Pest column

No. 21a

The pest column carries the date 1652 and therefore must have been erected during the first pest wave. It consists of a square column and a pointed capital with four flat niches. The niches recall the four Evangelists who are called upon during supplicatory processions for protection against the pest, hunger and war.

A further pest column, which used to stand at the intersection of Kirchgasse and Weinstraße at the entrance to Kurtatsch, now stands in the “Museum of People through Time”.

The pest column was one of the stations where supplicatory processions against the pest stopped – statio. Later, when funeral processions used to start at the house of the deceased, the processions stopped at the pest column on the way to the church to rest and pray for indulgence – rest of the dead.

Processions of pilgrims from Kurtatsch also made their way to Graun to worship the patron saints Roch and Sebastian to protect them from the pest.