‘Imperia’ in Konstanz, Germany

At the mouth of Lake Constance (Bodensee), where the Rhine slips toward Switzerland, a nine-meter courtesan spins in slow defiance. Her name is Imperia, and she’s been turning — quite literally — since 1993. Sculpted by Peter Lenk, she rotates once every four minutes, balancing two tiny naked men in her hands: one crowned like an emperor, the other wearing a papal tiara. Both look foolish. Both are helpless. And both, in her grasp, symbolize a truth Konstanz has never quite lived down — that power and piety often share the same bed. The story behind her grin reaches back to the Council of C...