Vienna - Spinnerin am Kreuz

The Spinnerin am Kreuz is a 16m/52ft high Gothic stone pillar in the shape of a vial-shaped tabernacle. One of the landmarks of Old Vienna, it was designed by Hans Puschbaum, the architect of St Stephen's Cathedral, and erected in 1452 to replace an older one which had been donated by Leopold III. According to legend a faithful wife sat here at her spinning wheel, awaiting her husband's return from a Crusade. From 1311 to 1747 and again from 1804 to 1868 the "gallows by the Spinnerin" was the site of public executions. Severin von Jaroszynski was hanged here in front of 30,000 spectators in 1827. He was a Polish aristocrat who had robbed and murdered a man in order to be able to satisfy the excessive financial demands of the popular