Pestsäule

In 2020, on the occasion of its erection at the Platz der Begegnung, the shrine with the depiction of St Michael the Archangel, St Florian, the Mother of God and Jesus on the cross was given a new pillar.

In earlier times, the term plague or pestilence was used to describe not only the actual "bubonic and pneumonic plague" (caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis), but also all other infectious diseases, most of which occurred in epidemic form.

The plague first reached Europe in Italy and southern France in 1346. In 1349, it travelled from Venice across the Alps to Austria in a wave of infection that devastated around a third of the population and was believed to be close to the end of the world. It was a form of bubonic plague that travelled from the Orient via Venice to Carinthia and the whole of Austria. The terrible reports from the time suggest mass deaths. The Jews were blamed for this in the towns. It was claimed that they were poisoning wells and after bags of poisonous substances were found in wells and springs in Braunau, Jewish pogroms ensued. Thousands of Jews were put to the sword or burned at the stake. The peace-loving Duke Albrecht II, like many other sovereigns, tried to protect the Jews from the people's wrath, but he only succeeded in the rarest of cases.

The plague was documented in Upper Austria in 1349, 1490, around 1500, 1541 to 1569, 1616, 1633/34, 1644, 1648/51, 1679 and finally in 1713. In the course of this last plague epidemic, the Bishop of Passau issued rules of behaviour for the population:

• Cleanliness on the streets
• Isolation of suspects
• Avoid all unnecessary gatherings
• medical assistance
• own pastors for plague patients
• Creation of plague cemeteries
• a Sunday vigil in front of the church

Around 60 deaths are recorded in Pram and Geiersberg during the "rotten fever plague" of 1713. A plague corpse was found during church renovation work in Kimpling in 1931. A white layer of lime was found over it, but it was only 70 centimetres deep, although the prescribed depth would have been about twice that.

During the regulation of the Kallham stream, between Kallham and Neumarkt, the workers came across a well-preserved coffin, which also contained a well-preserved skeleton. The local doctor, Dr Unterberger, explained that this came from a girl who had been buried around 200 years ago (i.e. around the time of the last outbreak of the plague). Shortly afterwards, the workers found another but decayed skeleton. The plague column of Neumarkt originally stood on this spot, right next to the Bürgerspital, which was demolished in 1939. The headmaster Josef Vogl had the plague column placed on the forecourt of the school in 1904. In some villages, not a single person survived. - On the right, the plague column in Neumarkt, at Kainzingerbacherl, where the plague cemetery was also found.