ABSTRACT
This monument, the Pestäule, is in the Graben in Vienna, near to St Stephen’s Cathedral. It commemorates Leopold I’s thanksgiving after the plague of April 1679 which took thousands of lives. The column is made of white Salzburg marble surrounded by cloud spirals and crowned by the Trinity in gilded copper. Nine angels in groups of three carry the emblems of Leopold’s power, the lance and the Duke’s hat, coat of arms and sword, and crown and sceptre. On the bottom part of the monument are the coats of arms of the House of Austria and of the Kingdoms of Hungary and of Bohemia.
