landscapes - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1976 - 8 Shilling

In the southern area of ​​Graz lies the castle Reiteregg between the villages Hitzendorf and Rohrbach. In front of the castle stands a baroque stone shrine, whose shape differs considerably from the simpler way crosses in rural areas. According to the architectural structure, this shrine corresponds to the type of tabernacle pillar. The picture-sticks of this coinage emerge from the early form of the death-light, which was originally installed only in the cemeteries and whose housing served to receive a light. In the place of the light, pictorial representations of religious content can be found from the 14th century, which can be executed as painting or sculpture. These shrines are to be understood as a votive indication of dangers or epidemics that have been passed, of memory of wars and misfortunes on whose occasion they were set up. The shrine of Reiteregg, the so-called "plague column", has features that identify this pillar as a memorial to death. The strictly symmetrical structure of the pillar and its ornamental training allow a dating in the last quarter of the 17th century.