Marian and Holy Trinity columns
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. Thus they became one of the most visible features of
Baroque architecture.
Marian columns were built in honour of
the Virgin Mary, often in thanksgiving for ending a
plague or for some other help. The purpose of the
Holy Trinity columns was usually simply to celebrate the church and the faith. However, the plague motif could sometimes play its role in their erection as well.
Some other
saints are also depicted on the plague columns. A typical one is
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.
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, 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. Other frequently depicted saints are
St. Barbara, a patron of the dying, and two more recent and historical saints:
St. Francis Xavier, who, according to the legend, raised people from the dead, and
St. Charles Borromeo, known for working among the sick and the dying.
In
Imperial Rome, it was the practice to erect a statue of the Emperor atop a column. The last such a column was the
Column of Phocas, erected in the
Roman Forum and dedicated or rededicated in 608. The Christian practice of erecting a column topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary dates back at least to the
10th century (in
Clermont-Ferrand in France), but it became common especially in the
Counter-Reformation period following the
Council of Trident (
1545 –
1563). The column in
Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in
Rome was one of the first. The column itself was ancient: it had supported the vault of the so-called Basilica of Constantine in Rome [
1], 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. Within decades it served as a model for many columns in
Italy and other European countries.
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 Virgin Mary is standing on its top on a crescent moon as the
Queen of Heaven. 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 the
Czech Republic,
Austria,
Slovakia, and
Hungary) it is quite exceptional to find an old town square without such a column, usually located on the most prominent place.
|
Destroyed Marian Column in Prague |
The Prague column was built in Old Town Square (
Staroměstské náměstí) 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. Unfortunately, many Czechs later connected its placement and erection with the
hegemony of the
Habsburgs in their country, and after declaring the independence of
Czechoslovakia in
1918 some vandals pulled this old monument down and destroyed it in an excess of revolutionary fervor.
The basic model which inspired building most Holy Trinity columns is the
Pestsäule or
Dreifaltigkeitssäule ("Plague or Holy Trinity column") in the
Grabenplatz, Vienna, built after the
1679 plague; in this monument the column has entirely disappeared in marble clouds and colossal saints, angels and
putti. The era of these religious structures culminated with the outstanding
Holy Trinity Column in Upper Square (
Horní náměstí) 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".[
2]
*
Our Lady and the Column*
The column at Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore*
Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc - pictures*
Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc - UNESCO World Heritage*
Povídání o morových sloupech in
Czech language
