What goddess is depicted in the Quadriga on top of the Brandenburg Gate? The answer is Victoria. She is the Roman goddess of victory, shown driving a four-horse chariot above Berlin’s famous neoclassical gateway.
The bronze Quadriga was created by sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow and installed in 1793, shortly after the Brandenburg Gate was completed. The original concept represented Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, but the sculpture’s political meaning changed after the Napoleonic Wars.
When Prussia reclaimed the Quadriga after Napoleon took it to Paris in 1806, the figure was reinterpreted as Victoria. She was given a standard bearing the Iron Cross and a crowned Prussian eagle, turning the monument into a symbol of military triumph and national power.
A common mix-up is identifying the figure as Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Victoria is Nike’s Roman counterpart, but the Brandenburg Gate sculpture was officially framed in the Prussian and Roman tradition as Victoria. The Quadriga faces east toward the historic city centre.