St. Anne's Column () stands in the city centre of

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, on Maria-Theresien-Straße. It was given its name when, in 1703, the last

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n troops were driven from the

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

's Day (26 July), as part of the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

. In 1704, in gratitude, the ''

Landstände The ''Landstände'' (singular ''Landstand'') or ''Landtage'' (singular ''Landtag'') were the various territorial estates or diets in the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, as opposed to their respective territorial ...

'' vowed to build a monument commemorating the event. The column was made from red Kramsach marble to the design of Cristoforo Benedetti, a sculptor from

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige, Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the Trentino, autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ...

. On the base are four statues of saints: * In the north, Saint Anne, the mother of the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

* In the west, Cassian, patron saint of the Diocese of Bozen-Brixen. * In the east, Vigilius, patron saint of the Diocese of Trento. * In the south,

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

, patron saint of the

. Towering above these four statues is the column with its statue of the Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse, rising 13 meters (42 feet) from the street. The column was consecrated on 26 July 1706 by

Prince-Bishop A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to '' Prince of the Church'' itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the ...

Kaspar Ignaz, Count of Künigl. It has been restored several times over the centuries. In 1958, mainly for conservation reasons, the figure of Mary was replaced by a replica and the original was loaned to the Abbey of St. Georgenberg-Fiecht, where it has been placed in a side chapel of the abbey church of Fiecht (near

Schwaz Schwaz () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the administrative center of the Schwaz district. Schwaz is located in the lower Inn valley. Location Schwaz lies in the middle of the Lower Inn Valley at the foot of the Kellerjoch ...

) above Saint Mary's altar. On 10 October 2009 the figures of saints on the base of the monument were also substituted; the originals are now on the first floor of the Altes Landhaus in Innsbruck. File:Innsbruck Annasäule detail St. Anne.jpg, Saint Anne File:2014-05-31 Innsbruck, Annasäule 1156.jpg, Statue of Mary,
since 1958 File:Fiecht Kirche Madonnenstatue (Cristoforo Benedetti 1706).jpg, Original statue of Mary by Benedetti, 1706 file:2697 - Innsbruck - Annasäule.JPG, St. Anne's Column from the south, with the

Nordkette The Nordkette, also variously called the North Chain, Northern Range, rarely the Inn Valley Range or Inn Valley Chain (''Inntalkette''), is a range of mountains just north of the city of Innsbruck in Austria. It is the southernmost of the four gr ...

mountain chain behind File:Innsbruck Annasäule detail (from left) Ss. Cassian of Imola, George, Vigilius of Trent - viewn from c.South.jpg, From the south (from left to right): Saints Cassian, George and Vigilius

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Anne's Column Sculptures of saints 18th-century sculptures Marble sculptures in Austria Monuments and memorials in Austria Monumental columns in Austria Tyrolean culture Buildings and structures in Innsbruck

See also

References

External links