Johann Strauss Monument

The Johann Strauss Monument, located in Vienna’s Stadtpark, is one of the city’s most photographed landmarks.It was built close to the Kursalon Hübner in honor of the “Waltz King” Johann Strauss Sohn.

The gilded bronze statue on a marble base depicts the Viennese waltz king standing with a violin in his hand in front of a Lasa marble arch with reliefs of leaves and floating lovers.

Four years after Strauss’ death, a commission led by Princess Rosa Croy-Sternberg (1836-1918) was formed to create a memorial to the composer.The Franz-Josefs-Kai was originally proposed as the installation site, and it wasn’t until 1907 that the current position in the municipal park was selected.The Vienna City Council pledged a cost share of 10,000 crowns in 1905, but it was only paid out in 1913.The committee launched a competition in 1906.Sculptors Franz Metzner and Edmund Hellmer, as well as architect Alfred Castelliz (1870-1940), took part in it, and the proposal was unanimously accepted by the committee.

The execution was repeatedly postponed, on one hand due to financial issues and on the other due to the onset of the First World War.The Vienna City Council authorized a bigger payment on January 23, 1920, and the formal unveiling took place on June 26, 1921, with the Vienna Philharmonic performing among other things.

The Strauss statue’s damaged gilding was removed in 1935, and it wasn’t until 1991 that the monument’s original state was restored. A thorough rehabilitation or refurbishment from the foundation to the ostrich statue was done in 2011, costing roughly 300,000 euros.

Replicas of the monument have been shown at Osaka (Japan) since Expo 1990, Kunming (China) since Expo 1999, Havana’s Parque de Los Colegiales since 2002, and in front of the Shanghai Tower from 2016.