Year of construction:
1385-1396
Design:
Fritz Pfintzing, Heinrich Behaim
Implementation:
Fritz Pfintzing, Heinrich Behaim
Location:
Depiction:
The lower row represents philosophy and the seven liberal arts:
Pythagoras represents music (shepherd's flute – syrinx), Euclid represents geometry (angle and compass), Ptolemy represents astronomy (sextant), Nicomachus represents arithmetic (calculation table), Aristotle represents dialectics (bag), Cicero is the symbol of rhetoric (buckle bag), Donatus symbolizes grammar (teaching a boy), and Socrates sits there to make up the number eight (holding a book).
The second level depicts the four evangelists (Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John) and the four Latin Church Fathers (Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory).
The third row features 16 rulers, symbolizing the unity of humanity.
These are:
The 7 Electors: The Archbishops of Trier, Mainz, and Cologne, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia.
The 9 heroes: three heroes of antiquity (Hector of Troy, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar), three heroes of the Old Testament (Joshua, Judas Maccabeus, and King David), and three heroes of the West (King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon).
At the top of the fountain column stand Moses and seven Old Testament prophets (Hosea, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Isaiah, and Joel).
The seven electors are also immortalized in the Männleinlaufen (little man running) on the tower of the Frauenkirche on the main market square.
At the feet of the rulers, the grimaces of Nuremberg's main enemies can be seen, including the robber barons Eppelein von Gailingen and Hans Schüttensamen.
The artistically forged iron grille was made by Paulus Kuhn from Augsburg in 1586/87.
Two of the eight grilles feature seamless, rotating rings (one iron ring and one brass ring), which are still sought after and turned by many locals and tourists today.
One of the rings is considered a lucky charm; whoever turns it is said to have their wish for children fulfilled.
History:
The Schöner Brunnen fountain, as we know it today, was built between 1385 and 1396. It is one of the oldest pipe fountains in the city of Nuremberg and has its own water supply, the so-called Schönbrunnleitung.
The column of the Schöner Brunnen rises like a Gothic church spire from an octagonal fountain basin, tapering over three steps to the finial and rising to a height of approximately 19 meters.
The Beautiful Fountain was built from reed sandstone and stands at its original location. The fountain was part of the redevelopment of the Jewish quarter that formerly existed at this site.
The Beautiful Fountain has been restored several times throughout history.
Between 1897 and 1903, the fountain was completely rebuilt because the sandstone used previously had almost completely weathered away.
Der heutige Brunnen ist eine Nachbildung in Muschelkalk aus Krensheim. Fragmente des verwitterten Originals befinden sich im Germanischen Nationalmuseum.
Reference:
Wikipedie: https://de.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Schöner_Brunnen_(Nürnberg)
bayern-online.de: https://bayern-online.de/nuernberg/erleben/
sehenswuerdigkeiten/brunnen/
schoener-brunnen/