Plague Column in Linz (Upper Austria)

Clemens Kohl (1754–1807) and Johann Schütz (1755–1813)

Plague Column in Linz, 1723

Etching and engraving

Inv. no. AG.K. 8738

Known as the Trinity Column, the plague column in Linz stands prominently in the middle of the Main Square. Unlike Styria or Vienna, the state capital of Upper Austria was not severely affected by the great plague epidemic of the late 17th century, attacks by the Ottoman Empire or by the War of the Spanish Succession. In show of gratitude for this, Emperor Charles VI, the Upper Austrian estates and the population donated the twenty-metre-high Trinity Column, which was visible from far and wide at the time. Salzburg stonemason Sebastian Stumpfegger (1670-1749) created the sculpture – made of Untersberg marble – between 1717 and 1723. He based this work on a design by the Italian theatre engineer and architect Antonio Beduzzi (1675-1735).