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Komenskeho náměstí

Mariánský sloup

Saint Mary's Column

Attributed to
František Martin Katterbauer
c. 1700

Description

High Baroque Marian Column, erected in 1700 and commissioned by the then owner of the estate, the High Burgrave of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Count Adolf Vratislav of Šternberk. The work was probably created in the workshop of the Kutná Hora sculptor František Martin Katterbauer. Whilst the central statue of the Immaculate Conception likely comes directly from the master himself, the flanking statues of the saints were probably executed by his workshop colleagues.
On top of the central column is a statue of Saint Mary Immaculate Conception, standing on a globe entwined by a serpent. This central column by four lower square columns with statues of the patron saints against the plague: St. Sebastian, St. Roch, and St. Francis Xavier, complemented by a statue of St. John of Nepomuk.
In the pedestal of the central column is a niche with a relief of St. Rosalia of Palermo, meditating before a crucifix.

Neposkvrněné početí Panny Marie / Saint Mary Immaculate Conception.

Svatá Rozálie / St Rosalia of Palermo
(Palermo 1130 – Palermo 1166), virgin and hermit, patron saint of Palermo; especially invoked in times of plague. (Wikipedia).

Svatý František Xaverský / St. Francis Xavier
(Javier, Navarra 1506 - São João Island, China, 1552), pioneering Roman Catholic missionary, co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Wikipedia).

Svatý Šebestián / St. Sebastian
(died c. 288), martyr, killed during the Roman emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians (Wikipedia).

Svatý / St. Rochus
(14th century), saint from Montpellier, he is specially invoked against the plague. (Wikipedia).

Svatý Jan Nepomucký / St. John of Nepomuk
(Nepomuk c. 1345 - Praha 1393), confessor of the queen of Bohemia, refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. At the behest of King Wenceslaus of Bohemia he was thrown from the Charles Bridge in Prague and drowned. John of Nepomuk is patron saint of bridges (Wikipedia)

Marian, Holy Trinity and Plague Columns (Mariensäule, Dreifaltigkeitssäule, Pestsäule)

Marian and Holy Trinity columns are religious monuments with a statue of Saint Mary or a depiction of the Holy Trinity on top of a column. Around the base of the column are usually various saints. Marian columns were built to thank the Virgin Mary for intervention to quell the pestilence and other scourges. The first of those was erecrted in Vienna in 1667 (Mariensäule) and the second in 1679 also in Vienna at the Graben, the Pestsäule.
The purpose of the Holy Trinity columns was usually simply to celebrate the church and the faith, although the plague motif could play a role.
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 (Wikipedia)

Artist

František Martin Katterbauer (†Kutn7#225; Hora 1730), Bohemian sculptor and woodcarver of the Baroque period (Wikipedia).

Sources & Information

Cesty a Památky, Mariánský sloup.

Location (N 49°57'17" - E 15°1'45") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

Item Code: czsc009; Photograph: 9 July 2026
Of each statue we made photos from various angles and also detail photos of the various texts.
If you want to use photos, please contact us via the contact form (in Dutch, English or German).
© Website and photos: René & Peter van der Krogt

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