorian gardens as they appeared in the mid to late 19th century, it was opened on May 21, 1987 as part of the redesigned Castle quadrangle and was named after Enid A. Haupt who provided the $3 million endowment which financed its construction and maintenance.

More broadly, the quadrangle redesign project and the Smithsonian Gardens  were part of the vision of S. Dillon Ripley, the eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian, who felt that the museum experience should extend beyond the museums’ buildings into the outdoor spaces.

The gardens landscape design features the collaborative efforts of architect Jean Paul Carlhian (principal in the Boston firm of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott), Lester Collins (Sasaki Associates Inc. of Watertown, Massachusetts) and James R. Buckler (founding director of the Smithsonian’s Office of Horticulture).

The symmetrically patterned and carefully manicured parterre (French for “on the ground”), behind the Smithsonian Castle in the south yard, is the central feature of the garden.  Measuring 44 m. (144 ft.) long by 20 m. (66 ft.) wide, it is flanked by the Moongate Garden to the west and the Fountain Garden to the east.

Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucana araucaria)

The formal parterre, an ornamental garden type originating in 16th century Renaissance Italy and typically associated with the elaborate designs of the Victorian era, predates the creation of the Enid A. Haupt Garden and was inspired by a design from the 1876 Centennial Exposition Horticultural Hall in Philadelphia.  When the Enid A. Haupt Garden was created, this parterre was saved and incorporated into the new formal garden. It complements the ornate architecture of the adjacent Smithsonian Castle.

Bismarck Palm (Bismarckia nobilis)

With a changing palette of colors, shapes and textures, the layers of colorful, low-growing plants, meticulously laid out in symmetrical patterns,  make up the design of the parterre that are changed every six months, typically in September and May. They fill out the series of diamonds, fleurs-de-lis, and scallops or swags. Within a circle in the northeast portion of the parterre is the Andrew Jackson Downing Urn.

Horizontal sundial

Other notable design features include saucer and tulip magnolias, brick walkways, and historical cast-iron garden furnishings from the Smithsonian Gardens‘ Garden Furniture Collection.  A 12 square, horizontal sundial, sitting just outside the south door of the Smithsonian Castle, was built in 1994 by David Todd (a clock expert at the National Museum of American History) and David Shayt.  Calibrated for the longitude and latitude of its location, it is subdivided into 15 minute increments and has a compass rose. Its dial sits atop a rectangular granitepedestal.

Check out “National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center“

Moongate Garden

The Moongate Garden, designed by architect Jean Paul Carlhian, was inspired by the gardens and architecture of the Temple of Heaven (Beijing, China) which was designed using a geometrical, axial layout, centered on the cardinal points of the compass. It was meant to take its visitors to a relaxing place surrounded by water where they may absorb the cool air emanating from the water.

Check out “The Temple of Heaven“

Granite and water (the dominant feature in the garden) are used abundantly in this garden. In Chinese culture, rocks (thought to symbolize the body of the earth) and water (symbolizing the spirit of earth) symbolizes the basic constituents of nature. Water gives off shimmering light effects in the sunlight and reflects the glow of the moon at night while its reflection gives the garden the appearance of being larger than it actually is.

Its overall circular pool design was meant to remind us of the windows in the National Museum of African Art (a technique that Carlhian also applied to the Fountain Garden). To align important features of the Arts and Industries Building with the Freer Gallery of Art, Carlhian utilized his so-called “pinwheel treatment,” with the path leading into the Moongate Garden entering at the southwest corner and exiting at the northeast corner.

The Moongate Garden has two 9-ft. high pink granite moon gates on either side of a pool that is paved with half-round pieces of granite, strategically placed to frame important features of the surrounding landscape. Two more gates, laid flat, provide seating in opposite corners.

Renwick Gate

The Fountain Garden, beside the entrance to the National Museum of African Art, was also designed by Jean Paul Carlhian and was modeled after the Court of the Lions at Alhambra, a 13th-century Moorish palace and fortress in  Granada,  Andalusia, Spain.

As with most Islamic gardens, the Fountain Garden is geometrically symmetrical and suggests a walled paradise, an important concept in early Persian and Islamic garden design. It includes a central fountain and water channels (those on top of the low walls around the central fountain were designed to represent the four rivers of paradise described in the Koran). The bubbling center jet of the central fountain symbolizes paradise/eternity itself. A chadar (“veil”) of cascading water, at the garden’s north end, streams down a tile wall.

Enid A. Haupt Garden: 1037-1057 Independence Avenue SW and L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C.  Tel: 202.633.2220.  E-mail: gardens@si.edu.  Open daily, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM.  Admission is free.  Coordinates: 38°53′17″N 77°01′34″W.

National Gallery of Art – Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

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The Sculpture Garden with the Pavilion Cafe in the background.

The 2.5-hectare  (6.1-acre), beautifully landscaped National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, the most recent addition to the National Gallery of Art, is located on the National Mall, on the opposite side of Seventh Street, between the National Gallery of Art’s West Building and the Smithsonian Institution‘s National Museum of Natural History.

Check out “National Museum of Natural History”

The elegant, circular reflecting fountain

The gorgeous garden, redesigned by landscape architects Laurie Olin and his firm OLIN after more than 30 years of planning, was completed and opened to the public on May 23, 1999.

Cheval Rouge (Red Horse), an outdoor mobile by Alexander Calder (1974), exhibits an appealing grace and, though steadfastly abstract, evoke a friendly resonance with natural forms. Here the sleek, tapering legs and tensile up-thrust “neck” recall the muscularity and power of a thoroughbred.

Aurora, by Mark di Suvero (1992 – 1993), is a tour de force of design and engineering with its sophisticated structural system that distributes eight tons of steel over three diagonal supports to combine massive scale with elegance of proportion. Several beams converge within a central circular hub and then explode outward, imparting tension and dynamism to the whole. The title comes from a poem about New York City by Federico García Lorca (Spanish, 1898–1936). The steel forms a letter “k”(the artist has said the work is a portrait of his wife, Kate).

The location provides an outdoor setting for exhibiting several monumental pieces from the museum’s modern and contemporary sculpture collection. 

An Entrance into the Paris Metropolitan, by architect Hector Guimard, was one of three entrance styles he designed for the Paris Metro that were industrially produced in painted cast iron and bronze until 1913. The designs were meant to clearly mark the new subway entrances and make the novel form of mass transportation more attractive to riders.

Spider, by Louise Bourgeois (1996 – 1997), appears as looming and powerful protectresses, yet is delicate and vulnerable. Louise Bourgeois used the spider as the central protagonist in her art during the last decades of her life.

Native American species of canopy and flowering trees, shrubs, ground covers, and perennials were planted at the garden.

Graft, by Roxy Paine (2008–2009), was added to the Sculpture Garden on the 10th anniversary of its opening. It is part of a series of stainless steel sculptures the artist refers to as “Dendroids,” a term that describes a tree-like, branching form, but also evokes an artificially engineered or mutant body.

Cubi XI, a steel abstract sculpture by David Smith, is a stack of three cubes and four rectangular boxes welded together and installed on a cube-shaped base.  Part of the Cubi series of 28 sculptures, it was constructed in 1963 and was installed on April 21, 1964.

The collection is centered on an elegant circular reflecting fountain which is complemented by arching pathways of granite and crushed stone.

Four-Sided Pyramid, by Sol LeWitt, 1997 – 1999), was constructed on site by a team of engineers and stonemasons. This terraced pyramid, which also alludes to the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia, relates to the 1961 repeal of early 20th-century setback laws for New York City skyscrapers.

Stele II, by Ellsworth Kelly (1973), is loosely based on a French kilometer marker, an object Kelly observed during his years in Paris after World War II. This sculpture, also essentially planar and upright will, over time, weather from exposure to the elements, developing an evenly corroded, non-reflective surface.

During the winter months of December to March, the fountain is converted to an ice-skating rink which predated the construction of the garden. The outdoor Pavilion Café, which lies adjacent to the garden, offers year-round service.

Untitled, by Joel Shapiro (1989), may bring to mind a human figure in motion, yet at the same time it can be understood as an abstract sculpture that explores the properties of balance and gravity. Originally constructed from plywood sheets, the elements of this work were carefully cast to retain the wood grain pattern.

With a panoramic view of the Sculpture Garden, the cafe serves freshly made salads, soups, flatbreads, and sandwiches, with indoor and outdoor seating and no timed passes required.

Typewriter Eraser, by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (1999), was based upon Claes’ childhood memories of playing with the the now obsolete typewriter eraser in his father’s office. Here the giant brush arcs back, conveying a sense of motion, as if the wheel-like eraser were rolling down the hill and making its way toward the gate of the garden.

Thinker on a Rock, by Barry Flanagan (1997), substitutes the hare for Auguste Rodin’s Thinker (1880), making an irreverent reference to one of the world’s best-known sculptures (a version of which may be seen in the West Building sculpture galleries).

The surrounding landscaped area exhibits 20th century sculptural pieces by Marc Chagall (Orphee, 1969), David Smith (Cubi XI, 1963, Cubi XXVI, 1965), Mark Di Suvero (Aurora, 1992–93), Roy Lichtenstein (House I, 1996 – 1998), Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (Puellae, 1992), Sol LeWitt (Four-Sided Pyramid, 1965), Tony Smith (Wandering Rocks, 1967 and Moondog, 1964), Roxy Paine (Graft, 2008–2009), Joan Miró (Personnage Gothique, Oiseau-Eclair, 1974 – 1977), Louise Bourgeois (Spider, 1996 – 1997), Robert Indiana (AMOR, 1998 – 2006), Barry Flanagan  (Thinker on a Rock, 1997), Joel Shapiro (Untitled, 1989), Lucas Samaras (Chair Transformation Number 20B, 1996), Scott Burton (Six-Part Seating, 1985 – 1998), Ellsworth Kelly (Stele II, 1973), Alexander Calder (Cheval Rouge, 1974), George Rickey (Cluster of Four Cubes, 1992), Hector Guimard (An Entrance to the Paris Métropolitain, 1902 – 1913) and by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (Typewriter Eraser, Scale X, 1999).

Personnage Gothique, Oiseau-Éclair, one of the largest sculptures of Joan Miro (1974 – 1977), features a bird cast from an object the artist created, while the top portion was cast from a cardboard box and the arch-shaped form from a donkey’s collar. The objects combine to suggest a figure while, at the same time, the empty box and unoccupied harness imply absence.

AMOR, by Robert Indiana (1998 – 2006), is a play on the artist’s famous LOVE sculpture, Indiana’s design, with its distinctively inclined O, was constructed from red and yellow polychrome aluminum.

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden: Constitution Ave NW &, 7th St NW, Washington, D.C. 20408. Tel: +1 202-289-3360. Open daily, 11 AM – 4 PM. Admission is free.

Pierce’s Park (Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.)

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This one-acre downtown urban park in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, completed in 2012, is located on what had once been an underutilized and largely paved pass-through space along the city’s Inner Harbor.  Developed to satisfy a need for a children’s play area in Downtown Baltimore, this unique open space, located on Pier 5 (between Columbus Center and Eastern Ave.) in Baltimore’s Inner Harbors, just across the street from the Pier 5 Hotel, is a short walk from the National Aquarium and other attractions.

Check out “Baltimore’s Inner Harbor“

Pierce’s Park

It was loosely designed by landscape architects Mahan and Scott Rykiel as two unstructured, oval-shaped open play areas (for younger and older children), each ringed by planted earth berms and connected by a “Ribbon Walk,” a ribbon-like pathway that meanders through the site.  Funded with help from the family of the late Baltimore businessman and community leader Pierce John Flanigan III, for whom the park is named, it also contains indigenous trees, native plantings, a living “willow tunnel” and a modern playground.

The whimsical, 36 ft. long “Homophone,” with its “Seussian” quality, is a custom stainless steel double horn  and slide, two interactive, multi-sensory sculptures that were designed, fabricated (with 3/8” alloy 316 stainless steel plate) and installed by David Hess.  It was designed for children to crawl, slide and listen to the sounds collected by and emanating from the sculpture. Hess also designed the over 800 pavers, the fence that produces musical sounds when tapped, signage and musical instruments for the park.

The “Homophone”

To celebrate Pierce’s love for language, hundreds of homophonic words are also inscribed along the intricate serpentine walkways to encourage children and adults to learn about wordplay and some of the anomalies of language. The curvilinear seating was built using recycled wood placed atop an eco-friendly gabion base made from cobblestone salvaged from an old city street buried beneath the site. A local Maryland quarry also donated the large boulders added to the park.

Listening to the sounds collected by and emanating from the sculpture

Wanting to make a statement about cleaning the water and thus emphasized storm water capture, treatment, and filtration in the park design, the landscape architects created four micro-bioretention facilities, beautifully planted bio-swales and rain gardens that treat storm water.  Interpretative signage explains the landscape processes as well as educates children about the benefits of capturing runoff for the additional wildlife habitat.

Interpretive signage

Maintained by the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore (which is focused on developing a “Healthy Harbor”), the park was the recipient of the 2013 Honor Award, Maryland/Potomac ASLA Best in Class Award for Landscape and Paving, Brick in Architecture

Pierce’s Park: 701 E Pratt St,  Baltimore, Maryland 21202.  Tel: 443-743-3308.  Website: www.piercespark.org.

Piazzale Michelangelo (Florence, Italy)

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Piazzale Michelangelo

Piazzale Michelangelo

This large, partly pedestrianized Florentine piazza, located across the Arno River from the center of Florence, was designed by Florentine architect Giuseppe Poggi,  known for his creation of boulevards around the center of Florence, part of the so-called Risanamento (“Rebirth”), a late nineteenth-century urban modernization project which also resulted in the creation of the Piazza della Repubblica.  Under the loggia, in the wall of the balcony, is an epigraph in capital letters referring to Poggi’s work, turned into his monument in 1911.

Bronze copy of Michelangelo's David (15)

Bronze copy of Michelangelo’s David (15)

The piazza was built in 1869 on a hill, 104 m. above sea level (and 60 m. above the level of the Arno River), just south of the historic center, during the redevelopment of Oltrarno, the left (South) bank of the Arno River, as part of major restructuring of the fourteenth-century city walls.  Dedicated to Michelangelo Buonarroti (the city’s most famous Renaissance sculptor), the square has bronze copies, set on a large pedestal, of some of his marble works found elsewhere in Florence – the famous David (seen in the Galleria dell’Accademia) and the Four Allegories (seen at the Medici Chapel of San Lorenzo, it depicts day, night, dusk and dawn), brought up by nine pairs of oxen on June 25, 1873.

Two of the Four Allegories

Two of the Four Allegories

Poggi also designed the hillside building with loggia as a museum for Michelangelo’s works which, for some reason, was not realized as it was intended. Today, the building is now a restaurant. The loggia, designed by Poggi the in the Neo-Classical-style, dominates the whole sumptuous, typically 19th century terrace.

View of the city

View of the city

A popular spot, most of Piazzale Michelangelo is a parking lot filled with vendors and locals and tourists, dropped off by busses, who come here to enjoy and snap photos of the panoramic and unobstructed views of the Arno valley and the heart of Florence, from Forte Belvedere to Santa Croce, across the lungarni (riverside walks) and the bridges crossing the Arno, including the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, the Bargello and the octagonal bell tower of the Badia Fiorentina. Beyond the city are the hills of Settignano and Fiesole.

Check out “Palazzo Vecchio“

The Arno River

The Arno River

Despite the overly touristy commercialism and its being crowded all year round, the piazza is still well worth a visit thanks to the magnificent views over the most important landmarks of Florence, with the Tuscan hills providing a scenic backdrop. The square is filled with a large number of market stalls selling souvenirs and snacks.

L-R: Cheska, the author, Kyle, Grace and Jandy

L-R: Cheska, the author, Kyle, Grace and Jandy

Kyle and Cheska

Kyle and Cheska

How to Get There:  From the city center, Piazzale Michelangelo can be reached by taking either bus 12 or 13 or the red, two-level sightseeing tour bus. On foot, from the Porta San Niccolò (a fourteenth-century city gate near the Arno River), it can also be reached by walking up the stairs or going up the steep winding path from Piazza Giuseppe Poggi (also known as the “Poggi Ramps”), found at the base of the hill upon which Piazzale Michelangelo sits. By car, it can be accessed along the tree-lined, 8 km. long Viale Michelangelo.

Palazzo Pitti – Boboli Gardens (Florence, Italy)

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Boboli Gardens

From the Pitti Palace (the main seat of the Medici grand dukes), we crossed the Cortile dell’Ammannati (the palace courtyard) and proceeded to the historical Boboli Gardens (Giardini di Boboli) via a staircase that lead to the Artichoke Fountain whose large octagonal basin, decorated with numerous statues of Tritons and Nereids, is crowned by a bronze lily. Begun in 1639 and installed between 1641 and 1642, the fountain is the work of Florentine sculptor Giovan Francesco Susini and his collaborators.

Looking out into the garden from the Artichoke Fountain

From here, the sight opened up on to the large “amphitheater” of the Boboli Gardens, a park and real outdoor museum behind the palace and the “green lung” of Florence.  Opened to the public in 1766, it is home to some of the first and most familiar formal 16th-century Italian gardens, hosting centuries-old oak trees plus a collection of sculptures dating from the 16th through the 18th centuries (with some Roman antiquities).

Jandy, Grace, Cheska and Kyle making their way to the garden

Representing one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, it later served as a prototype and inspiration for many European royal gardens (in particular, Versailles). Just a year before our visit, in 2015, the garden underwent restoration work.

Check out “Versailles Palace”

Cheska, Kyle and Grace with Palazzo Pitti in the background

Developed in the mid-16th-century garden style, it incorporated longer axial developments, wide gravel avenues and a considerable “built” element of stone. Lavishly employing statuary and fountains, its proliferation of detail was coordinated in semi-private and public spaces that were informed by Classical accents such as grottos, nympheums, garden temples and the like. Unconventional for its time, the garden, with it expansive view of the city, was very lavish, considering that no access was allowed (outside of the immediate Medici family) and no entertainment or parties ever took place in the gardens.

The name of the gardens is a corruption of “Borgoli,” the name of the family who laid out the original fields and gardens behind Santa Felicita in the Oltrarno. In 1418, Luca Pitti bought the land from them and, in 1549, the property was purchased by Eleonora di Toledo (the wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici). The land was greatly enlarged to become the Medici family‘s new city residence.

The first stage was scarcely begun by Medici court artist Niccolò Tribolo who drew the original plan before he died the next year in 1550.  Under the reign of Francesco I, who succeeded his father Cosimo I, it was continued by Bartolomeo Ammanati, Giorgio Vasari (who contributed in the planning and the laying out of the grottos from 1598 to 1561) and, in the sculpture, by the artist, architect and sculptor Bernardo Buontalenti who was also responsible for the elaborate architecture of the splendid Buontalenti grotto, built between 1536 and 1608, in the courtyard that separates the palace from its garden.

The Kaffeehaus. One of the most interesting buildings inside the Boboli Gardens, it is also one of the works carried out at the wishes of Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine, between 1774 and 1785. An airy pavilion, it is circular in shape and has an onion-shaped dome on the top. Designed by Zanobi Del Rosso, its interiors were done by Giuseppe del Moro, Giuliano Traballesi and Pasquale Micheli.

Lacking a natural water source to water the plants in the garden, a conduit was built from the nearby Arno River to feed water into an elaborate irrigation system. Passing through several stages of enlargement and restructuring work, the gardens were enlarged in the 17th century to their present extent of 45,000 sq. m. (111 acres).

The Amphitheater

In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the Medici and the Lorraine families continued to enrich and enlarge the garden, generating an outdoor museum and a scenic setting to exhibit both Roman and 16th and 17th century Renaissance statues. In the 18th century, the Lorraine family made further additions including the green Kaffeehaus (a multiple-tiered garden coffeehouse constructed from 1774 to 1785), with its glazed dome, and the “Lemon House,” both designed by Zanobi del Rosso.

Jandy, Grace, Cheska and Kyle at the Amphitheater

Centered on the rear façade of the Pitti Palace, the primary axis rises on Boboli Hill from a deep amphitheater, behind the corps de logis of the palazzo, that is reminiscent, in its shape, of one half of a classical hippodrome or racecourse. In the first phase of building, the amphitheater was excavated in the hillside behind the palace, initially formed with clipped edges and greens and, later, formalized by rebuilding in stone decorated with statues based on Roman myths.

In 1476, the play Andria by Terence was performed there for the amusement of the cultivated Medici court. Later, it followed by many classically inspired plays, featuring elaborate sets designed by the court architect Baldassarre Lanci, of Florentine playwrights such as Giovan Battista Cini.  .

The author and Jandy with the Egyptian obelisk in the background. This obelisk is suspected to have been first erected in the city of Heliopolis during the reign of Ramesses II. In the first century AD, it was moved to Rome by Domitian and placed in the Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius, along with three other obelisks still in Rome. In the sixteenth century, Cardinal Ferdinand I de’ Medici bought the 6 m. high obelisk in Rome and placed it in the gardens of the Villa Medici.

The ancient Egyptian Boboli obelisk, brought here in 1789 from the Villa Medici (in turn, brought there from Luxor) at Rome, is at the center of the amphitheater and is rather dwarfed by its position.

Neptune Fountain

This primary axis terminates in the Neptune Fountain known, to the irreverent Florentines, as the “Fountain of the Fork” for Neptune’s large trident.  As we climbed further up the slope, at the very top of the hill, we found the large statue of Abundance, by Giambologna  (which featured the likeness of Giovanna of Austria, Francesco I’s wife) visible against the skyline.

Abundance by Giambologna

The steep, sloping Cyprus Road (or Viottolone, “large avenue”), the long secondary axis a right angle to the primary axis, was laid out by Giulio Parigi.  This road, which led up through a series of terraces, tunnels and water features (the main one being the Isolotto complex, with the bosquets on either side), is flanked by cypresses and statuettes and heads back down the hill toward at Porta Romana (Roman Gate), one of the main gates of the walled city. The Grotto of Vulcan (Grotticina di Vulcano), also along this axis, was constructed in 1617 by Parigi.

Check out “Porta Romana“

The oval shaped isolotto, an island in a large, tree-enclosed pond nearly at the end of the alternative Viottolone axis, was laid out around 1618 by Giulio and Alfonso Parigi.  It has another fountain of Neptune (here as god of the oceans), known as the Fountain of the Ocean in the center, a replica of the original sculpted by Giambologna which is now in the Bargello Museum. It is surrounded by three sculptures representing the great rivers of the Nile, Ganges and Euphrates.

Strolling along one of the alleys of the gardens

All around are other statues based on Classic and popular subjects, belonging to the 17th and 18th centuries,  like those that shows groups of children playing traditional games. Emerging from the moat surrounding the island are the marble groups, by Giambologna and his pupil, of Perseus on horseback and of Andromeda, whose ankles are chained to the rock.

Check out “Bargello Museum”

The double staircase

Then, we climbed a double staircase, designed in 1793, by Giuseppe del Rosso.  It curves around a cylindrical structure topped with a circular terrace, at either side of which stood two statues of the Muses.

Cheska and Kyle at the terrace of the double staircase

Upon reaching the top, we visited the beautiful Knight’s Garden (Giardino del Cavaliere) which stands on an eponymous rampart (Bastione del Cavaliere)  built by Michelangelo in 1529.

Giardino del Cavaliere with the Neo-Classical-style Knight’s Building (now housing the Porcelain Museum) on the left

Beside this garden is the Neo-Classical-style Knight’s Building (Palazzina del Cavaliere)  housing the Porcelain Museum of the Pitti Palace.  Underneath the building is the Trout Reservoir (Conserva delle Trote), a large water storage area, built in 1614, from which the pipes that supply water to the entire garden lead off.

View from the Giardino del Cavaliere.  On the top of the hill is the Torre al Gallo

From this colorful garden rich with blossoming roses, we enjoyed a wonderful view of the Torre al Gallo as well as elegant private Florentine manors nearly hidden inside the lavish vegetation of the hills.

Check out “Palazzo Pitti – Porcelain Museum”

View from Giardino del Cavaliere

The Large Grotto, decorated internally and externally with stalactites and originally equipped with waterworks and luxuriant vegetation, is divided into three main sections decorated with remarkable examples of Mannerist sculptures. The first one, frescoed to create the illusion of a natural grotto, is a natural refuge for shepherds to protect themselves from wild animals.

It originally housed The Prisoners of Michelangelo, statues that were first intended for the tomb of the Pope Julius II and are now in the Gallerie dell’ Accademia. They are now replaced by copies. The third and furthest hall in the grotto contains the famous Bathing Venus of Giambologna and the second section contains Paris Abducts Helen, an 18th-century group by Vincenzo de’ Rossi. These last two chambers were created as the perfect setting for the secretive, amorous meetings of the Duke Francesco I de’ Medici.

Check out “Gallerie dell’ Accademia”

Boboli Gardens:  Piazza de’ Pitti, 1, 50125  Florence, Italy.  Open from 8:15 AM to 6:30 PM (May, September and October) and 8:15 AM to 7:30 PM (July and August).  It is closed the first and last Monday of the month.  Admission: €10.

Piazza della Santissima Annunziata (Florence, Italy)

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Piazza della Santissima Annunziata

On our way to the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, we passed by the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata.  Named after the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata (Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation) at the head of the square, in the center of the piazza is the large, bronze equestrian statue of Ferdinando I flanked by the Fountains of the Marine Monsters. The piazza was not designed by Brunelleschi, as is sometimes reported in guide books.

Check out “National Archaeological Museum of Florence”

This square doesn’t find itself on many mainstream itineraries but, for a very long time, it was actually the heart of the city and, even today, the piazza is a crossroad for those going to the train station, the Duomo or Piazza Beccaria.

This open, peaceful and airy space, one of the few spaces in Florence that was purposely built in the Renaissance style (which meant that it embraces the idea of a “Utopian society”- ordered and accessible to all men), was designed to be appreciated for its elegance and harmonizing colors.

Equestrian Statue of Ferdinando I

The massive and life size bronze equestrian statue of Ferdinand I of Tuscany (Ferdinando I de’ Medici), astride a stallion, was executed by noted sculptor  Giambologna  (who had, by now, reached international fame for his equestrian statues), was cast in 1602 using bronze from cannons on Turkish galleys captured in war, and was placed in the square in 1608.

Fountains of the Marine Monsters

The Fountains of the Marine Monsters are two Late Mannerist-style fountains, with fantastical figures, all works completed by the late-Renaissance sculptor Pietro Tacca (1577-1640), a loyal student and successor to Giambologna.

Tacca was asked to design them to decorate the port of Livorno, near the Monument of the Four Moors (“Quattro Mori”) he had created between 16th and 17th century. However, in 1641 Ferdinando II, the grandson to Ferdinando I insisted that the two fountains remain in Florence where they still are today.

In addition to the square, there are several important structures to visit – the Palazzo Budini Gattai, the Loggia dei Servi di Maria, the aforementioned National Archeological Museum, the Ospedale degli Innocenti and the Palazzo delle Due Fontane. The piazza’s eastern side is defined by the Ospedale degli Innocenti, the wet by Loggia dei Servi di Maria, and the north by the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata

Basilica della Santissima Annunziata

The Renaissance-style Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, considered the mother church of the Servite Order, was founded in 1250. The facade was added in 1601 by the architect Giovanni Battista Caccini, imitating the Renaissance-style of Brunelleschi‘s facade of the Ospedale degli Innocenti.

Ospedale degli Innocenti

The historic Spedale degli Innocenti, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi (he received the commission in 1419 from the Arte della Seta or Silk Guild of Florence), is regarded as a notable example of early Italian Renaissance architecture.  Originally a children’s orphanage and hospital, it features a nine bay loggia facing the piazza.   Today, it houses a small museum of Renaissance art with works by Luca della Robbia, Sandro Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo and an Adoration of the Magi by Domenico Ghirlandaio. In 2016, it was restored and restructured.

Palazzo Budini Gattai

The Palazzo Budini Gattai (also known as Palazzo Grifoni), an aristocratic red-brick residence dating from the 16th century, was begun by Giuliano di Baccio d’Agnolo (a pupil of Michelangelo) and was continued, on his death, by Bartolomeo Ammannati, who probably also designed the Italian-style garden laid out in around 1573. At the end of the 18th century, the Grifoni family line died out and the property passed into the hands of the Riccardi family and finally to the Budini Gattai, the present owners of the property.

Why is the last window on the right hand side, at the second floor of Palazzo Budini-Gattai, always open?  Well, according to a legend, the Grand Duke Ferdinand I was called to the army to fight a war with the noble and patrician families of Florence and he had to leave Bianca Cappello, his beautiful young bride of a few months, who gave him the last greeting from the window of the palace. She waited for the return of her beloved husband, spending her days embroidering, and sitting on an armchair beside the window overlooking the square, never giving up hope until the day she died. 

Upon her death, the family carried her body out and closed the window only to find themselves haunted by a frenzy of books flying, furniture dancing, paintings falling down and the lights going out. From that day forward the window remains open, just in case he comes home. Another version tells about the neighborhood of the square who, moved by that sad love story, decided to keep the window open in memory of the woman,

The arches and columns of the Loggia dei Servi di Maria, the romantic loggia (or portico) next to the Palazzo Budini Gattai, complete the symmetry in the square.  It was built, between 1516-1525, on a design created by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder.  Originally, Brunelleschi intended for the circles between the columns on the Loggia for the Hospital to remain empty but, Andrea della Robbia (selected in 1490, long after Brunelleschi’s demise) decorated the six frontal and 4 lateral concaves.

Loggia dei Servi di Maria

The 10 tondi (medallions) have the standard light blue background, with white putti, dressed in swaddling cloth, to represent the abandoned children and orphans. Originally built for the mendicant order, today the Servi di Maria, together with Palazzo Budini Gattai, are now a hotel.

Palazzo delle Due Fontane

Palazzo delle Due Fontane, between via dei Servi and via dei Fibbiai, was originally a building of ancient construction, reconfigured between the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century to provide an adequate backdrop to the square. Its relatively recent façade repeats, while simplifying them, the shapes and colors of the nearby Palazzo Budini Gattai. The building is currently occupied by the Albergo le Due Fontane, an accommodation facility. The ground floor, in particular, has a stone ashlar.

Piazza della Santissima Annunziata: Florence, Italy.

Michaelerplatz (Vienna, Austria)

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Michaelerplatz

The most common way to enter the Hofburg, one of the world’s biggest palace complexes, is from the extremely irregular, cobblestoned  Michaelerplatz (St. Michael’s Square), a major pick-up point for tours by fiaker  (horse-drawn carriages). An amazing display of the mixed Austrian architectural historical styles, the square (its actually circular) has had its name since around 1850. The square is dominated by the impressive Neo-Baroque Michaelertor (Michael’s Gate), the entrance gate to the Hofburg.

Michaelertor

Here’s the historical timeline of the square:

  • In 1725, the square was redesigned around the plans of Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlachs for the Michaeler wing of the Hofburg
  • In 1729, construction on the left wing began but stagnated during the last years of the reign of Emperor Charles VI. 
  • In autumn 1838, Vienna’s first public gas lighting was installed at the Michaelerplatz via a gas (the gas came from the Roßau gas works via a line)  candelabrum with six flames set up by entrepreneur Georg Pfendler, founder and director of the “Austrian Society for Lighting with Gas.”
  • From 1889 to 1893, the Baroque plans were realized by Austrian architect Ferdinand Kirschner when the old Hoftheater (castle theater), the predecessor of today’s Burgtheater, standing in the middle of the square was demolished in 1888.
  • In 1927, Vienna’s first roundabout was set up at Michaelerplatz.

Palais Herberstein and Looshaus in the background with the Roman Ruins in the foreground

At the center of the square is an open area with the excavated and now exposed ruins of a Roman house as well as some medieval foundations and remains of the former Burgtheater, all seen from street level. A number of remarkable buildings are grouped around the Michaelerplatz.

Check out “Roman Ruins“

Michaelertrakt

The Michaelertrakt, with its curving façade and 50 m. high dome,  dominates the façade of the palace which faces the centre of the city. One of the most exuberant wings of the imperial palace, it was completed in 1893 by Ferdinand Kirschner following the original Baroque design of Josef Emanuel Fischer von Erlach von Erlach in the 1720s. At the center of this wing is the monumental Michaelertor gate, leading through the Michaelertrakt, to the Hofburg’s inner courtyard.

Statue of Hercules Fighting Antaeus (Lorenzo Mattielli)

Along the sides of the three entrances are colossal statues of Hercules and on both sides of the doorway are large 19th-century wall fountains with sculpture groups done by artists who were alumni of the Akademie der bildenden Künste (“Academy of Fine Arts”).

Statue of Labor of Hercules (Lorenzo Mattielli)

The fountain on the right, known as the Macht zu Lande (“Power on Land”) was designed in 1897 by Edmund von Hellmer and symbolizes the Austrian army. The fountain on the left, known as the Macht zur See (“Power at Sea”), was sculpted in 1895 by Rudolf Weyr and symbolizes the Austrian naval power.

Power at Sea Fountain (Rudolf Weyr)

Opposite the Michaelertor is the grand Michaelerkirche (St Michael’s Church), the oldest building at Michaelerplatz (which lends its name to the square itself) and considered as one of the most historically and culturally significant church buildings in Vienna.  The former parish church of the Austrian imperial court, it is one of the oldest Baroque churches in the city.

Michaelerkirche (St. Michael’s Church)

Originally built in 1221, it was regularly expanded and modified to such an extent that it now consists of an amalgam of architectural styles and its present Neo-Classic facade originated in 1792. Its Baroque porch is topped by Baroque sculpture group, depicting the Fall of the Angels, created by Lorenzo Mattielli. The still Gothic tower dates from the fourteenth century.

The church’s Baroque porch

The Baroque interior is decorated with 14th-century and Renaissance frescoes.  The magnificent, vividly carved, gilded organ, the largest in Vienna, was built by Johann David Sieber in 1714 and was once played by Joseph Haydn.

Fall of the Angels (Lorenzo Mattielli)

At the crypt (only be accessed in company of a guide, the catacombs entrance is off the north choir), you can viewed, in open coffins, well preserved (made intact due to the consistent climate) bodies of parishioners buried here between the 15th and 18th centuries and clothed in their burial finery.

Looshaus

When walking towards Michaelertrakt, we hardly noticed the Looshaus (Michaelerplatz 3), one of Vienna’s first modern buildings, opposite the Michaelertor. Built from 1911 – 1912, it was designed by Adolf Loos  who was influenced by the nascent skyscraper architecture that he had seen on a trip to the United States He employed a business-like style, with straight lines and little or no decoration.

This building, considered an eye sore back in the day, caused quite a controversy and an outcry due to its modern but rather simple, unadorned façade void of decorations, very unusual in Baroque Vienna, so much so that construction was even temporarily halted and only allowed to continue after Loos promised to decorate the facade with balcony flower boxes. Still, the starkly functional upper facade contrasted dramatically with the nearby fine ornate Baroque architecture.

Raiffeisenbank (Looshaus)

The building caused so much outrage on the part of the Emperor Franz-Joseph I who despised the modern façade of the Looshaus.  Declaring that he would never use the Michaelertor ever again, it is said that the curtains in the wing opposite the Looshaus were always closed so that the emperor wouldn’t have to look at it. Today, the Looshaus is a working bank and is considered a groundbreaking example of modern architecture.  Visitors are only allowed into the lobby to view the elegant, richly clad interior of polished timber, green marble and mirrors.

Palais Herberstein

Sitting just across from the Looshaus, opposite Herrengasse, is the  more conventional Palais Herberstein (Michaelerplatz 2). Built in 1896-1897, it replaced the Palais Dietrichstein-Herberstein, an older structure which was famous for its Café Griensteidl, where a group of young poets, artisans and writers known as Jung-Wien gathered on a regular basis.

Café Griensteidl

The café moved to the nearby Café Central in Palace Ferstel, now the most famous of all cafés in Vienna. In 1990 a new, reconstructed Griensteidl Café opened in Palais Herberstein.

Vicky, Manny, Grace, Jandy, Cheska and Freddie at Michaelerplatz

Michaelerplatz: Vienna, Austria.

Volksgarten (Vienna, Austria)

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The free, accessible  Volksgarten (“People’s Garden”), a lovingly maintained public park and garden in the Innere Stadt first district of , offers a relaxing atmosphere in the center of Vienna to the citizens and tourists.  Originally used for fortifications, the park was built over the city fortifications (Burgbastei) that were destroyed by Napoleon in 1809. Part of the Hofburg Palace, it is located directly beside the Heldenplatz and the Hofburg buildings.

Check out “Hofburg Palace“

Volksgarten (People’s Garden)

The Volksgarten area, designed in the manner of the Luxembourg Garden in Paris, was laid out in the French Baroque style in 1821 by Ludwig van Remy and its gardening design was done by court gardener Franz Antoine. Now often used by wedding photographers for its romantic scenery, the park is famous for its beautiful rose gardens (with over 3,000 rose bushes of about 400 different cultivars of roses) shady alleys and comfortable park chairs and benches.

Grace, Vicky, Cheska and Kyle at the Volksgarten

Here’s the historical timeline of the park:

  • Between 1596 and 1597, a fortress wall was built on the eastern side of park.
  • In 1639, additional fortifications were built on the southern side.
  • In 1809, these fortifications were destroyed by Napoleon’s French troops.
  • Between 1817 and 1821, the area near Ballhausplatz square was converted to gardens originally intended for a private garden for the archdukes. These plans were changed through a proposal by the court garden administration to turn the area into the first public park in the city.
  • On March 1, 1823, the park was officially opened to the public.
  • Starting in 1825, the name Volksgarten was commonly used.
  • In 1862, the gardens were extended toward Ringstraße after the city moat had been filled in.

The white, shining, Neo-Classical Theseus Temple (Theseustempel), a particularly impressive photo scene at the center of the park, is a small-scale replica of the Temple of Hephaestus (Theseion) in Athens. Designed by Pietro di Nobile and completed in 1821, it was originally designed to house the sculpture, of Antonio Canova (who was also involved in the construction of the temple), of Theseus Battling the Centaur.  In 1890, Canova’s sculpture at the Theseus Temple was moved to the Museum of Fine Arts.

Temple of Theseus (Theseustempel)

The park has a couple of cafes.  The Cortisches coffee house, built between 1820 and 1823 by Peter Nobile was where Austrian Romantic composers and waltz kings Johann Strauss I and Joseph Lanner performed.  The Cafè Meierei, an excellent place to interrupt your walk, was originally built in 1890 as a water reservoir and converted to a milk drinking hall (Milchtrinkhalle) in 1924. Here, you can have a breakfast, a snack or a wiener melange- (coffee with milk).  The Milchpavillon was built in 1951 by Oswald Haerdtl.

The Sisi (Empress Elizabeth) Monument, at the northern end of the park, was designed by Hans Bitterlich and Friedrich Ohmann and completed in 1907. A 2.5 m. high statue of a seated Empress Elisabeth, at the center of the monument, was sculpted by Hans Bitterlich from an 8,000 kg. block of Laaser marble. The monument was dedicated on June 4, 1907 in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.

Jandy

The Franz Grillparzer Monument, at the southern end of the park, has the seated marble figure of Austrian poet and writer Franz Grillparzer  sculpted by Carl Kundmann and completed in 1875.  He is shown in contemplation holding a book in his left hand.

The Volksgarten contains two fountains – the Triton and Nymphenbrunnen (Nymph Fountain, built in 1880 by Viktor Tilgner) and the Volksgarten Fountain (erected in 1866 by Anton Dominik Fernkorn).

Café Meierei: Open 9 AM – 9 PM (April – September).
Volksgarten: Dr. K. Lueger Ring, 1010 Vienna, Austria. Open 6 AM – 10 PM (April – October) and 7 AM -5:30 PM (November – March).  Website: www.bundesgaerten.at.

How to Get There: there’s a tram stop (Ring/Volkstheater) and subway station (Volkstheater) outside, served by the U2 and U3 train lines and the 1, 2, D, 46, 49, and 71 trams.  Entrances are available from Heldenplatz, Burgtheater and Ringstrasse across from the Austrian Parlament (a 3-min. walk).