Between those two dates lies a body of work closely bound up with Budapest’s rise as a modern European metropolis. Strobl trained in Vienna, in the circle of Caspar von Zumbusch, one of the defining monumental sculptors of the Ringstraße era. The figures outside the Budapest Opera House illustrate Strobl’s commission with particular clarity. The fountain is therefore not only a work of art, but also a document of urban historical politics. It leads to a fundamental question of European urban culture: how does a city give itself a face?