Roland - Calbe (Saale), Germany - Epic Beings and Creatures on Waymarking.com

The Roland of Calbe is one of the 31 (2006) remaining, partly renewed or re-erected real Rolands in Germany. While the predecessors of this Roland were made of wood, the current one is made of sandstone and stands on a pedestal in front of the town hall in Calbe, a town in the Salzlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt.

1st Roland:
The statue is first mentioned in an invoice from 1382 for 1381.

2nd Roland:
In 1656 the second Roland statue was made because the first was in danger of falling apart.
The fact that the citizens of Calbe thought of a new, gigantic Roland figure just six years after the devastating Thirty Years War shows the importance they attached to the statue. For them it was probably a symbol of traditional urban prosperity and an incentive to restore Calbe's original bloom with combined forces as quickly as possible.
In 1875 the town hall burned down, but the Roland statue remained intact due to the favorable wind conditions. After the new construction of the town hall, the Roland was refused its traditional place and was stored in a barn for seven years.
Because of the danger of bombing raids during the Second World War, the Roland was brought to safety in the flag hall of the Bismarck tower on the Wartenberg. There it found its fate as firewood in the post-war period.

3rd (modern) Roland:
When the Calbeners were doing better economically in the 1960s, they wanted their old symbolic figure back. But it was not until 1973 that the reception of GDR history changed, that a replica was approved. In 1976 a four and a half meter high sandstone Roland, created by the sculptor Eberhard Glöss based on the figure from 1656, was unveiled.

Like his baroque predecessor, of which he is an almost faithful replica, he holds an upright sword in his right hand and a shield with Calbe's coat of arms in his left. The 4.50 m high Roland wears a helmet on his head, which is rare, only eight times, with the remaining Rolands.

Time Period: Ancient Approximate Date of Epic Period: 1382 - today Epic Type: Historical Exhibit Type: Figure, Statue, 3D Art

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