Standing nine metres tall at the entrance to the harbour, the Imperia rotates slowly on her plinth, holding a crowned emperor in one hand and a pope in the other. She is a monument to the Council of Constance (1414–1418), when Konstanz hosted the largest gathering in medieval Europe: thousands of church officials, nobles, and hangers-on who spent four years sorting out a schism in which three men simultaneously claimed to be pope. The council deposed all three and elected a single new pope, ending the crisis — but also burned the Czech reformer Jan Hus as a heretic, an act with consequences that reverberated for centuries.
The statue is a ten-minute walk from the old town along the harbour promenade, and the ferry terminal is right beside her.