After 33 years being planned and made, a statue of Apollo, the Greek God has been installed at Stowe.
Stowe Gardens is a National Trust property just outside of Buckingham, and now houses the recreated Apollo and the Muses statues.
Located at Stowe’s Doric Arch, the 10 statues cover the entrance to the area known as Elysian Fields.
This comes as part of a long term project. Stowe National Trust is reinstating the lost temples and monuments that were once found in the landscaped gardens like pieces of a theatre set. Cliveden Conservation were commissioned to create a set of Apollo and the Nine Muses based upon the surviving statues and research.
This statue has been reimagined as a replacement to the original Apollo, which was made of lead and attributed to sculptor van Nost. It is known to have been at Stowe by 1735.
Through archaeological excavation, it is believed that Apollo and the Muses were moved around the gardens, but their final location was around the Doric Arch. The nine muses statues have been in place since March 2020.
Apollo was the Olympian god of many things, including sun and light, music and poetry, healing and plagues, archery and agriculture. Stowe’s Lyric Apollo was mainly concerned with music and poetry.
