Maria-Theresa Memorial

The Maria Theresa Monument is Vienna’s most prominent ruler’s monument of the Habsburg era.It honors Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Emperor Franz I Stephan of Lorraine’s wife and, since 1765, Dowager Empress.From 1740 to 1780, she controlled the Habsburg kingdom. Since 1888, the monument has stood on Maria-Theresien-Platz on Vienna’s Ringstrasse ( Burgring ), between the court museums of the time, the Art History Museum, which opened in 1891, and the Natural History Museum, which opened in 1889, against the backdrop of the former court stables, now the Museumsquartier.The ensemble monument, together with the Triton and Naiad fountains, is part of Vienna’s World Heritage Historic Center.

The three artists Johannes Benk, Carl Kundmann, and Caspar Zumbusch submitted ideas for the statues in 1874.Emperor Franz Joseph I picked Zumbusch, who worked on the bronze statues with his pupil Anton Brenek for almost 13 years and weighed a total of 44 tons.The monument’s architecture was created by Carl von Hasenauer.

The monument has a base area of 632 m2 and is 19.36 m high, with the sitting statue of the empress standing at 6 m on top.The base and chain stand are built of Mauthausen granite from Enghagen in Upper Austria, the pedestal and base of brown hornblende granite from Petersburg-Jeschitz near Pilsen in Bohemia, and the columns of serpentinite from Wiesen near Sterzing in South Tyrol.

Alfred von Arneth, director of the Imperial House, Court, and State Archives, created the substantive program for the monument.The monarch sits atop her throne, holding a scepter and the Pragmatic Sanction, the state and constitutional pact that allowed her to govern in the Habsburg hereditary domains and Hungary as a woman, and welcoming the people with her right hand.On the cornice encircling the throne, four female figures represent the cardinal qualities of justice, strength, mildness, and wisdom.