Fountain at the Main Bastions

Großer Graben, which is a shopping street today, used to be a moat filled with water to protect the city. It was fed by tapping into the Schalderer Bach brook. An image of the city dated 1572 already shows this moat filled up leaving only a narrow trickle of water. In 1866, even this small open runlet was covered with slabs of stone. Only a few sections remained open to serve as watering troughs, seeing as the cattle market was held at the Große Graben from 1867 to 1904. The historic picture shows the market circa 1880. When the street was redesigned, a partially open runlet and two simple fountains were included to commemorate the water course of old.