Plague between Prague and Vienna - Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Early Modern Central Europe

Vienna's prominent landmark, the Pestsäule (PlagueColumn), commemorates the devastating bubonic plagueepidemic of 1679 that killed thousands of the city's in-habitants. The gigantic, three sided marble pyramidiscovered with baroque clouds is dedicated to the Trinityand the Nine Choirs of Angels. Although pledgedby Emperor Leopold I in the very year of the outbreak ofthe disease, the memorial could not be completed until1694. Its imagery reflects some of the most tragic eventsbut also some of Austria's greatest triumphs, because theinvasion, siege, and repulsion of the Ottoman army in1683 added new meaning to the monument's concept.Vienna's Pestsäule is now recognized as one of the mostinnovative and ambitious sculptural ensembles createdanywhere in Europe in the Post-Bernini era.