Wide-angle view of the Statue of King George II, in the Grand Square of Greenwich Hospital
The statue in the middle of Grand Square is of King George II. It was sculpted by Michael Rysbrack in 1735 and is made of a single piece of marble weighing 11 tons. The king wears the military clothes of a Roman Emperor and holds a sceptre and orb. The statue was commissioned to please the king so that he would look more favourably upon the Royal Hospital for Seamen, today’s ORNC, and donate money for its maintenance. The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as being of "outstanding universal value" and reckoned to be the "finest and most dramatically sited architectural and landscape ensemble in the British Isles". The site is managed by the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College (Foundation), set up in July 1998 as a Registered Charity to "look after these magnificent buildings and their grounds for the benefit of the nation". The grounds and some of its buildings are open to visitors. The buildings were originally constructed to serve as the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, now generally known as Greenwich Hospital, which was designed by Christopher Wren, and built between 1696 and 1712. The hospital closed in 1869. Between 1873 and 1998 it was the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
Size: 3744px × 5616px
Location: Old Royal naval College, Greenwich, London,
Photo credit: © John Gaffen 2 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1735, architecture, christopher, college, george, grand, greenwich, heritage, historic, hospital, ii, king, london, marble, michael, naval, royal, rysbrack, sculptor, seamen, sir, site, square, statue, wide-angle, world, wren
