WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: FORWARD

In a new post specifically created for this challenge, share a picture which means FORWARD to you!

This one is fairly easy for me, it’s a picture I see every time I go through Forest Park.

It’s the monument to the namesake and patron of our city … LOUIS IX – Saint and King Of France! He sits on a charger at the top of a high hill in the center of the park overlooking the city and hopefully inspiring his citizens. Just look at that pose and tell me that the sculptor wasn’t thinking FORWARD when he created the statue.

INFORMATION ON THE STATUE: The title of the statue  is Apotheosis of St. Louis. It was originally designed as a plaster model by Charles Henry Niehaus in 1904 for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (Saint Louis World’s Fair) to stand at the entrance to the fair grounds on DeBaliviere and Lindell Blvds. After the fair closed a bronze version of the original plaster model was executed by W. R. Hodges and given to Forest Park by the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company and installed at its current location in front of the St. Louis Art Museum in 1906.