Lindwurmbrunnen, Dragon fountain at Neuer Platz, Klagenfurt, Austria
The Lindwurmbrunnen is a large dragon statue carved from greenschist on Neuer Platz, with water flowing from its open mouth and wings pressed tightly against its body. The sculpture was carved from a single block of stone and has stood as the centerpiece of the square for centuries.
The city commissioned the fountain in 1583, after a fire in 1514 had shown the need for a public water source. Carving of the dragon began at the quarry in 1590 and was finished in 1593, when 300 boys in white pulled the six-tonne stone into town on rollers. It was first set up facing north; the basin followed in 1624 and the Hercules statue in 1636.
The fountain embodies Klagenfurt's founding legend, in which brave men defeated a dragon that terrorized the region around Lake Wörthersee. The statue serves as a central symbol of the city's identity and heritage.
The fountain sits on a large public square in the center of Klagenfurt, easily reached on foot and accessible at any time. It is a place for walking and exploring, where you can view the sculpture from all angles.
The dragon's head is often said to have been modelled on the skull of a woolly rhinoceros found near Klagenfurt around 1335 and kept in the town hall. Franz Unger proposed this link in 1840, and the statue has been called the earliest reconstruction of an extinct animal, though critics call the idea forced euhemerism.
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