Little Austria/Olgas Terrace

Work on Olga´s Terrace started at the beginning of the 1950s. The terrace was Carl Milles tribute to his wife.

Aganippe was the name of a spring gushing forth from the mountain of Helicon, according to legend created where the winged horse Pegasus alighted with his hooves. Aganippe was the muses´ holy source and had the virtue of conferring poetic inspiration on those who drank from its waters. The muses were the patrons of arts and sciences.



Each one of the nine muses represented an art or science. When Carl Milles was commissioned to create an indoor fountain for the Metropolitan Museum in New in the 1950s, he transformed Aganippe into a reclining woman, and the muses into young men. Bounding on the backs of dolphins, they hold symbols of the various arts in their upraised arms: the patron of sculpture raises high a miniature version of Pegasus, the patron of painting holds a bouquet of flowers waiting to be painted, and the patron of music grasps a saxophone. In the American version, there are five patrons, while at Millesgården, there are only three. The original fountain has since been moved to Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina.

The sculpture was made by one of Carl Milles´ American students, Frances Rich. Saint Francis was born in Italy in 1181 and died in 1226. He founded the Franciscan order and is the patron saint of animals.

In New York, Carl Milles saw ice-skaters at Rockerfeller Center. He created many dancing, flying or surfing figures. They move lightly and with no resistance, more or less air-borne. The Ice-skating Princess experiences something of the kind as she flies over the ice or defies gravity in a jump.