St. Florian's Column
Sacral small monument
Bratislava is particularly rich in modern sacred art. For centuries, the city was one of the most important ecclesiastical (and ecclesiastical art) centers of the country, and such valuable monuments can be found not only in its historical center, but also in its suburbs that emerged in the modern era. ; The ornate, stone-carved statue group of St. Florian was built in 1732 in the area called the Flower Valley (Blumenthal) to the northeast of the walled medieval city center. It originally stood in the so-called Hen Market Square in front of the Lőrinc Gate, which served as the northeastern exit of the walled city, but it eventually became so disruptive to the increased traffic that it was moved to its current location in 1938, in front of the Roman Catholic Church in Flower Valley. ; The small, wrought-iron fenced Baroque work is surrounded by three separate, low columns, each with a separate figure of a saint. The side surfaces of the work, with a curved triangular pedestal in the center, decorated with statues at the corners, richly carved, and plastically decorated, are occupied by relief picture fields. A slender truncated pyramid column rises from the pedestal, also with numerous sculptures and figures on the sides. At the top of this stands the central figure that gives the work its name: the animatedly formed Saint Florian. It was depicted according to the usual iconography, in the uniform of a Roman military officer. ; The statue, carved from limestone, was so damaged by the weather and the vibrations of the trams passing by that it had to be removed in 2007. It was only restored and re-installed in 2014.