Löwenbrunnen

The Löwenbrunnen stands on the Naschmarkt in Leipzig, directly opposite the main entrance of the Mädlerpassage. Two iron lions flank it, and the pump handles sit right beside them. The fountain you see dates to 1918, the latest in a line reaching back to about 1690. Its look echoes those earlier wooden fountains, translated into more durable materials.

The first of those fountains stood surrounded by three steps, decorated with maritime mythical creatures and sandstone reliefs. A painted copper dome carried a pyramid, and a golden sun crowned the very top. Around 1820 the Berlin sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow designed the two lions and their pump handles. The well-known foundry at Lauchhammer cast them in iron. In 1918 the council rebuilt the fountain under Hugo Licht, then the city's chief architect, keeping the lions and handles in place.

It also joins a much larger Leipzig tradition. Dozens of public fountains once served the city, each with its own story and design. Most early wells were simple wooden structures, but from the fifteenth century stonework, metalwork and artistic detail took over. By the early twentieth century, supplying water had long given way to beautifying public spaces. Gold letters on the back record the rebuild in the last year of the war and name the donor, Kommerzienrat Hugo Haschke.