Military victories are much celebrated, but a victory against a common enemy, such as a disease, is as important, especially in older times when human population was routinely decimated by waves of killer epidemics. In such times, people desperately seeking for cures and respite from the sufferings offered prayers and votive offerings to the Gods. Those cities who could afford erected large churches, such as the Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, constructed after the Italian Plague of 1629–1631. Others erected “victory column”-like structures. The most famous of these is the Plague Column, or Pestsäule, in the city of Vienna, Austria.

The Plague Column in Vienna. Photo: AlexAnton/Shutterstock.com