This is going to be a rather short travel article than what I got you used with, but honestly, it would be a great loss not to share my experience checking out the Column of Pest from Vienna. So I’m going to write about it, at least for the sake of having this memory stored differently than on my external HDD.
I mentioned quite a few times about my experience while being in Austria on a city break with the few friends I have, and that visiting it in December when the main focus is on the Christmas Markets when Vienna is more magical than any other city out there, should not be limited just to the Christmas part.
Obviously, we did check out most of the Christmas Markets we could during our stay. But we also reserved some time to see the city and what it has to offer, making our way towards Graben which is one of the most famous squares in Vienna’s first district, or in short, the center of the town.
No need to mention that if you are into shopping or trying some of the traditional food then this place is the best for any kind of activity as I’m pretty sure you can find lots of things around. We only took time to check some souvenir shops, but the imposing buildings along with some famous shops did catch our attention too.
This was, actually, one of the most crowded places we walked in while being in Vienna as most of the people were around the Christmas Markets almost entirely forgetting about the rest of the places tourists can check out.
Anyway, still in this square, is also the column I would like to talk about, which no matter how many people are going up and down the streets at that time, it’s impossible not to observe it even from the distance.
Column of Pest, The Plague Column, Trinity Column, die Wiener Pestsäule, and The Holy Trinity Column, are just some of the names dedicated to the same monument that it’s pretty obvious what period of life marks.
Sadly, Romania didn’t escape from the Plague either and we also have a similar column called the same, located in Timisoara, but which is visibly less detailed in architectural design.
While the one from my home country is not so well known by either the locals or tourists passing by, the Column of Pest from Vienna is quite the opposite, being recognized as the most important monument of the city, people showing mercy to the ones who lost the battle with the disease in 1679.
The style of the monument follows Baroque architecture and there are rumours that this column is one of the most ambitious and innovative sculptures created anywhere in Europe in the post-Bernini era.
While I don’t know much about architectural styles, I can only say that I was personally very impressed by all the details you could notice on the monument, talking about various figures, angels, and everything coming to an end with the Holy Trinity placed on the top of the sculpture.
Sadly, Austria is one of the countries that was affected the most by plague back in 1679. And perhaps that’s the main reason why people feel this monument here a lot closer to their hearts than anywhere else in the rest of the countries affected, even if many centuries passed ever since.
There was actually another similar monument raised but made out of wood and resembling 9 angels that represented The Nine Choirs of Angels but which is placed on a different side of the town.
A thing that surprised me though, is that this kind of monuments are usually raised on the demand of people, but this time the main idea came from Emperor Leopold I after seeing more than 75,000 lose their lives in a rather short period of time.
However, while the best-known meaning of the column is to show the win of the battle in front of the epidemic, the emperor had also a different hidden message within, averting the Ottomans that they survived and no battle should happen soon if Ottomans are not ready to lose most of their people as the Austrians felt stronger than ever.
The complete address of Column of Pest is Graben, 1010 Vienna, and it’s placed on the pedestrian part of the Graben square that runs between Stephansdom Cathedral and the east side of the Hofburg Palace complex. The plague column sits about halfway along so it’s hard to miss it.
Other places I’ve seen during my stay in Vienna:
- The Austrian Parliament Building
- Capuchin Church (Katholische Kapuzinerkirche “Hl. Maria von den Engeln”)
- The tour of the Christmas Markets from Vienna, Austria
- Stadtpark
- Shop Windows of Vienna, Austria
- Hundertwasser House (Hundertwasserhaus)
- The Imperial Crypt
- Column of Pest (The Plague Column, Vienna, Austria)
more coming soon…
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Gabriela Travels 
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