John A Rice

Temple of Night at Schonau John A Rice

Between 1796 & 1800 Baron Peter von Braun, a rich businessman & manager of Vienna s court theaters, transformed his estate at Schonau into an English-style landscape park. The most celebrated building was the Temple of Night, a domed rotunda accessible only through a meandering rockwork grotto. A life-size statue of the goddess Night on a chariot pulled by two horses presided over the Temple, while from the dome, came the sounds of a mechanical musical instrument. Only the ruins survive, & the Temple has received little scholarly attention. This book brings it back to life by assembling the descriptions of it by early 19th-cent. eyewitnesses. Will appeal to anyone interested in the history of garden design, arch., theater, & music. Illus.