Holy Trinity Column (Retz)

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The Trinity Column on the main square in Retz

The Trinity Column on the main square of Retz in Lower Austria is a listed building .

history

City judge Eberl donated 300 guilders in his will in 1735 to erect a statue of St. John Nepomuk on the main square. The city's implementation of this project, which was planned for 1741, was delayed by the First Silesian War . With the laying of the foundation stone in 1743 the fulfillment of the will of the city judge began. Work on the column itself was carried out in 1744 and 1745.

However, not a statue exclusively dedicated to Johannes Nepomuk was erected, but a large Trinity column, which also shows a life-size representation of this saint.

Since the master carpenter Jakob Barth from Retz first made a wooden model, it is assumed that the design also came from him. The stone carving was carried out by Ferdinand Steinböck from Eggenburg . Philipp Sturm, a sculptor from Retz, created the statues. Various other jobs were also carried out by local craftsmen.

Independently of the Trinity Column, another statue of John Nepomuk was created, which was erected at the parish church of Sankt Stephan in the old town of Retz. Today she is the central figure of the roundabout there .

The statue of the saint on the Trinity Column is one of numerous depictions of Johannes Nepomuk in the Hollabrunn district of Lower Austria .

description

The Trinity Column was built on an octagonal foundation with a side length of about 3.5 meters and is about 10 meters high. As the height increases, the column tapers in several sections.

  • On a 2 meter high square base, in arched niches, there are life-size statues of St. John Nepomuk, Florian, Placidus and Maria.
  • In the upper row there are smaller depictions of Christ with the cross, the archangel Michael with the flaming sword, the guardian angel and St. Gabriel with the lily.
  • The top is formed by the dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit and above it God the Father, who is enthroned with the scepter on the globe.

literature

  • Rudolf Resch: Retzer Heimatbuch. Volume 2: From the beginning of the modern era to the present. Publishing house of the municipality of Retz, Retz 1951.
  • Evelyn Benesch, Bernd Euler-Rolle , Claudia Haas, Renate Holzschuh-Hofer, Wolfgang Huber, Katharina Packpfeifer, Eva Maria Vancsa-Tironiek, Wolfgang Vogg: Lower Austria north of the Danube (=  Dehio-Handbuch . Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs ). Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna et al. 1990, ISBN 3-7031-0652-2 , p. 975 .

Web links

Commons : Dreifaltigkeitssäule (Retz)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lower Austria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. ( Memento of May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) . Federal Monuments Office , as of June 26, 2015 (PDF).

Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 24.5 ″  N , 15 ° 57 ′ 7.2 ″  E