Wedding fountain

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wedding fountain

The Vermählungsbrunnen (named after the wedding group Maria and Joseph with the high priest; also: Josefsbrunnen ) is a fountain on the Hoher Markt in Vienna's 1st district of Inner City .

history

Wedding fountain, engraving by Salomon Kleiner, around 1750
High market and marriage fountain around 1898

Joseph Column

The votive monument goes back to a vow that Emperor Leopold I took in 1702, worried about the return of his son Joseph from the siege of the Palatinate fortress of Landau (during the War of the Spanish Succession ), but only after the Emperor's death (May 5 1705) was redeemed by his sons. Under Joseph I, a wooden monument was initially made according to a design by the court architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and erected on March 19, 1706 at Hohen Markt. The appearance of this Joseph column, which was not a well, is recorded in a copper engraving from 1706 and in the view of the Hohe Markt from 1715; Like today's well, it was dedicated to the marriage of Jesus' parents . A base that swung out on four sides contained the inscription under a relief on the front : “Viro Mariae de qva natvs est / Iesus / Austria Tvtelari / Leopoldo magno vovente / Iosephus I Roman. Imperator / Semper Avgvstvs Erexit / M. DCC. VI. ”(In German:“ To the spouse of Mary, from whom Jesus was born, the protector of Austria, praised by Leopold the Great, established by Joseph I, Roman Emperor, always a member of the empire, 1706 ”).

Two female statues on either side of the plinth represented humility and purity ; under the "humility" was to read: "Hvmilitas / erexit evm / ab / hvmilitate / ipsivs" (in German: "Humility raised him from humility"), under the "purity" were the words: "Pvritas / flores / mei / frvctvs / honoris / et honestatis ”(“ Purity, you bloom as the fruit of my honor and honesty ”).

The base carried the statues of Mary , Joseph and the high priest as well as six columns of Corinthian order , which in turn were crowned by a high cloud tower with the symbol of the Trinity .

Küchelbecker reported in 1732 about the creation of this wooden monument: “This wooden model has rotted away due to its length of time, wind and weather, and was placed in such a state that it had to be removed from the three main statues. Before kurttzen, however, the present most glorious imperial majesty made the decision to erect this column of Ertzt and marble, and at the end of August 14th, 1729, with many solenities, laid the first stone, as it was cast from Ertzt on the 12th . Mart. It was actually erected in 1732. "

The new marriage fountain

Fountain basin
The marriage

After the wooden votive monument had become desolate, Emperor Charles VI left it . demolished in 1725 and built as a replacement for a baroque, 18.5 m high temple on Corinthian columns made of white marble based on a drawing by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach . The foundation stone was laid on August 14, 1729 and the consecration by Count Cardinal Kollonitsch on April 14, 1732. The architecture of the monument comes from the court stone cutter Elias Hügel . The four angel figures on the base projections and the three figures of the wedding group are the work of Antonio Corradini . The bronze canopy decorated with ornamental and plant motifs with a coronation was created by bell founder Johann Baptist Divall and the two round basins with fountains were designed by Lorenzo Mattielli .

The Hernals water line that fed it was strengthened by including the main source of the Als . Due to the higher water pressure, other wells in the city could now be supplied, but this resulted in a large drop in the water level at Alserbach.

The base shows reliefs on three sides: Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi and Presentation in the Temple. On the fourth there is the inscription: “Divo Josepho e Davidica stirpe / Deiparae virginis viro / Christi servatoris nutritio / praesentissimo Austriae patrono / nuncupatum Leopoldo & Josepho Augg. / votum / Carolus VI. Rome. Imp. Et Hispan. Rex / A patre ac fratre adumbratum opus / Aere ac marmore de Integro extruens / ML / Cura suprema aedif. caes. praef. Gundac. com. from Althann Ano 1732 "(German:" This monument to St. Joseph from David's tribe, the husband of the Theotokos and virgin, the breadwinner of Christ the Redeemer, the omnipresent patron of Austria, praised by the emperors Leopold and Joseph has Charles VI. , Roman Emperor and King of Spain, overshadowed by father and brother, executed as a work in solid ore and marble under the supervision of the highest imperial building prefect Gundaker Graf von Althann in 1732. ").

As before, the statues of Mary, Joseph and the high priest stand on the pedestal. The base projections, occupied by four angel statues, carry four Corinthian columns on which a bronze canopy rests. On November 30, 1728, a free pass was issued “for the seven white marble statues that were to be ordered and brought to the newly built St. Josephi Wedding Columns in Venice ”. Hofsteinmetzmeister Elias Hügel from Kaisersteinbruch was commissioned to design the monumental base and the pillars from Untersberg trout marble , a dense limestone , the fountain basin and the chain girders from the hardest Kaiserstein . However, during an overall restoration carried out from July 2006 to October 2008 by the municipal department 31 (Wiener Wasserwerke) under the direction of the restorer Klaus Wedenig and the Vienna Federal Monuments Office , it turned out that only the "outer skin" of the base consists of Unterberg marble, while underneath it is supporting element Kaiserstein serves.

Damaged by bombs in the war year 1944, the Josefsbrunnen was restored between 1950 and 1955, the destroyed head of the statue of the Virgin Mary was restored by the young sculptor Wander Bertoni .

See also

literature

  • Wiener Stadt- u. Provincial archive: Paul Harrer, Vienna, his houses, people a. Culture, Vienna 1955.
  • Richard Perger: The high market . Paul Zsolnay Verlag, 1970, ISBN 3-55202-228-7 .

Web links

Commons : Vermählungsbrunnen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helmuth Furch: Elias Hügel - Hofsteinmetzmeister, 1681-1755 . Kaisersteinbruch 1992. ISBN 978-3-9504555-2-6 .
  2. ↑ Stone samples of the test drillings are available in the Kaisersteinbruch Steinmetzmuseum .

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 39 ″  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 23 ″  E