The Statue of the Holy Trinity

The Statue of the Holy Trinity is located in the centre of Union Square in Timişoara and it was built in the memory of the victims of the plague of 1738-1739, during which 1,300 people died. This is the reason for which it is also known as the Plague Column.

The statue was built in Baroque style in Vienna and then shipped to Timişoara on the Danube, Tisza ad Bega Rivers.

The cornerstone of this monument was laid on November 23, 1740, by the councilor of the governor, Johann Anton Deschan von Hannsen, the commissioner of the monument, whose wife has died during the plague.

The statue was exhibited for 12 months in front of the Deschan Palace, on the site of the present day Bega Shopping Centre, and then moved to Union Square, when the land underneath it was bought.

The monument is shaped as a tall, triangular column, at the top of which the Holy Trinity, the Holy Saint, the Son and the Father, all hold the heavenly crown above the head of the Virgin Mary, suggesting thus the connection between heaven and earth.

At the bottom of the column stands the statues of St.John of Nepomuk, patron of Banat, King David and St. Barbara, the patron saint of the miners. The pedestal of the monument included the statues of other saints: Saint Roc, with his wounded leg, protector against the plague and other diseases, Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows, another protector against the plague, and Saint Charles Borromeo, patron saint of love.

More bas-reliefs can be seen on the three sides, representing the three calamities that hit the area of Banat in the eighteenth century: war, famine and the plague.

Text source: https://timisoara.eventya.eu/