Bayreuth Festival In April 1870, Wagner and his wife Cosima visited Bayreuth. On inspection, the Opera House proved to be inadequate. It was built to accommodate the baroque orchestras of the 18th century and was therefore unsuited for the complex stagings and large orchestras that Wagner's operas required. Nonetheless, the Burgermeisters proved open to assisting Wagner with the construction of an entirely new theatre and the Festival was planned to launch in 1873. After a fruitless meeting in the spring of 1871 with the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to obtain funds, Wagner embarked on a fundraising tour across Germany, including Leipzig
Margrave Fountain (Bayreuth) is made up of four sculpture groups, each consisting of a person sitting on a spouting animal. The water flows represent the four rivers rising in the Fichtel Mountains, whose directions of flow match the four cardinal directions. The four sculpture groups also represent the four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, America). The Native American is sitting on a griffin, as the wildlife of the Americas wasn't known in Europe in the 1700s. Margrave Fountain (Bayreuth) The Margrave Fountain (German: "Markgrafenbrunnen") is a fountain in Bayreuth, Germany. It was built as a monument for Margrave Christian Ernest of Brandenburg-Bayreuth after he