Swaggering soldier of fortune glares at passersby 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.
Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland: bearded soldier of fortune, a well-armed German Landsnecht or Lansquenet mercenary. He stands, hand on hip, on the central pillar of a drinking fountain built in 1524 at the south end of Fronwagplatz, a square in the Altstadt or old town of Schaffhausen. The soldier, wearing slashed doublet and hose, holds a halberd and carries a sword, a dagger and a golden shield with the black ram emblem of the city and canton of Schaffhausen. The polychrome stone statue is by an unknown 16th century sculptor. The fountain is variously known as the Landsknechtbrunnen (Mercenary Fountain), Lansquenet Fountain and Metzgerbrunnen (Butcher Fountain). The Landsknechte were German mercenary pikemen of the late 1400s and early 1500s who fought all over Europe and were judged 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, and recruited Swiss Reisläufer to train them. They fought successfully in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Sweden, but ultimately lost favour with their employers as gunpowder replaced pikes in European warfare. 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. It was defended by the impressive circular Munot fortress from 1589, but was badly damaged during the Thirty Years’ War of the early 1600s.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Schaffhausen, Schaffhausen canton, Switzerland
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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