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Cholera fountain in Dresden by Gottfried Semper

The cholera fountain in Dresden has a new task, does it help the city to survive the coronavirus pandemic lightly? This truly resilient fountain was first presented to the public in 1846, after years of work (1842–1845). The construction of the fountain was carried out by none other than Gottfried Semper as the architect. Actually not part of his expertise, he built the fountain in the neo-Gothic style, completely at the request of the client, Baron Eugen von Gutschmid. The cholera fountain in Dresden got erected as a memorial and primarily to thank God for the general absolution before infection/death, since the infectious bacterial disease Cholera threatened to infect the city of Dresden in 1841 and 1842. Of course, such luck had to be adequately celebrated, in the 19th century, with the construction of a fountain. The 15.2-meter high fountain is adorned with various Bible sayings and religious figures.

Nowadays, however, there is hardly anything left of the original substance of the cholera fountain. Originally placed on Postplatz in Dresden, the fountain soon became a traffic obstacle and was misplaced. Actually, after a few years, early signs of deterioration appeared. Over the years there have been repeated losses of the substance due to weather conditions and vandalism. Before moving the fountain to its current position on Sophienstrasse, the water system in the fountain was completely renewed.

Address Cholerabrunnen Dresden: Corner of Kleine Brüdergasse / Sophienstraße / Taschenberg 3, 01067 Dresden

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