The bagpiper fountain

A fountain between Dürer, bagpipes and poetry

The figure is based on a design by the Nuremberg artist Friedrich Wanderer. The bronze casting comes from the Lenz art foundry, also in Nuremberg. The fountain originally stood at the Ebnersgasse/Heugäßchen junction, but was relocated to today's Unschlittplatz after the destruction of the Second World War, together with a new lower shell. The original fountain, together with its historical composition, is now kept in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. The historical model for the figure is often associated with Albrecht Dürer's copperplate engraving ‘The Bagpiper’ (1514) - a finely crafted wrought-iron lattice surrounds the fountain bowl with the prancing bagpipe figure

And then there is the medieval legend. During one of the numerous waves of plague that hit Nuremberg between 1348 and 1634, the following is said to have happened: A certain musician had drunk too much in a pub and, exhausted by alcohol, simply fell asleep in the street on his way home. The corpse collectors found him there, mistook him for another plague victim and loaded him and his bagpipes onto their cart. Only the jolting of the cart is said to have woken the musician from his stupor. In a panic, he grabbed the bagpipes and played - not out of joy, but out of sheer necessity. The coachmen were so frightened that they immediately removed him from the carriage. And so the reveller escaped certain death - allegedly thanks to his musical reflex and possibly also because of his high alcohol level, which is said to have protected him from infection.

Is the story true? Unclear. But it is certainly entertaining.