Swaggering soldier of fortune stands with hand on hip in Swiss city of Schaffhausen. Painted stone statue of well-armed German Landsnecht or Lansquenet mercenary, wearing slashed doublet and hose. On a drinking fountain built in 1524, the Landsknechtbrunnen (Mercenary Fountain), in Fronwagplatz, a square in the Altstadt or old town of Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland. The soldier's head is framed by the face of a 1564 astronomical clock.
Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland: framed by the face of a 1564 astronomical clock, a bearded German mercenary or soldier of fortune stares down intently from the pillar of the Landsknechtbrunnen (Mercenary Fountain) at people passing through Fronwagplatz in the Altstadt or old town. The polychrome stone statue, sculpted by an unknown hand in 1524, depicts a Landsnecht or Lansquenet mercenary standing, hand on hip, while holding a halberd. He is also armed with a sword, a dagger and a golden shield bearing the Schaffhausen emblem, and wears a slashed doublet and hose with a codpiece. The fountain is also known as the Lansquenet Fountain or Metzgerbrunnen (Butcher Fountain). The astronomical clock, by Joachim Habrecht, is on the Fronwagturm or Fronwag Tower, where large market scales once weighed all the goods unloaded from boats at Schaffhausen and then reloaded downstream, below the Rhine Falls. It displays ten different measurements, including hours, days of the week, changing moons, the location of the sun, seasons, the equinox and eclipses. The Landsknechte were German mercenary pikemen of the late 1400s and early 1500s who fought all over Europe and were rated the most effective foot-soldiers in the world. Like their earlier Swiss rivals, the Reisläufer, they fought in tight squares of hundreds of pikemen and halberdiers that could rebuff heavy cavalry charges. Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I formed the Landsknechte after admiring Swiss mercenaries in battle. They fought successfully in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Sweden, but ultimately lost their usefulness as gunpowder replaced pikes in European wars. Schaffhausen was a fortified medieval city state that grew around a Benedictine monastery. It was an Imperial free city from about 1200 AD, but after then being owned by the Hapsburgs, it joined the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1501.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Schaffhausen, Schaffhausen canton, Switzerland
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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