:Marian and Holy Trinity columns

File:Sloup Nejsvětější Trojice, Olomouc.jpg, Czech Republic, a World Heritage Site]]

Marian columns are religious monuments depicting the Virgin Mary on the top, often built in thanksgiving for the ending of a plague (plague columns) or for some other reason. The purpose of the Holy Trinity columns was usually simply to celebrate the church and the faith, though the plague motif could sometimes play its role in their erection as well. Erecting religious monuments in the form of a column surmounted by a figure or a Christian symbol was a gesture of public faith that flourished in the Catholic countries of Europe, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries.[https://canadianmennonite.org/stories/column-about-plague-columns Tiessen-Wiens, Brenda. "A column about plague columns", Canadian Mennonite Magazine, May 20, 2020] Thus, they became one of the most visible features of Baroque architecture. This usage also influenced some Eastern Orthodox Baroque architecture.

History

File:Klosterneuburg, gotische Lichtsäule.jpg

In Imperial Rome, it was the practice to erect a statue of the Emperor atop a column. In 1381, Michael Tutz erected the gothic Tutzsäule at Klosterneuburg Monastery to mark the ending of an epidemic.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

The Christian practice of erecting a column topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary became common especially in the Counter-Reformation period following the Council of Trent (1545–1563).{{cn|date=July 2023}}

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - The Piazza and Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.jpg in Rome]]

The column in Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome was one of the first. Erected in 1614, it was designed by Carlo Maderno during the papacy of Paul V. Maderno's fountain at the base combines the armorial eagles and dragons of Paul V (Borghese). The column, with a Corinthian capital, is topped with a statue of the Virgin and the child Jesus. The column itself is ancient: it had supported the vault of the so-called Basilica of Constantine in the Roman Forum, destroyed by an earthquake in the 9th century. By the 17th century only this column survived; in 1614 it was transported to Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore and crowned with a bronze statue of the Virgin and Child made by Domenico Ferri. In a papal bull from the year of its installation, the pope decreed an indulgence for those who uttered a prayer to the Virgin while saluting the column.[https://books.google.com/books?id=CR_nJAAACAAJ Il Divoto Pellegrino Guidato, ed Istruito nella Visita delle quattro Basiliche di Roma, per il Giubileo dell'Anno Santo 1750.], Stamperia del Characas, presso San Marco al Corso, Rome, 1749, page 338-339. Within decades it served as a model for many columns in Italy and other European countries.

''Dreifaltigkeitssäule''

File:Wien Graben Pestsäule Ostseite.jpg, Austria]]

The basic model which inspired building most Holy Trinity columns is that in the Grabenplatz, Vienna, built after the 1679 plague;[https://daily.jstor.org/how-to-memorialize-a-plague/ Meier, Allison C., "How to Memorialize a Plague", Jstor Daily, May 1, 2020] in this monument the column, has entirely disappeared in marble clouds and colossal saints, angels and putti. The column became a site of pilgrimage during the Covid-19 pandemic.[https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/31/covid-19-worried-vienna-residents-flock-to-plague-column-to-ask-for-protection Pleschberger, Johannes. "Worried Vienna residents flock to Plague Column to ask for protection", Euronews, March 31, 2020]

There is a Holy Trinity Column in Holy Trinity Square, in front of Matthias Church in Budapest, a plague memorial erected in 1713, which served as a model for many similar works in the country.{{cite web|url=https://www.matyas-templom.hu/THE_CHURCH/cikk484.html|title=18th century. 1713 The Holy Trinity Statue|website=Matthias Church Official website}}

The era of these religious structures culminated with the outstanding Holy Trinity Column in Horní Square in Olomouc. This monument, built shortly after the plague which struck Moravia (nowadays in the Czech Republic) between 1714 and 1716, was exceptional because of its monumentality, rich decoration and unusual combination of sculptural material (stone and gilded copper). Its base was made so big that even a chapel was hidden inside. This column is the only one which has been individually inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "one of the most exceptional examples of the apogee of central European Baroque artistic expression".{{cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/archive/advisory_body_evaluation/859.pdf |format=PDF |title=Olomouc (Czech Republic) |publisher=Ehc.unesco.org |accessdate=2016-06-24}}

There is also a Holy Trinity Column in the main square of Linz. The Holy Trinity Column in Teplice was designed by Matthias Braun and erected in thanksgiving for the city having been spared the plague in 1713. Braun also designed the Marian column in Jaroměř.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

File:Budapest Matthiaschurch 1.jpg|Holy Trinity Column, Matthias church, Budapest

File:Austria Linz Centre Hauptplatz.JPG|Holy Trinity Column Linz, Austria

File:Pest- Dreifaltigkeitssäule in Zwettl.jpg|Dreifaltigkeitssäule, Zwettl

File:Sopron z10.jpg|Dreifaltigkeitssäule, Sopron

''Mariensäule''

File:Muenchen Mariensaule 01.jpg on Marienplatz, Munich ]]

The first column of this type north of the Alps was the Mariensäule built in Munich in 1638 to celebrate the sparing of the city from both the invading Swedish army and the plague. The statue, created in 1590, depicts the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven standing atop a crescent moon. It inspired for example Marian columns in Prague and Vienna, but many others also followed very quickly. In the countries which used to belong to the Habsburg monarchy (especially Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia) it is quite exceptional to find an old town square without such a column, usually located in the most prominent place.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

The Prague column was built in Old Town Square shortly after the Thirty Years' War in thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary Immaculate for helping in the fight with the Swedes. At noon its shadow indicated the so-called Prague Meridian, which was used to check the exact solar time. Some Czechs connected its placement and erection with the hegemony of the Habsburgs in their country, and after declaring the independence of Czechoslovakia in 1918 a crowd of people pulled this old monument down and destroyed it in an excess of revolutionary fervor. The column was rebuilt in 2020.Paces, Cynthia. "The Fall and Rise of Prague's Marian Column", Radical History Review 79 (2001) 141-155

The Column of the Virgin Mary Immaculate in Kutná Hora was constructed by the Jesuit sculptor František Baugut between 1713 and 1715 to commemorate the recent plague.{{Cite web| title=Sloup se sousoším – Morový sloup|url=http://monumnet.npu.cz/pamfond/list.php?IdReg=150740|publisher=National Heritage Institute|location=Prague}}

The Marian column in Český Krumlov's town square was completed in 1716. At the base are statues of SS. Sebastian, Wencelaus and Vitus. It commemorates the plague of 1697. In gratitude for the end of the plague in 1680 at Maribor, a plague column was built in 1681, with the original being replaced in 1743. Arranged around a pillar bearing an image of Virgin Mary, are six saints, all intercessors against the plague.[https://www.visitmaribor.si/en/what-to-do/sights/5193-plague-column "Plague Column", Maribor Tourist Board]

File:Praha Mariánský sloup gnomon 20220114 135029.jpg|Marián column Prague

File:Cesky Krumlov square.jpg|Marian column Cesky Krumlov town square

''Pestsäule''

File:Eisenstadt z02.JPG

Over time distinctions between a Marian column and a plague column blurred. Although plague columns are most commonly dedicated to the Virgin Mary, some depict other saints. {{cn|date=July 2023}}

The Plague Column at Eisenstadt was erected in 1713 in honour of the Holy Trinity and by Mary, as Queen of heaven as a plea to God to free the city from the plague. On the pedestal there are represented Saints Roch, Sebastian, Kajetan, John of Nepomuk, Saint Rosalie, and Saint Francis.[https://www.eisenstadt-tourismus.at/en/sightseeing/sightseeing/monuments/plague-column "Plague Column", Burgenland Neusiedler See]

The Guglia di San Domenico designed by Cosimo Fanzago, was erected after the plague of 1656.{{cite book|last=Acton|first=Harold|title=The Bourbons of Naples (1731-1825)|year=1957|publisher=Faber and Faber|location=London|isbn=9780571249015|page=5}}

St. Sebastian, a martyr whose statue also often decorates these structures, was originally the patron of archers. In the Middle Ages Sebastian took the place of the plague-dealing archer Apollo,[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-05-05/coronavirus-plague-columns-memorials-trump-tower Knight, Christopher. "U.S. should build a memorial ‘plague column’ for COVID-19, but where?", Los Angeles Times, May 5, 2020] as people sometimes metaphorically compared the random nature of plague to random shots of archers, and thus he started being connected with the plague too; as was St. Roch, who is said to have fallen ill when helping the sick during an epidemic of plague and who recovered through the strength of his faith.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

File:Krönung Kaiser Karls in Budapest (BildID 15570206).jpg|King Charles IV of Hungary, taking his Coronation Oath on 30 December 1916 at Holy Trinity Column in Budapest

File:Obelisco di san Domenico (Napoli)2.JPG|Obelisco di san Domenico (Napoli)

File:Kremnica - The Plague Column.jpg|Plague Column, Kremnica

References

External links

{{Commonscat-multi|Marian and Holy Trinity columns|Plague columns}}

[http://www.your-friend.info/vienna/tour.html#Plague-column The Plague Column in Vienna] A video of the column
[http://members.tripod.com/romeartlover/Vasi48.html The column at Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore]
[http://www.olomouc-tourism.cz/index.asp?gr=4&cat=17&sk=8&lang=cz Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc — pictures]
[https://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=859 Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc — UNESCO World Heritage]
[http://www.czecot.com/cz/?id_tema=337 Povídání o morových sloupech] {{in lang|cs}}

Category:17th-century architecture

Category:17th-century Catholicism

Category:18th-century architecture

Category:18th-century Catholicism

Category:Baroque architectural features

Category:Second plague pandemic