Thunder well
| Providentiabrunnen Donnerbrunnen |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| place | Inner city in Vienna |
| country |
 Austria
|
| use | Jewellery |
| construction time | 1737-1739 |
| architect | Georg Raphael Donner |
| Architectural style | mannerism |
| Technical specifications | |
| Floor space | 13 × 8.40 m² |
| Floors | 3: Edge of the fountain, foot of the pedestal, central figure |
| Building material | Figures: lead-tin alloy. Fountain basin and base of figures: Mauthausen granite with Kaiserstein |
| Coordinates | |
| location | Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 22.2 " N , 16 ° 22 ′ 14.2" E 48 ° 12 ′ 22.2 " N , 16 ° 22 ′ 14.2" E |
Donnerbrunnen is the popular name for the Providentiabrunnen designed by Georg Raphael Donner and built from 1737 to 1739 on the Neuer Markt in Vienna's 1st district of Inner City . However, the Viennese had little use for the term providentia ( Latin for providence ), which is why they named it after its builder. In terms of art history, the Mehlmarktbrunnen is often referred to , as the New Market was still called Mehlmarkt in the 18th century . During the construction of an underground car park, the fountain was temporarily removed from 2018 to 2022.
history
Negotiations between the city of Vienna and Donner (but also with Lorenzo Mattielli ) are documented in 1737 . The City of Vienna acted as the client here, which was an exception in the Baroque period , which was artistically determined by the imperial family and the nobility . The bourgeois master stonemason of Vienna, Johann Sebastian Knox, received the order for the stonemasonry.
The figures, for which Georg Raphael Donner only created the models, were cast in a lead - tin alloy by Johann Nikolaus Moll and in 1739, on the name day of Emperor Charles VI. set up. During the reign of Maria Theresa in 1773, the figures were removed, allegedly at the instigation of the Chastity Commission , because the nakedness of the figures was seen as offensive. The sculptor Johann Martin Fischer was commissioned to melt them down, but recognized their artistic value and restored them. In 1801 they were returned to their old place.
The Vienna City Council dealt with the defective condition on July 7, 1871. Apart from vandalism, this was also due to the "water women" who damaged the water with their purse in the buttes with iron hoops , which were set up at the edge of the well to provide the residents with it. The local council therefore decided to completely rebuild the fountain. The cost estimate submitted by the city planning department is based primarily on Wöllersdorfer Stein , because the same comes cheaper than any other. The pool was out of granite formed the sole plates in the basin with particularly hard Kaiserstein strengthened. Finally in 1872 the Eduard Hauser company was entrusted with the production of the fountain system. In 1873 the figures were replaced by bronze copies ; the originals now form the center of the baroque department of the Austrian Belvedere Gallery .
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During the Second World War the thunder fountain was removed and only put back on April 30, 1947.
In the 1980s, the Donnerbrunnen was a popular meeting place for the Viennese subculture , especially the Mod movement.
On October 15, 2018, the fountain was removed from the Neuer Markt because an underground car park will be built there by 2022. Construction began at the beginning of 2019, as preliminary work for the construction of the planned underground car park, the Donnerbrunnen was carefully dismantled and stored in an urban square; it will be put up again after the garage is completed.
Otto Wagner's report
In 1913 there was a risk that the Donnerbrunnen would be sacrificed to traffic and moved to another square (such as Lueger-Platz ). To this end, Otto Wagner prepared a traffic report .
construction
In the middle of the fountain is the Providentia , the allegory of foresight or good government , which probably also refers to Vienna's good water supply. It is surrounded by four allegorical figures depicting rivers in the Archduchy of Austria . Such a scheme is quite popular in Mannerism and early Baroque , a well-known example is Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain in Rome. The representation of rivers in the form of allegorical persons was exemplary until the 19th century, for example for the Austriabrunnen on the Freyung or the Danubiusbrunnen on the Albertinarampe .
The four river figures also represent the four ages and temperaments. The two male figures represent the rivers from Upper Austria , the two female ones from Lower Austria :
- Traun is a young figure who pricks a fish at the bottom of the pool with a trident . The figure is very dynamic and does not offer a frontal view - it looks directly into the water. In the case of the fish, it is difficult to tell whether it is a huchen or a trout.
- Enns is an old ferryman who leans an oar against a boulder, symbolizing the Enns as an important transport route in the Alps .
- Ybbs is a resting girl with a water-dispensing vessel.
- March is a female figure leaning against a relief depicting a battle (possibly the Romans against the Marcomanni ), thus emphasizing the character of the March as a border river.
The base is surrounded by four putti with water-spouting fish (pike, carp, catfish and salmon), which serve as the fountain's actual water dispensers and symbolize the Danube. The basin and the base of the fountain are made of Mauthausen granite .
Figure of Providentia
Enns
March
Traun
Ybbs
Literary processing
Franz Karl Ginzkeys novella The blessed fountain from 1940 tells of Donner's youth as well as of the creation of the eponymous Providentia fountain .
See also
literature
- Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna . Vienna, 1993.
- Josef Donner: The spring jumps up, water in the cityscape, a Viennese fountain dictionary . Verlag Österr. Association for d. Gas and Wasserfach, ÖVGW, 1998.
- Sinhuber et al. Stumpf: Vienna - Metamorphoses of a City , Munich 1992.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dimensions roughly measured with the tool from Google Earth.
- ↑ "Donnerbrunnen is dismantled" in orf.at (accessed on June 19, 2019)
- ↑ The old Donnerbrunnen , Vienna City and State Archives , Upper Chamber Office Account 1738 + 1739: Johann Georg Knox, civil stonemason. In Helmuth Furch (Ed.): Communications from the Museum and Culture Association Kaisersteinbruch No. 55, September 1999, p. 15f. ISBN 978-3-9504555-3-3 .
- ^ The old Donnerbrunnen , Vienna City and State Archives, City Council Protocols 1871–1873. Councilor Neumann on May 30th, 1873 “... as the gentlemen will have convinced themselves, water was fetched from the basin of this well with large vessels, which were placed on the basin itself, which caused the destruction of the previously existing work of art so quickly has been. Since this is not allowed to take place in a monumental fountain, which was built at such enormous cost: To protect this fountain, a permanent guard is attached by security organs, who would have to monitor the fountain day and night. The application is approved. ”In: Mitteilungen No. 55, September 1999, pp. 14-18.
- ↑ New market in Vienna's inner city becomes a promenade at kurier.at, October 14, 2018, accessed on October 15, 2018.
- ↑ Donnerbrunnen will be dismantled on ORF Vienna, October 15, 2018, accessed on October 15, 2018.
- ↑ Expert opinion by the architect Otto Wagner on the relocation of the Donnerbrunnen, around 1913. In: Mitteilungen 55, September 1999, p. 18.
- ↑ A picture of the fish can be found in an article on the occasion of an attempted theft in 2016: Brazen thieves on a fish haul in the Donnerbrunnen