Dutch tales

By ThisIsGerda

The Face of Nijmegen

My younger brother lives at Nijmegen and he posted a blip with this sculpture a few days ago. My other brother and I wanted to see it for ourselves and travelled to Nijmegen. He by train, me by car. We met at the train station and had a nice walk to see it.

Afterwards we went to my younger brother and we sat in his garden for some hours. It was so good to see my brothers again!

About the sculpture:

It was made by the artist Andreas Hetfeld and refers to one of the oldest and best-known artefacts of Nijmegen : a silver-plated face helmet from the first or second century AD, that was dredged in the Waal river shortly before 1915.
The beautifully decorated mask protected the face of a Roman soldier of the élite Roman cavalry.
Nowadays the helmet serves as one of the showpieces in the collection of the Nijmegen archeological museum Het Valkhof.
Andreas Hetfeld made a contemporary interpretation of the iconic mask in giant sized format.
Standing in the mask you see the sky-line of downtown Nijmegen, behind the Waal river through the "eyes" of the mask.

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