Mozart Monument, Vienna

The Mozart Monument stands in the Burggarten, a public park in Vienna’s Innere Stadt district. It honours the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born in 1756 and died in 1791. The statue is 7.5 metres high and made of Laas marble from South Tyrol. Dark diorite forms the steps at its base, and a semi-circular balustrade of rough Sterzing marble frames the work. The sculptor Viktor Tilgner died five days before the unveiling on 21 April 1896, after which his signature was completed with the date of his death.

The monument shows Mozart with a music stand, and its socle is decorated with ornaments, masks and wreaths. Two reliefs appear on the front and back. The front relief refers to scenes from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. The back relief, designed by Louis Carmontelle, depicts the six-year-old Mozart playing with his father Leopold and his sister Nannerl. Art Nouveau putti on the socle represent the power of Mozart’s music.

The Burggarten surrounds the statue with lawns, paths and mature trees. Visitors find benches where they can sit and look at the monument. The park itself is a quiet green space in the city centre. A copy of the monument was given to Tokyo in 1992. The original was moved to the Burggarten in 1953 after war damage and restoration.