The Statue of the Holy Trinity


       After you have read the first pages, you can tell that the
   town of Timisoara had a very agitated past. Perhaps this
   explains the fact that there are so few old monuments which,
   unfortunately, don t receive very much attention.
       Their deterioration is due to both weather corrosion and the
   ignorant human intervention. The restoration of the
   architectural monuments as well as the old buildings, would be a
   plus on the city's appearance offering something of the old
   Timisoara to the tourists eager to know the Town Hero-Timisoara,
   the first free town from Romania in December 1989.
   The statue of the Holy Trinity rises in the middle of Pietei
   Unirii, or the Unification s Square, in the same architectural
   style with the other buildings. The foundation stone dates from
   November 24, 1740, and was placed here by the local
   administration Consular, Mr. Johann Anton Deschan von Hannsen,
   who initiated the construction of the monument based on a solemn
   promise. The statue recalls the end of the plague epidemic that
   devastated Timisoara and the whole region of Banat. That is why
   is also called Statuia Ciumei, or the Plague Statue. The
   monument includes a triangular column symbolically ornated, on
   which the Holy Trinity rests: the Father and the son hold the
   heavenly crown atop of Saint Mary knelt at their feet. At the
   base of the column there are the statues of Saint Nepomuk, Saint
   Rozalie, king David, and Saint Barbara, the patron of miners;
   the triangular base is guarded by legendary protective statues:
   Saint Rochus, Saint Sebastian, and Saint Carol Boromeus.  On the
   three sides of the triangle there are sculptures representing
   the three calamities: war, hunger and plague, caused at that
   time by the Turks (1737-1739). The monument was built from
   gritstone and has an exceptional artistic value being created in
   Vienna, in baroc style, and brought to Timisoara on water, on
   the Danube, Tisa, and the Bega channel.  The statue of the Holy
   Trinity, which was in a deplorable state, was restored through
   private donations organized by the Schvabs from Banat,
   established in Germany, and the Bavarian government [9].
       The baroc monument, of great historical and artistic value,
   is the pearl of "Timisoara s treasury", the name given to the
   Unification s Square by Franz Liebhard, a Timisoranean poet [7].
   This square was the place where important events in the history
   of people from Banat occurred, both Romanians and Schvabs. This
   is where festivities were held on the occasion of the
   unification of Banat with Romania, the event that gave the today's
   name to the square. In the XVIII century another baroc art
   monument was created in the Unification s Square: the Roman
   Catholic Dome, known in Timisoara as the Dome-Church
   ("Domkirche").