Donnerbrunnen, Baroque fountain at Neuer Markt, Austria
Donnerbrunnen is a fountain at Neuer Markt in Vienna featuring a central figure representing Providentia. Four additional figures surround the base, each depicting major Austrian rivers with their own sculptural character.
The city of Vienna commissioned the fountain in 1737, an unusual case of civic patronage in a Baroque era dominated by the imperial court and nobility. Johann Georg Sebastian Knox cut the stone, and Johann Nikolaus Moll cast Donner's models in a lead-tin alloy; the figures were installed in 1739. Removed in 1773, they were restored by sculptor Johann Martin Fischer and returned in 1801.
Viennese call the fountain Donnerbrunnen after its creator, Georg Raphael Donner, because they could not make sense of the Latin providentia; in the 18th century it was also known as Mehlmarktbrunnen, since Neuer Markt was then the Mehlmarkt. The four river figures double as the four ages of man and temperaments: the youthful Traun spears a fish, the old ferryman Enns leans on a rudder, Ybbs is a resting girl with a pouring vessel, and March leans against a relief of a battle.
The fountain sits on Neuer Markt in central Vienna, within walking distance of St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Capuchin Church. The plaza offers space to view the sculpture from multiple angles and is easily accessible from surrounding streets.
The lead figures were removed in 1773, supposedly by the Keuschheitskommission because of their nudity, but that is a legend: the damaged sculptures were to be replaced by copies. The sculptor Johann Martin Fischer was told to melt them down, recognised their value and restored them instead; they returned to the fountain in 1801.
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