7. Johannes-Nepomuk Fountain
In 1727/28, an already existing draw well was upgraded into a prestigious pumping well with a statue of Johannes Nepomuk. This pumping station was built by the Rastatt architect Johann Peter Ernst Rohrer, the pumping handle was created by a Straßburg bell foundry.
Saint Nepomuk was worshipped first and foremost in Bohemia, the home of the margravine Sibylla Augusta, as patron of confessional secrets, the dying, mariners and rafts men. In 1893, the fountain was restored from top to bottom and the elaborate ironwork lattice was added to it at that time.
Children discover Rastatt:
There were no cars and no bicycles in the baroque period. There was no electricity and no running water in houses. If you wanted to write a letter, a messenger carried the letter on foot to the recipient.
People in the inner city got their drinking water from the Johannes Fountain, as the Rastatt residents called it. The weekly market would be held around the fountain. This was the best place for Ludwig, the town mouse, to get his supply of grains, fruit and vegetables. Noodles and potatoes were still unknown in Rastatt at that time.
If you go to see the artistically forged lattice of the Johannes Fountain, you can still recognize the fountain cover above the well shaft. The only building in Rastatt that was supplied with running water under margrave Ludwig Georg’s reign was the Palace.
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