Mariensäule, Maria column in Wernstein am Inn, Austria.

Mariensäule is a 17-metre column of sandstone and granite on the Inn riverbank below Wernstein Castle. Its square pedestal is ringed by four fighting putti about two metres tall; above them a second pedestal bears inscriptions, then a six-metre column of a single piece with laurel ornament and a composite capital carrying the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Emperor Ferdinand III commissioned the column in 1645 as an expression of gratitude for Vienna's protection during the Thirty Years War against Swedish forces. The structure was created during a period when religious monuments were erected across Central Europe to commemorate victories and divine providence.

The statue follows the Immaculata Conceptio type, the Virgin treading on the serpent, chosen for Vienna instead of the Loreto model of the Munich column. The four bellicose putti around the base are about two metres tall, and the laurel ornament on the shaft is a detail to look for. Count Georg Ludwig von Sinzendorf had inscriptions added recording the column's transfer, noting it cost him "sumptuosis impensis statuit".

The column stands on the Inn bank below Wernstein Castle, reachable on foot from the village centre. The four inscriptions added by Count Sinzendorf are on the recessed faces of the pedestal, so walk around the base to read them. The site is open and can be viewed at any time.

The 1989/90 restoration was carried out by a team of restorer Franz Gyolcs and sculptor Klaus Wedenig, and was documented in detail. Older accounts long described the column as marble, yet it was actually built of sandstone and granite, the cheaper materials Ferdinand III's vow did not mention.