Latte a cheescake

---

“Latte a cheescake” (Latte and cheesecake) by Veronika Psotková, 2023
U Sovových mlýnů, Malá Strana
Prague, September 2024

“She later discovered that it is possible to form sculptures from rabit mesh without a supporting structure to which she would transfer the sculpture, but she cuts, shapes and sews the rabit mesh directly into "shells" - spatial "drawings" and only uses the frame for larger objects, which she later removes. She lets the sculptures made of technical mesh grow with the natural color of rust, or repaints them and fixes them with varnish. For exterior sculptures, she also uses hot-dip galvanized mesh (‘Latte a cheescake’, Kampa Prague, 2023).” (Veronika Psotková, Wikipedia)

Memoria e Luce

---

“Memoria e Luce” (Memory and Light) by David Libeskind, 2005
Via Giotto
Padua, May 2025

“The ‘Memoria e Luce’ is a memorial located in Padua, Italy for victims of the 9/11 attacks on New York City. A twisted steel beam salvaged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, which was donated by the United States to the Veneto Region and in turn to the City of Padua, was used to realize the design of an open and luminous book.” (Memoria e Luce, 9/11 Memorial, Studio Libeskind)

Kölner Philharmonie

---

Kölner Philharmonie
Bischofsgartenstraße
Cologne, September 2024

“The Kölner Philharmonie is a symphonic concert hall located in Cologne, Germany. It is part of the building ensemble of the Museum Ludwig and was opened in 1986. The Kölner Philharmonie is located close to the Cologne Cathedral and the Cologne Main Station. The ensemble was designed by the architects Busmann + Haberer in the 1980s. Roughly 400 concerts are performed annually with approximately 600,000 visitors. The Kölner Philharmonie is the home base for the Gürzenich Orchester Köln and the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln. The concert hall was made like an Amphitheatre, to get a close to perfect room acoustic. Therefore, there are no walls which are in parallel to each other, to produce no echo. Size and art of the padding for the seats (the seats were made by the German manufacturer Recaro, which is known for making car [sports] seats) is selected in a way, that the acoustic quieting is constant, independently of the fact if the seat is used by a person or not. The hall has no columns in it and has place for 2,000 people. The size of the hall gives some problems: The hall is below the public Heinrich-Böll square. Walking noise from people with stiletto heels or driving noise from skateboards or trolleys can be heard in the hall. Due to this reason, the town square is closed during performance.” (Kölner Philharmonie, Wikipedia)

Usho

---

“Usho” (Cormorant Fisherman) by Kosei Tateno, 1982
Piazza Gavinana
Florence, December 2024

“A Japanese man in the traditional costume of a fisherman, leans over a basket holding the neck of a cormorant, a sea-bird, with his proper right hand as he rests his proper left hand on the bird's back. The bird is standing on the lid of a basket. The man wears sandals, a long pleated skirt, a rope and belt at his waist, an apron-like bib, and a long-sleeved shirt. A pointed scarf covers his hair and is tied over his forehead. The sculpture is mounted on a short base that sits on a concrete pad.” (Cormorant Fisherman, Smithsonian)

Ein Haus für Goethe

---

“Ein Haus für Goethe” (A House for Goethe) by Eduardo Chillida, 1986
Taunusanlage
Frankfurt, September 2024

“With his architectural sculpture, sculptor Eduardo Chillida raises several questions. It is far removed from the usual monuments to great poets and thinkers: concrete instead of bronze, abstract forms and geometric structures instead of figurative representation. Indeed, the work connects to a completely different point than the monument tradition: It belongs to a group of works by Chillida that includes homages to well-known artists, scientists, and philosophers. With ‘Ein Haus für Goethe’, Chillida provides the public with unique access to Goethe and his works: He created a space that is open at the front and therefore accessible. This house also does not have a roof—perhaps the artist was thinking of Goethe's interest in ‘light’ and didn't want to exclude this from a house for Goethe... Several monuments to poets have been erected within the ramparts. A brief comparison of the Schiller Monument and the Heine Monument with ‘Ein Haus für Goethe’, which you can find in the text on the first-mentioned object, demonstrates how different the artistic interpretations can be.” (Ein Haus für Goethe, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Frankfurt)

Fountain of Madonna Verona

---

Fountain of Madonna Verona, 1368
Piazza delle Erbe
Verona, May 2025

“The square's most ancient monument is the fountain (built in 1368 by Cansignorio della Scala), surmounted by a statue called Madonna Verona, which is however a Roman sculpture dating to 380 AD. Also historical is the capitello, dating to the 13th century, during which it was used for several ceremonies, including the oath of investment of the city's medieval podestà and pretors. Towards Via Cappello is another column, with a 14th-century aedicula with reliefs of the Virgin and the Saints Zeno, Peter and Christopher.” (Piazza delle Erbe, Wikipedia)

Rathausbrunnen

---

Rathausbrunnen (Town Hall Fountain) by Georg Wrba, 1908
Burgplatz
Leipzig, September 2024

“On Burgplatz, in front of the entrance to the Ratskeller, is the Town Hall Fountain, which was dedicated on October 7, 1908, the third anniversary of the inauguration of the New Town Hall. Since the completion of its complete renovation in 1999, the fountain has been in operation again after a five-year hiatus. The Town Hall Fountain was financed by Leipzig citizens and designed by the Dresden sculptor Georg Wrba (1872–1939). It consists of an octagonal water basin made of shell limestone, with a round column at its center. Attached to this column is the ‘Fairytale Wreath’, decorated with small figures from German fairy tales. Atop the column stands a group of bronze figures consisting of a life-size youth playing the flute and two boys playing at his feet. This makes the fairytale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin the central motif of the fountain, which is why it is also called the ‘Pied Piper Fountain’.” (Fountain in Leipzig, Wikipedia)

Santa Maria dei Servi

---

Santa Maria dei Servi
Piazza delle Biade
Vicenza, May 2025

“Santa Maria in Foro, known as the Church of the Servi, is a church in Vicenza located in Piazza Biade, a small square adjacent to Piazza dei Signori. Its construction was begun in the early fifteenth century by the order of the Servants of Mary. The church's portal was made by the workshop where Andrea Palladio worked at the beginning of his career and could be one of his very first works. The construction of the current building of the church of Santa Maria in Foro was begun on a pre-existing building after 1404, the year in which Vicenza came under the dominion of the Republic of Venice.” (Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Servi, Wikipedia)

Johanneum

---

Johanneum (Dresden Transport Museum)
Jüdenhof
Dresden, September 2024

“The Johanneum is a Renaissance building, originally desingated as Stallgebäude mit Harnischkammer because it was constructed as the elite part of the electoral mews. It was the first museum of modern times built in 1586-1588 and is located at the Neumarkt in Dresden. Today the Johanneum is home to the Dresden Transport Museum (Verkehrsmuseum Dresden), which displays vehicles of all modes of transport and their history. The Johanneum was built between 1586 and 1590 as Stallgebäude mit Harnischkammer, the elite stables of the adjacent Dresden Castle. The two halls on the building's ground floor provided space for 128 expensive riding-art horses imported in part from Italy. The stands for the horses were decorated with spectacular horse-paintings, modeled after the Sala dei cavalli in Mantua's Palazzo Té. In the stable, that was designed as a princely exhibition of elite horses, 35 rooms were lavishly decorated to contain horse and rider figurines, elaborate sleighs as well as an expensive arms collection of the Saxon Electors. Later also stuffed horses, a stuffed bear and wax figurines of the electors were exhibited. One of the exhibited horses, the Merseburger, became famous for its 8 m long mane.” (Johanneum, Wikipedia)

Basilica del Carmine

---

Basilica del Carmine
Piazza Petrarca
Padua, May 2025

“The Basilica del Carmine is a 16th-century Roman Catholic church located on piazza Francesco Petrarca in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. It was made a minor basilica in 1960 by pope John XXIII. The church and an attached monastery were founded by an order of Carmelite monks, hence the name. The order became established in Padua by the late 13th-century, and we have the first documentation of a church at the site by 1212. The adjacent monastery was refurbished in 1295, and the church was rebuilt in 1335 under the design of Lorenzo da Bologna. It was consecrated as Santa Maria del Carmine in 1446. In 1491, an earthquake nearly razed the building, requiring reconstruction in 1494. The bare brick facade only gained partial marble facing in the 18th-century; formerly, the facade had an open loggia. The church structure suffered various damaging events over the centuries, including another earthquake collapsing the roof in 1696; a fire during festivities burned the cupola in 1800; and two aerial bombardments hit the church, in 1917 and 1944.” (Basilica del Carmine, Wikipedia)

Dívka s amforou

---

“Dívka s amforou” (Girl with an amphora) by Jaroslav Horejc, 1956
Nosticova zahrada (Nostic Garden)
Maltézské náměstí, Malá Strana
Prague, September 2024

“The ‘Girl with an amphora’ is a white marble sculpture in the exterior of the Nostic Garden, near the Čertovka canal in Lesser Town of Prague. It is a nude of a half-naked slender girl sitting on a stone and holding an amphora on her right shoulder. The author of the work in the Art Deco style is the Czech Prague academic sculptor Jaroslav Horejc (1886–1983). The sculpture is placed on a low sandstone block plinth. The work is in the care of the Gallery of the City of Prague. The first version of the work was created in 1938 and was made of plaster. Later, the author also created a bronze work and finally, in 1956, a marble version of the work was created. In 1980 or 1983, the work was placed in the Nostic Garden. In 2002, the work was restored.” (Dívka s amforou, Wikipedia)

San Bartolomeo a Ripoli

---

Abbey of San Bartolomeo a Ripoli
Via di Ripoli
Florence, December 2024

"The Abbey of San Bartolomeo a Ripoli is located in the locality of Badia a Ripoli, in the municipality of Florence. ‘Badia’ is a popular contraction of the word abbey. In Florence and its surroundings there have existed five abbeys, located as if at the cardinal points of the city: to the north the Badia Fiesolana, to the west the Badia a Settimo, to the south the Abbey of San Miniato, to the east the Badia a Ripoli and in the centre the Badia fiorentina." (Abbey of San Bartolomeo a Ripoli, Wikipedia)

Edith Stein Memorial

---

Edith Stein Memorial by sculptor Bert Gerresheim, 1999
Börsenplatz
Cologne, September 2024

“The memorial was created in 1999 by sculptor Bert Gerresheim and shows the different phases of Edith Stein's life: as a Jewish girl with the Star of David, as a philosopher searching for the truth and as a baptised Carmelite following Christ. Edith Stein's personal ordeal is depicted by the numerous shoe prints, shoes and concentration camp numbers, which also represent the countless people murdered in the concentration camps. Edith Stein was born on 12 October 1891 to Jewish parents in Breslau. Among other things, she studied philosophy, converted to Catholicism and worked as a teacher until she was banned from her profession. In 1933, she joined the Carmelite Order in Cologne and took the name Theresia Benedicta a Cruce. Due to her origins and her commitment against the persecution of Jewish citizens, she had to flee from the National Socialists to the Netherlands. Edith Stein and her sister Rosa Stein were arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered in the gas chamber on 9 August 1942. Edith Stein's willingness to make sacrifices for the Jewish people and the Catholic faith prompted Pope John Paul II to beatify her in Cologne on 1 May 1987. The canonisation then took place on 11 October 1998 in Rome.” (Edith Stein Memorial, Cologne Tourist Board)

Torre del Gardello

---

Torre del Gardello
Piazza delle Erbe
Verona, May 2025

“The Gardello Tower is a medieval structure located in Verona, near the central Piazza delle Erbe. At the point where the Gardello tower stands, there was previously a tower house, most likely belonging to the Gardello family, from which it would have inherited its name. This tower was restored and raised in 1370 by Cansignorio della Scala, perhaps to a design by Giovanni da Ferrara or his son; the Scaliger prince had it erected, together with the bell clock that was installed there, to promote the prestige of the family and the city. With this intervention the building assumed its substantially definitive appearance, even if it underwent further work in 1626, when the structure was slightly raised by the construction of a truncated cone roof, which gave it its final height of 44 metres.” (Torre del Gardello, Wikipedia)

Heine-Denkmal

---

Heine-Denkmal (Heine Monument) by Georg Kolbe, 1913
Friedberger Anlage
Frankfurt, September 2024

“The Heinrich Heine Memorial in the Wallanlagen park of Frankfurt am Main, built in 1913, is the first and only representative monument to the poet Heinrich Heine, who died in 1856 , in Germany. It was erected with the help of public funds and survived both the terror of the Nazi era and the Second World War largely unscathed. The bronze sculpture of a striding young man and a young woman seated at his feet, created by the sculptor Georg Kolbe, is an allegory of the youthfulness and lightness of Heine's poetry. The group of figures, a typical work of Art Nouveau, stands on a shell limestone base, to which a bronze relief, also designed by Kolbe, depicts the poet's profile and name.” (Heinrich-Heine-Denkmal, Wikipedia)

Torre Bissara

---

Torre Bissara
Piazza dei Signori
Vicenza, May 2025

“Torre Bissara is a tower in Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza, Italy. Bissara Tower is a civic tower that overlooks Piazza dei Signori, alongside the famous Basilica Palladiana. At 82 meters high, it is one of the tallest buildings in Vicenza. The earliest records date back to 1174 when the tower was built at the behest of the family Bissari, next to their palazzo. Between 1211 and 1229 the municipality of Vicenza bought both the building (with the intention of turning it into the mayor's office) and the tower. The tower was not damaged in the terrible earthquake of January 25, 1347. In the mid- fifteenth century the tower was raised to the present height. The relics of saints and five bells were placed inside. Over the centuries, many interventions were done to maintain the stability and beauty of the tower. The history of the city is described in its stones: on top there is a headless statue of the goddess Athena from the Roman era; almost at the top there is the marble bas-relief of the Lion of Saint Mark, symbol of the Serenissima; at the base is a triumphal arch with the war memoria. On 18 March 1945, the tower (along with the Palladian Basilica) was hit in an Anglo-American bombing raid. The top of the tower caught fire and the dome collapsed to the ground: the tower was severed. The bells also had fallen off, destroying the pavement of the square. Together with the Basilica, in the years after the tower was rebuilt, not without controversy concerning the form, in part different from the original. Not all of the bells were also relocated, nor the ball indicating the moon's phases (which was placed under the clock).” (Torre Bissara, Wikipedia)

Löwenbrunnen

---

Löwenbrunnen (Lions Fountain)
Naschmarkt
Leipzig, September 2024

“The Löwenbrunnen (Lions Fountain) located on the Naschmarkt opposite the main entrance of the Mädler Passage dates back to 1918. Several previous fountains had existed on the same site since 1690. The first fountain is known to have been surrounded by three steps and decorated with mythical maritime creatures and sandstone reliefs. Atop the painted copper cap was a pyramid crowned by a golden sun. Around 1820, the two iron lions and the pump handles, which still exist today, were cast in Lauchhammer according to designs by the Berlin sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow. Their arrangement was adopted in 1918, when the Löwenbrunnen received its present appearance according to plans by Leipzig's chief building inspector Hugo Licht. This is commemorated in gold-colored capital letters on the back of the fountain: ‘In the last year of the war, 1918, this fountain was rebuilt by the council in its original form with its wooden casing by the architect Dr. Ing. Hugo Licht. The funds for this were donated by Commercial Councillor Hugo Haschke’.” (Fountain in Leipzig, Wikipedia)

Torre di Ezzelino

---

Torre di Ezzelino (Ezzelino Tower)
Via Petrarca
Padua, May 2025

“Known as the ‘Torre di Ezzelino’ (Ezzelino Tower), the building is located on the corner between Via Petrarca and Via Savonarola, near the Ponte Molino. The architectural elements of the first phase allow us to date its construction to the 13th century. It is more difficult to link it to the figure of Ezzelino even if numerous references in written sources refer to the tyrant's relationship with this district of the city.” (Torre di Ezzelino, ARMEP)

Erich-Kästner-Denkmal

---

Erich-Kästner-Denkmal (Erich Kästner Memorial) by Wolf-Eike Kuntsche, 1987
Albertplatz
Dresden, September 2024

“This memorial is dedicated to the Dresden writer Erich Kästner. A collage of the things that characterized him, it is intended to bring the viewer closer to the man behind the nationally renowned author. Several of his books are stacked in a tower, with Kästner's hat on top. Surrounding the tower are writing utensils, a teacup, a copy of the Neue Zeitung newspaper, founded by Kästner in Munich in 1945, and an open book with the author's biographical details and the motto "There is nothing good unless you do it." A biographical and literary connection to the site is created by a block bearing the words "And I myself, whatever I became, always remained one, a child of Königsbrücker Straße" (1977) and a framed childhood picture as a reference to Kästner's Dresden childhood, which he documented in "When I was a little boy" (1957). The sculpture was created in 1987, before the establishment of the Kästner Museum (1999), and can be considered the first memorial to Erich Kästner in Dresden.” (Erich-Kästner-Denkmal, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden)

The Fantomatik Orchestra

---

The Fantomatik Orchestra
Via Palazzuolo
Florence, December 2024

“The Fantomatik Orchestra is a musical project born in Tuscany in 1993 as a funky, soul and rhythm'n'blues group, with ethnic, pop and dance influences. In 2001 the band took an important turn: the stage group became a marching band, in the style of American street bands. The band, composed of more than 14 musicians, immediately managed to impose itself on public attention also thanks to the choice to constantly renew its repertoire by seeking new sounds and new ideas. Over the years the Fantomatik Orchestra has played on the streets and on the stages of many Italian and international capitals; it has introduced concerts of great artists, has participated in broadcasts, theatrical and cinematographic events, developing an original identity, which makes it resemble neither the traditional village band, nor the classic street band or American marching band.” (The Fantomatik Orchestra)

Svatý Václav

---

Svatý Václav (Saint Wenceslas) by Vincenc Vosmík, 1906
Ke Hradu, Malá Strana
Prague, September 2024

“Wenceslaus I (Czech: Václav; c. 907 – 28 September 935), Wenceslas I or Václav the Good was the Prince (kníže) of Bohemia from 921 until his death, probably in 935. According to the legend, he was assassinated by his younger brother, Boleslaus the Cruel. His martyrdom and the popularity of several biographies gave rise to a reputation for heroic virtue that resulted in his sainthood. He was posthumously declared to be a king and patron saint of the Czech state. He is the subject of the well-known ‘Good King Wenceslas’ , a carol for Saint Stephen's Day.” (Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Wikipedia)