Beauty Belongs in the Public Square

In recent days, Vienna unveiled its newest fountain. With the mayor of the city and the president of Austria in attendance, the fountain was introduced as a monument to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the city’s water system. Could there be a more fitting way to commemorate such a system than with a fountain? It seems not. There’s just one problem: the style of the fountain is completely unbefitting to the city of Vienna. Rather than being classical, Romanesque, Gothic, or Baroque in style—and therefore cohesive with the long-standing fine art and architecture of the city—the new fountain would be best described as grotesque. Only costing the taxpayers of Vienna 1.8 million euros, the concrete public piece is composed of 33 of the most unnatural looking figures sitting or lying in a ring. Unlike Vienna’s other fountains, this one is utterly uninspiring.