The Christian practice of erecting a column topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary dates back at least to the tenth century (in Clermont-Ferrand in France), but it has become common especially in the Counter-Reformation period following the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563).
The column in Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome had been one of the first.
The column itself is ancient: it had supported the vault of the so-called Basilica of Constantine in Rome, destroyed by an earthquake in the ninth century.
By the seventeenth century only this column survived; in 1614 it had been transported to Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore and crowned with a bronze statue of the Virgin and Child.
Within decades it serves as a model for many columns in Italy and other European countries.
The first column of this type north of the Alps is the Mariensäule built in Munich in 1638 to celebrate the sparing of the city from both the invading Swedish army and the plague.
The Virgin Mary is standing on its top on a crescent moon as the Queen of Heaven.
It is to inspire, for example, Marian columns in Prague and Vienna, but many others also follow very quickly.
Today, in the countries which once belonged to the Habsburg Monarchy (especially the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary) it is quite exceptional to find an old town square without such a column, usually located in a most prominent place.
