>The Heunensäule – Giants’ Column – is the centrepiece of the market square in Mainz.

Not easy to miss it, really.
Neither would you be if you were 6.40 metres high and weighed 16 tonnes.

It looks as if it’s been there forever, but it’s actually a fairly recent arrival.

It was originally one of 7 (or 14, depending on whom one listens to) sandstone columns destined for the rebuilding of the cathedral after the fire on the day of its consecration in 1009.

They were stored close to the quarry in Miltenberg, about 100 km from Mainz, in preparation for transportation and then the architect changed her mind. (I mean, it must have been a woman..). Didn’t need round pillars anymore. Won’t go with the curtains….

And there they languished for almost a thousand years. (The word is that 7 of them ended up as multiple millstones, which makes sense given their tempting shape)

And in 1975, the good people of Miltenberg agreed to gift one of the remaining columns to Mainz to form the focus of the newly revamped squares around the cathedral.

The bronze collar was created by Gernot Rumpf, a local-ish artist (coarse translations not required, thanks…) and the four corners of the sculpture depict 4 key influences on and through the city: Roman, French, Church and Regal.

The shot shows the detail on the bishop’s mitre.

More to follow.

20 Jul This entry was published on 20 July, 2007 at 05:32. It’s filed under Mainz and tagged heunensäule, Market. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.