Tour · Klagenfurt · Monument
Bernhard von Spanheim
The white marble figure crowning the Spanheimer Fountain honours Duke Bernhard von Spanheim, the thirteenth century ruler who moved Klagenfurt to safe ground and granted it town rights. He is, quite literally, the founder of the city you are exploring.
Su questo luogo
Rising from a granite basin guarded by four crouching lions, this fountain monument celebrates Bernhard von Spanheim, Duke of Carinthia from 1202 until 1256 and a member of the powerful House of Sponheim. His name is bound to the very existence of Klagenfurt: around 1246 he moved the flood prone settlement to higher, safer ground, fortified it, and set it on the road to becoming a proper town, which received its charter in 1252. Bernhard was a prolific founder of towns, and the four bronze coats of arms set into the base honour the Duchy of Carinthia together with the three settlements he nurtured, Klagenfurt, Sankt Veit an der Glan and Völkermarkt. The marble duke you see today is not the original; the first bronze statue was seized and melted down under Nazi rule in 1940, and sculptor Arnulf Anton Pichler recreated the founder in enduring Carrara marble for the ceremonial re unveiling in 1954.
Fatti principali
- 1252 year — Klagenfurt received its town charter under Duke Bernhard von Spanheim
- 54 years — Bernhard ruled as Duke of Carinthia, from 1202 until 1256
- 4 lions — Marble lions crouch beneath the granite fountain that carries his statue
📍 Dr.-Arthur-Lemisch-Platz 6, 9020, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee