Spanheimer fountain

Yes, every city has its monuments. And Klagenfurt has many of them, from different periods. But every monument belongs to its own time and it often happens that, in a new age, it is no longer appreciated. It no longer reflects the spirit of the age. Klagenfurt is particularly rich in this respect: monuments that have disappeared, been moved, altered or transformed. There is, for example, the Plague Column, which is no longer in the old cemetery — today there is a coach park in its place. There is the Baroque column of St Nepomuk in Alter Platz, removed because Baroque art was no longer appreciated in the nineteenth century. The statue of Maria Theresa has been altered. The Dragon (Lindwurm) has changed position in Neuer Platz. And then there is the Spanheimer Fountain, today in Arthur-Lemisch-Platz. Originally it stood in Alter Platz and bore a large bronze statue of the founder of the city, Bernhard von Spanheim. During the Second World War, however, that statue was dismantled and the metal was melted down. The fountain remained there, empty. Without a figure. Without visible memory. Later, it was relocated to what is now Lemisch Square. But the new statue — this time in Carrara marble — proved too small in proportion to the fountain. So, something unusual was done: the fountain was shortened by two steps, to restore the proportions. A fascinating story and also quite a scandal at the time. The local newspapers talked about it for weeks. And today, precisely because the fountain is lower, one can look the lions supporting the basin straight in the eye.
At the kärnten.museum we have a room dedicated to the medieval city: there visitors can discover how cities came into being, what the walls were like, how they developed, who the key figures were, the judges, the citizens, the founders. It is a story that continues inside the museum as well.