Leonardo's Horse, Allentown, Guía del visitante y qué hacer cerca

Leonardo's Horse is a large bronze statue in Allentown, Pennsylvania, built from Leonardo da Vinci's designs for a monument that was never cast in his lifetime. It stands in the Charles C. Dent Memorial Garden at the Baum School of Art on North 5th Street. It is a replica of the horse completed in Milan in 1999, and it exists because one Allentown man refused to let a lost Renaissance project stay lost.

The story behind it

In 1482 Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, asked Leonardo da Vinci to create the largest equestrian statue in the world, a tribute to his father. Leonardo built a full-size clay model, which was displayed in November 1493. The bronze meant for the casting was instead turned into cannons, and when French troops invaded Milan in 1499, the story goes that they used the clay horse for archery practice. What survived was eventually destroyed by the weather.

Nearly five centuries later, Charles Dent, an amateur artist and collector from Allentown, read a 1977 National Geographic article about the lost horse and set up a nonprofit to build it. He died in 1994, before the casting. Sculptor Nina Akamu completed the work, and the 24-foot horse was unveiled in Milan in 1999. The Allentown version followed in 2002. Leonardo never saw his horse finished, and neither did Dent.

What to look for

• The sheer size and musculature of the bronze, which hint at how ambitious Leonardo's original plan for the largest horse statue in the world really was.
• The setting of the Charles C. Dent Memorial Garden, which honours the man whose determination brought the project to life.
• The Baum School of Art right beside the horse, a fitting neighbour for a sculpture born from an artist's obsession.
• The contrast between this quiet garden and the story of a clay giant shot at by invading soldiers, which gives the bronze a good deal of weight.

Tips for your visit

• Plan on 10 to 15 minutes to look at the horse and read about its history, longer if you also visit the art school.
• Daylight is best for photographs, and the bronze looks good in softer morning or late afternoon light.
• The statue stands in an outdoor garden, but check current opening hours and access before you go, especially if you hope to see the school's galleries.
• The horse sits in the centre of Allentown, so it combines easily with a longer walk through the surrounding blocks.

See it on a quest

Ghost Hunt in Allentown takes you to the horse on foot as one stop on a longer route through the city. The app tells you about each place as you arrive and sets a puzzle based on what is in front of you, so the bronze becomes something to investigate rather than just photograph. One ticket covers the whole group.

Allentown Detective Mystery: Infiltrate a Secret Society. is a detective-style walk that also passes the horse. You move from stop to stop at your own pace, hear the story of each place, and solve a puzzle on the spot. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever you like.