A lady of nine meters, with few clothes, the Imperia, towers over the harbour of Constance. Her creator, the sculptor Peter Lenk,
was inspired by Honoré Balzac's book „La belle Impéria“. The Imperia in Balzac's book is a courtisan, who stayed in Constance
during the Church council (1414-1418), when a new pope was elected and the segregation of the catholic church ended.
The Imperia holds a minuscule pope and the king in her hands.

There is not only a connection to literature in the sculpture, but to history as well. During the medieval church
council in Constance, many prostitutes were in town.

The Imperia was put up in 1993 clandestinely at night. Before that, there was a lot of controversy about the sculpture in the town council.
There was a lot of criticism about the satiric way the pope and the king were depicted. controversy.

Finally the town council of Constance couldn't prevent the Imperia from being put up. The harbour area is owned hy the "Deutsche Bundesbahn" (German Rail).

At daytime the Imperia turns once in three minutes around it's own axis and meanwhile the 18-ton sculpture has become a real landmark of Constance and no one would dare to demand to remove it any more