Shadow Sphinx
The low-key approach seemed natural, given this was shot on a cold and drizzly day in winter.
This sphinx has stood in the northeastern corner of the Lund Botanical Garden since 1978. It is a remnant of the original decorations on the city's main university building.
In 1882, the Swedish architect Helgo Zettervall adorned the newly opened university building with cement sculptures, including griffins, urns, and four sphinxes. The poor-quality concrete, however, eroded over time, and the decorations were removed in 1959. Newly cast urns and griffins were quickly put in place, but the sphinxes got lost in storage. Some years later, the Uarda Academy found one of the missing sphinxes and saved it from destruction. It became the model for the mould used to create the new sphinxes - and the original was placed in the city's Botanical Gardens.
It happened again in 2021—the sphinxes on the university’s roof were weathering away and taken down, and replacements were installed in October 2024.
Zettervall’s sphinxes are mythological creatures in a Hellenistic style, quite different from their Egyptian origins. In this interpretation, they are almost androgynous, unlike the Greek female prototype.
Shadow Sphinx
The low-key approach seemed natural, given this was shot on a cold and drizzly day in winter.
This sphinx has stood in the northeastern corner of the Lund Botanical Garden since 1978. It is a remnant of the original decorations on the city's main university building.
In 1882, the Swedish architect Helgo Zettervall adorned the newly opened university building with cement sculptures, including griffins, urns, and four sphinxes. The poor-quality concrete, however, eroded over time, and the decorations were removed in 1959. Newly cast urns and griffins were quickly put in place, but the sphinxes got lost in storage. Some years later, the Uarda Academy found one of the missing sphinxes and saved it from destruction. It became the model for the mould used to create the new sphinxes - and the original was placed in the city's Botanical Gardens.
It happened again in 2021—the sphinxes on the university’s roof were weathering away and taken down, and replacements were installed in October 2024.
Zettervall’s sphinxes are mythological creatures in a Hellenistic style, quite different from their Egyptian origins. In this interpretation, they are almost androgynous, unlike the Greek female prototype.