Klagenfurt - Neuer Platz and Dragon Fountain

(Local Name: Lindwurmbrunnen) The central feature of the newer part of Klagenfurt is the spacious Neuer Platz, with the massive Dragon Fountain (Lindwurmbrunnen), the heraldic emblem of Klagenfurt. This huge piece of sculpture was carved by Ulrich Vogelsang about 1590 from a single block of chloritic schist. Legend has it that the town was built on a swamp inhabited by a dragon, which was later slain. The model for the dragon's head was the skull of a woolly rhinoceros found near the town (now in the Provincial Museum). The figure of Hercules and the iron railings were added in 1636. On Neuer Platz, too, stands the Trinity Column ("Dreifaltigkeitssäule", 1689; the square used to be known as the "Dreifaltigkeitsplatz", or Trinity Square).