Janus Fountain

This beautiful fountain that must have drawn your attention is the Janus Fountain, also known as the Fountain of the Birth of Civilization. Janus is the Roman God of beginnings and endings. Yep, that’s right: Janus, aka January, the beginning of the year in the Roman calendar. Created to celebrate the city’s 2000 years of existence, it recalls not only the Roman heritage of Strasbourg, but also its dual identity influenced by both France and Germany, as reflected by the statue’s two faces, fused together in Germany. One face is turned towards the past, the Grande Ile, and the other towards the future, namely the Neustadt district, which literally means ‘new city’, aka the expansion of Strasbourg under German rule. Let’s not forget the inscriptions on the arch: on one side, it reads Argentoratum, the Latin name for Strasbourg, and on the other, Strasbourg 2000. Talk about symbolism! It’s the work of artist Tomi Ungerer. Born in Strasbourg in 1931, this cartoonist, illustrator, sculptor and architect is an important figure in Alsace; he was honored with a grand funeral at Strasbourg’s Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019. If you want to find out more about Tomi Ungerer, his museum, the International Center of Illustration, is just around the corner, about 200m away, at number 2 avenue de la Marseillaise. There, you can find his illustrations for children’s books, as well as his satirical and socio-political drawings, and 1,600 toys from his personal collection. It’s really worth a visit, as it also features the work of other international illustrators, as well as an extensive documentary collection. If you’re a fan of graphic art, be sure to stop by.