The story of the French novelist, Balzac who wrote "La Belle Impéria", described that Imperia seduced cardinals and princes at the Council of Constance. She took over their power:
The name is based on the historical person, Imperia Cognati. She is knowns as "Imperia the divine" or the Queen of Courtesans (Roman Prostitues) as well. According to the history, the papal courtiers in the 15th century usually hired female escorts to accompany them to entertain the important clients. The scandal statue of Imperia is created by Peter Lenk, located at the harbour of Konstanz, Germany:
The ticket office building is near the train station:
This building may look like a church, but it is really the ticket office of the Bodensee ship company (BSB). The harbour is actually behind the train station:
You can check the ship timetable, departure time and platform at the display of BSB - Bodensee Schiffsbetriebe at the harbour:
The lake Constance is known as "Bodensee". The white sphere on the pole in the lake that you can see in front of the city garden, Stadtgarten is the place where women were put in the sewing bag and hanged on the pole to be drowned in the lake:
The Bodensee is the third largest lake in central Europe and the largest one in Germany. The part of Bodensee lake at Constance harbour is called "Lake Constance" only in English, although in German, they call it "Konstanz Hafen (am Bodensee)", not "Konstanzer See":
The statue of a marvelous woman holding two men on her hands, the figure on her left hand is Pope Martin V and the figure of her right hand is Emperor Sigismund. The pope Martin V was elected during the Council of Constance while Sigismund of Luxembourg was the king who assembled the council:
The beautiful Imperia stands on a pedestal that rotates around its axis once every four minutes. As the image was taken when the sun was behind the statue, it is not possible to see that both figures are the naked king who has the crown and the naked pope who has papal tiara as their symbol of power:
In the city center of Constance, you may try to find out which Emperor could it be? :
There are four German Emperors on this fountain. Below the Emperor's statue, there is a female statue:
As this female statue has no crown on her head, it could not be the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. There is another interesting monument near the Imperia:
It is monument of Graf Zeppelin, his full name is Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin. He was born in Konstanz and spent most of his life time near Konstanz until he died. The Zeppelin Museum is located in Friedrichshafen at the lake Constance. Walking along the lake or go hiking or biking is good to do in summer and visit the museum if you have time. Either stay in Constance or cross the border to Kreuzlingen, your journey to Switzerland starts. See you!
