!!!Pestsäulen

Plague Monuments: In Austria, memorial columns in honour of the Holy 
Trinity (Feast of  Holy Trinity) or of the Virgin Mary 
(Immaculata columns) were built between 1650-1800, in most cases to 
thank God for the end of a plague epidemic. Plague monuments are 
numerous in Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Burgenland and Styria (e.g. 
Baden, Heiligenkreuz, Perchtoldsdorf, Wiener Neustadt, Goellersdorf, 
St. Poelten, Krems, Langenlois, Zwettl, Linz, Eferding, Hallstatt, 
Eisenstadt, Graz and Vorau). The plague monument on Graben street in 
Vienna served as an important model (also for the Hungarian, Moravian 
and Bohemian areas), being the most significant work of art in that 
field. Following a vow by Leopold I, J. Fruehwirt started 
building a wooden plague monument in 1679. In 1682 M. Rauchmiller 
began building a stone column according to plans by F. Menegatti, 
which was later continued by J. B. Fischer von Erlach 
(relief work by J. J. Bendl) following a modified design in 
1687/88 (completed in 1692). Paul Strudel created the cloud obelisk 
designed by L. Burnacini (he also created the kneeling statue of 
Leopold I). The sculptures were created by artists such as T. 
Kracker and M. Gunst.

!Literature
A. Gruenberg, Pest in Oesterreich, 1960; G. Schikola, Das 
oeffentlich sakrale Denkmal in den habsburgischen Laendern, in: 
Studien zur europaeischen Barock- und Rokokoskulptur, ed. by K. 
Kalinowski, vol. 2, 1985.


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