Rising from the center of the Graben, this extravagant baroque monument was commissioned by Emperor Leopold I in 1693 to give thanks for the end of a devastating plague that had killed an estimated 75,000 Viennese. Designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and others, it swirls upward in a cascade of clouds, angels, and allegorical figures — Faith triumphing over Plague, rendered in marble and gilt with typically Habsburg excess. The column replaced an earlier wooden version erected during the epidemic itself. It is one of Vienna's most photographed landmarks and a useful orientation point on the Graben, though most people walk past without stopping to read the gruesome story it tells.