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Mettlach
Lkr. Merzig-Wadern Saarland Abteipark |
Schinkel-BrunnenSchinkel FountainJohann der Blinde von Luxemburg / John of BohemiaLuxembourg 1296 - crécy 1346 Count of Luxembourg from 1313 and King of Bohemia from 1310 and titular King of Poland (Wikipedia) |
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
1838 |
Circular fountain with a statue of John of Bohemia in armour on top of the central column. The fountain was commissioned of Schinkel by Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia (1795-1861), who gave it to Jean-François Boch.
Around the upper basin:
imaginem pro corpore regis boemorum joannis, fredericus guilelmus regis borussorum filius regni heres donavit ioan: franc: boch-buschmann d. xi. nove dcccxxxiii|
Schinkel-Brunnen Dear Visitors, Schinke Fountain: dedicated by the Prussian Crown Prince to his Ancestor, the King, "John the Blind" Dear Visitors, The fountain's sculpture portrays John, King of Bohemia and Count of Luxemburg, and was presented by the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick William, later King Frederick William IV, as a gift to Jean- François Boch in 1838 and was erected here in the Old Abbey Park/ The Latin inscription on the rim of the basin also refers to this, the translation reads: "This likeness of John, King of Bohemia, was given to Jean-François Boch by Frederick William, Crown Prince of Prussia" After extensive restoratiin work by Villeroy & Boch and the German Foundation for the Preservation of Historic Monuments, the fountain was returned to its old location in July 2003. It had been presented as a gift to the host: It was during a visit to Jean-François Boch in 1833 that the Crown Prince first found out about the existence of the king, whose mortal remains were being stored in an attic room of the Boch house in Mettlach after going through a long odyssey, including the French Revolution. Fascinated by John's history, the Crown Prince conducted research and found out tht both he and his wife were descendants of the king in the 16th generation. Frederick William, characterized by historians as "he romantic on the throne," was taken by the same reverence for the middle-ages as was his master builder Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841), whose structures still shape Berlin's cityscape to this day. He commissioned Schinkel to design the fountain, whose severe and clear form in iron and red sandstone illustrates the same link between classical and romantic characteristics that gives so many of his works their originality. John, Count of Luxemburg and King of Bohemia, is still a well- known and celebrated hero in Luxemburg who – fully blind in his later years – fought on the side of the French in the Hundred Years' War. He died at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Until 1946, his remains rested in the Chapel in Kastel, which the Crown Prince had likewise commissioned of Schinkel. However, after World War II, it was particularly important to Luxemburg that these be returned, and it had them transported to the Alt Münster Cathedral in a large festive procession. |
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