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Gilly's project for a monument to Frederick the Great (1796) consisted of a raised Greek Doric temple on a geometric substructure surrounded by obelisks and set in a vast open space. This caught the imagination of German architects as a symbol of Prussian nationhood during the humiliating occupation of Berlin by Napoleon in 1806-13.
The design was exhibited at the academy exhibition in Berlin in 1796, where it aroused enormous interest with its monumental use of classical grammar. The Doric temple on a tall polygonal stone plinth inspired Leo von Klenze's design for Valhalla near Regensburg.
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