50/365: Dwarf at the Cholera Well

50/365: Dwarf at the Cholera Well, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 19th

In 1841, an epidemic of cholera broke out along the Elbe. Through some fortune, it never touched Dresden. In gratitude to God for sparing the great city, the local baron Eugen von Gutschmid commissioned a Neo-Gothic fountain of granite and sandstone. The architect of this piece was Gottfried Semper (author of the eponymous Semperoper which stands across the street). The fountain looks like a church spire, with four figures on its four sides: Wittekind ,an 8th century Saxon prince, St. Boniface , the first apostle of the Germans, John the Baptist, and St. Elisabeth of Hungary. The basins are supported by dwarves, and green lizards climb over the edges.