Neptune Fountain

The Neptune Fountain at Schönbrunn Palace Park was erected between 1778 and 1780 as part of Empress Maria Theresa’s remodelling of the complex.Without the figures, the fountain is about a hundred meters long, over fifty meters broad, and a little more than seven meters high.

The fountain is located on the major axis between the Palace and the Gloriette, on the outskirts of the Great Parterre, which the larger-than-life statues seal off while emphasizing the transition to the hill.

It consists of a big basin enclosed by a curving retaining wall against the hill.In the center lies a man-made rocky grotto, and above it rides Neptune, god of the sea, in a shell chariot propelled by his trident.

The sea nymph Thetis, Achilles’ mother, kneels at his right.She requests from Neptune a sea storm to prevent Helen from being kidnapped by the Trojan prince Paris and taken to Troy.Knowing that her son would die young in the Trojan battle, she attempts to convince the sea god to avoid the battle and therefore preserve her son’s life.At Neptune’s feet is a nymph holding a cornucopia, symbolizing the gushing wealth of the oceans.Four tritons, the tamers of the hippocamps (sea horses), drag Neptune’s chariot around the main group.The original seven groups of figures (in addition to the main group with Neptune and the four triton groups, two groups of naiads that were to be set up in the basin) caused debate and some official correspondence: the naiad groups were so small in comparison to the others that they were placed in the two basins of the eastern and western rondels (now Rundes and Sternenbecken).Beyer was accused of doing this on purpose in order to prevent other sculptors from working on these basins with a fait accompli.

Neptune, the god of the oceans, used as a metaphor for the sovereign dominating his land in art from the 16th through the 18th century.

A brick vault with walls up to one and a half meters thick beneath the fountain and a connecting tunnel to the back Glorietteteich are accessible through a structure constructed into the slope behind the fountain.A gravity line sends the water from there to the Neptune fountain.Because of a scarcity of water, the fountain was only utilized on rare occasions and not at all following each of the two world wars.Only since the most recent full rehabilitation of the well has there been a water cycle, allowing for continuous operation.