Schöner Brunnen, Gothic fountain in Hauptmarkt, Nuremberg, Germany
The Schöner Brunnen is a 19-metre Gothic spire-shaped fountain on Nuremberg's Hauptmarkt, built of stone and painted in gold, red, blue and green. Its four tiers carry forty figures: Philosophy and the Seven Liberal Arts, the Four Evangelists and Church Fathers, the Seven Electors and Nine Good Heroes, and Moses with seven prophets. A wrought-iron grille with curling scrollwork surrounds its base.
A Nuremberg craftsman named Heinrich Beheim created this fountain at the end of the 14th century as a central structure of the marketplace. The work arose during a time when the city sought to underscore its power and prosperity through architectural accomplishment.
The figures on the fountain represent different areas of knowledge and authority, including scholars and high-ranking officials from the empire. They show how the city's society displayed its values in the center of the marketplace.
The fountain stands at the edge of the Hauptmarkt beside the Nuremberg Rathaus, on the city's Historical Mile. The 1903 shell-limestone copy is what you see; the surviving stone remnants of the original are kept in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. The surrounding platform has a ring of steps, so watch your footing when the market is crowded.
Of the two turnable rings in the fountain's iron grille, only one is brass; the other, on the northeast side, is iron and was inserted in 1902. The brass ring has been renewed at least five times, most recently in 1957. Many Nurembergers consider the black iron ring the true lucky charm.
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