Mercury - Galerija Emporium - Prešernov trg, Ljubljana
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SMacB
N 46° 03.104 E 014° 30.391
33T E 461824 N 5099914
A statue of Mercury on the top of Ljubljana's oldest department store in Urbanc House.
Waymark Code: WMT568
Location: Slovenia
Date Posted: 09/28/2016
Views: 4
A statue of Mercury on the top of Ljubljana's oldest department store in Urbanc House.
"The building was commissioned by the local merchant Feliks Urbanc in 1902 and completed in 1903. Designed by the Graz-based architect Friedrich Sigismundt, it was modelled on contemporary department stores in Graz, Vienna, Paris and Budapest.
The building's entrance is enhanced by a semicircular canopy in the shape of a flat open, fan-like petal cluster made from glass and wrought iron. On top of the building, above the front façade, there is a neo-Baroque statue of Mercury, the god of commerce and protector of merchants."
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"Mercury is a major Roman god, being one of the Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the patron god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence (and thus poetry), messages/communication (including divination), travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves; he is also the guide of souls to the underworld. He was considered the son of Maia and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is possibly related to the Latin word merx ("merchandise"; compare merchant, commerce, etc.), mercari (to trade), and merces (wages); another possible connection is the Proto-Indo-European root merg- for "boundary, border" (cf. Old English "mearc", Old Norse "mark" and Latin "margo") and Greek oupoc (by analogy of Arcturus), as the "keeper of boundaries," referring to his role as bridge between the upper and lower worlds. In his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to the Etruscan deity Turms; both gods share characteristics with the Greek god Hermes. He is often depicted holding the caduceus in his left hand."
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