In the centre of Marienplatz there is the Marien's column (Mariensäule). It counted as a zero to all distance measurements of Munich. It was put up 1632 under elector Maximilian I. in return for the fact that the Swede's king Gustav Adolf has spared Munich and Landshut during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). On top of the column of red marble there is a stately madonna, a work of the famous sculptor Hubert Gerhard. The madonna carries to the sign of her rule an imperial orb, a sceptre and a crown, she stands on a crescent with the Jesus's child in the arm.
Originally Hubert Gerhard had created the statue for the tomb Herzog Wilhelm V. in the church Michaelskirche.
At the foot of the column four glyphs of unknown artists fight against the vices of the humanity:
the dragon symbolises the hunger, the lion symbolises the war, the basilisk symbolises the plague and
the snake symbolises the unbelief.
The originals of these bronze figures are to be seen in the city museum.
U-Bahn:
U3, U6 bis Marienplatz
S-Bahn: S1 - S8 to Marienplatz