Action-packed 16th century Renaissance sgraffito friezes on the brown and white south front of an ancient house in the town square at Gmünd, Lower Austria, feature naked warriors, some riding horses bareback, fighting with swords, lances, longbows and shields. The small-scale diamond sgraffito pattern that also decorates the facade of Stadtplatz 31 is unique in Austria.


Gmünd, Lower Austria, Austria: vibrant 16th century Renaissance sgraffito friezes on the brown and white south front of an ancient house in the town square at Gmünd, Lower Austria, Austria, feature naked warriors, some riding horses bareback, fighting with swords, lances, longbows and shields. The small-scale diamond sgraffito pattern that also decorates the facade of Stadtplatz 31 is unique in Austria. No. 31 and its next door neighbour, No. 33, both have late 16th century Renaissance facades, but No. 31 is the earlier, built in in Late Gothic style in the late medieval era. Over the arch of the main doorway, specialist hand tools depicted on a panel below the scratched date 1565 indicate that at that time, No. 31 was the home and premises of a cooper or barrel-maker. Sgraffito is the ancient artistic technique of scratching or cutting away parts of a surface layer of plaster, stucco or paint to expose a background of a different colour or texture.


Size: 4162px × 2765px
Location: Gmünd, Lower Austria, Austria
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1500s, 1565, 16th, 31, archers, architecture, arrows, art, austria, austrian, bareback, battle, bows, brown, central, century, close, close-, combat, , dated, decoration, detail, diamond, equestrian, europe, european, facade, fighters, fighting, friezes, gmü, gmünder, gothic, hand--hand, horsemen, house, kerr, killing, lances, late, longbows, men, naked, nude, pattern, region, renaissance, riding, sgraffito, shields, soldiers, square, stadtplatz, swords, terence, town, unique, view, waldviertel, warriors, white