Wittelsbacher
Fountain
Adolf von Hildebrand's monumental fountain of 1895 — donated to mark the opening of the Mangfall water pipeline. Allegorical double figure: a man tames a horse ("taming element"), a woman with bull and bowl ("giving element").
Sculpture in the urban space
Adolf von Hildebrand (1847–1921), one of the most influential German sculptors around 1900, created the Wittelsbacher Fountain on Maximiliansplatz in 1893–1895 — donated by the City of Munich as a monument marking the 1883 opening of the Mangfall water pipeline, which brought Munich high-quality drinking water from the Alps. Material: tufa and bronze. Two allegorical figure groups flank the basin: a naked rider tames a horse ("the taming element", symbol of the power of water); a woman with a bull and water bowl ("the giving element", symbol of life-giving force).
The fountain is regarded as a significant example, in the history of architecture and sculpture, of the late Munich school and is today one of the central landmarks of Maximiliansplatz.
Further reading.
More in the
University Quarter.
The other buildings of the area — galleries, museums, classicism, industrial history.