Edited by IPC Prešov | Košice and Žilina Regions
Marian Column in Prešov
Country: Slovakia
Region: Presov Region
Type of inspiration: History
Inspiracja
Humanity has been plagued by various diseases and epidemics since time immemorial. From time to time, pandemics have also arisen, spreading rapidly over a wide area. The most famous pandemics were - plague, cholera and influenza. The inhabitants in the larger cities were worse off, as the contagion spread faster there. In some cities, the population dropped by up to a third. Throughout Slovakia, during the Baroque period, commemorative plague columns, the so-called Immaculata, were erected. The memory of the victims of the plague epidemic was to protect the townspeople from misery and suffering.
The inhabitants of Prešov were struck by plague epidemics in 1679 and 1710. The majestic Baroque sculpture of the Immaculate Conception in Prešov was erected by the Jesuits in 1751. The sculpture was erected on the site of the former execution ground of the Prešov Blood Court, the famous Caraffa Trial of 1687. This event condemned 24 Protestant noblemen and townspeople to death. They were accused of complicity in Imrich Thököly's anti-Habsburg uprising. The statue of the Virgin Mary and Child dominates the top of the sculpture by an unknown artist; it is an iconographic type of Regina coeli, i.e. Queen of Heaven, where the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus are depicted with the attributes of sovereign power. In addition to the state and city patrons (St. Stephen the King and St. Nicholas the Bishop), the Jesuits venerate saints and martyrs such as St. John of Nepomuk, the Martyrs of Košice, St. Francis Xaversky, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Stanislaus Kostka, and others on the sculpture.
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