Giant Statue of Neptune

Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States

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King Neptune is a 34-foot cast bronze statue by Virginia sculptor Paul DiPasquale, at 31st Street and the Boardwalk in Virginia Beach. The sea god holds a trident. The City of Virginia Beach's public art page records its dedication on September 30, 2005.

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Giant Statue of Neptune

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Site-level location · 36.8564° N, 75.9722° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

King Neptune is a 34-foot bronze sea god at the oceanfront in Virginia Beach, and the city's public art page says it was paid for entirely by private donations.

That page describes a cast bronze Neptune by Virginia sculptor Paul DiPasquale, standing at 31st Street and the Boardwalk, overlooking Neptune Park. Neptune holds his trident and is surrounded by creatures of his realm, with his gaze resting on the shore. The page says the statue honors the city's maritime heritage and reminds residents to protect natural resources. DiPasquale also made the bronze statue of Arthur Ashe on Richmond's Monument Avenue.

According to the city, the money was gathered by the Neptune Festival, and the statue was dedicated to the City of Virginia Beach on September 30, 2005.

Wikipedia, which marks parts of its account as unsourced, says the Festival asked for design submissions in 2003 and that DiPasquale sent a clay model. It says the statue was cast in China, arrived in the United States in three pieces, and had a weak interior support replaced with stainless steel. According to DiPasquale, reassembly took a month and a half of welding. Wikipedia gives the weight as 12.5 tons and describes a 12-foot rock base with fish, two dolphins and an octopus.

Visit Virginia Beach lists it as a year-round outdoor attraction at 31st and Atlantic.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

A statue on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. Admission, hours and access terms are not documented in the sources reviewed; check locally before visiting.

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Neptune Park, 31st Street, Virginia Beach Boardwalk, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

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Norwegian Lady statue (boardwalk)

Virginia Beach, Virginia

The Norwegian Lady is a nine-foot bronze statue on the Virginia Beach boardwalk at 25th Street. It replicates the wooden figurehead of the Norwegian bark Dictator, wrecked off Virginia Beach on Good Friday, 1891; seven of the 17 aboard died. The figurehead washed ashore and stood as a memorial at the oceanfront for about sixty years until Hurricane Barbara damaged it in 1953. With a grant from the Norwegian Shipping Association, sculptor Ornulf Bast made two bronze replicas in 1962, one for Virginia Beach and one for Moss, Norway, which became its sister city in 1974.

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