When a Saint Was Replaced by a Roman God

Finish with perhaps the clearest evidence that Olomouc’s classical programme was deliberate. The basin here originally carried a statue of St Florian. In 1735, that Christian saint was removed and replaced by Philip Sattler’s Jupiter so the fountain would fit the antique programme used across the city’s fountains. It is a wonderfully blunt curatorial decision made in the open air: the city edited its own square for thematic consistency. Jupiter now grips lightning, with an eagle at his feet, performing the role of supreme Roman god and symbolic defender. After eight stops, the squares should look different. Their statues are not a miscellaneous outdoor museum. They are arguments — repeatedly revised — about protection, prestige, catastrophe, order and what Olomouc wanted people to believe about itself.