Isisbrunnen

The Isisbrunnen stands on the Albertplatz in the Josefstadt district of Vienna. It is the city’s only surviving cast-iron fountain and has been protected as a monument since it was built. The square itself lies in the Breitenfeld part of the eighth district, surrounded by apartment buildings and tram lines. The fountain was cast in 1833 at the Graf Salm ironworks near Brno on the initiative of Carl Georg Gaber, the local magistrate. A statue of the goddess Isis, copied from an antique piece in the imperial collections, was added by Sigismund Schultes, abbot of the Schottenstift, and unveiled in the presence of Emperor Franz I. Originally fed by the Albertine water conduit, the fountain later switched to the Kaiser Ferdinands line when the first source dwindled. A 19th-century painting by Carl Wenzel Zajicek shows the fountain in the centre of the square before it was moved in 1912 to make room for tram line 15. Today the Isisbrunnen sits on the north-eastern edge of the Albertplatz. Its Latin inscriptions record the opening date and celebrate the cooperation that brought the water to the neighbourhood. The statue of Isis, cast in iron, rises above a basin of clear water. The square is a quiet spot where residents walk past the fountain on their way to shops and cafés along the surrounding streets.