The Column of Pest is a swirling tower of stone and gilded figures. Born from catastrophe, it commemorates the Great Plague of 1679, a year when the city was gripped by fear, death and desperate prayer.

Look closely and the monument reveals its layers: angels, clouds, saints, demons, and the Habsburg emperor himself, all entangled in a Baroque masterpiece of salvation and terror. It is theatrical, unsettling and strangely beautiful.

At the base of the monument, half‑hidden in the folds of stone, crouches one of its most arresting figures, a demon carved with grotesque precision, representing the plague itself. This demon is not decorative; it is the emotional core of the monument. It embodies the terror of 1679, the invisible enemy made visible and the fear given form.