Danube River Cruise #28: Vienna's Plaque Pillar & St.Stephen's

The Plague Pillar

In today's blog about our May vacation on a Viking River Cruise down the Danube River, we are taking you through Vienna, Austria. Today we'll tell you about a sculpture called "The Plague Pillar," located in a large public area.

WHAT IS THE PLAGUE PILLAR or COLUMN? 
This monument was erected on the Graben, a street in the downtown area of Vienna. It's also called Pestsäule in German, and is also known as the Trinity Column. It was erected after the Great Plague epidemic in 1679, the Baroque memorial is one of the most well-known and prominent sculptural pieces of art in the city.

HOW DID IT COME ABOUT? In 1679, Vienna experienced one of the last big plague epidemics. Fleeing the city, the Habsburg emperor Leopold I vowed to erect a mercy column if the epidemic would end. In the same year, a provisional wooden column made by Johann Frühwirth was inaugurated, showing the Holy Trinity on a Corinthian column together with nine sculpted angels (for the Nine Choirs of Angels).

St. Stephens

WHAT IS ON THE MONUMENT?
 In 1683, Matthias Rauchmiller was commissioned to create a general design as well as some sculptures. Rauchmiller died in 1686, but his basic conception and three of his angel figures can still be seen on the modern monument. Below the Trinity figure, Burnacini envisioned a cloud pyramid with angel sculptures as well as the kneeling emperor Leopold, praying to a sculpture of faith. Among others, the sculptors Tobias Kracker and Johann Bendel contributed to the column. The column was inaugurated in 1694

WHAT WAS ST. STEPHEN'S? - St. Stephen's Cathedral (more commonly known by its German title: Stephansdom) is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, OP. The current Romanesque and Gothic form of the cathedral, seen today in the Stephansplatz, was largely initiated by Duke Rudolf IV (1339–1365) and stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first a parish church consecrated in 1147. The most important religious building in Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral has borne witness to many important events in Habsburg and Austrian history and has, with its multi-coloured tile roof, become one of the city's most recognizable symbol

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