Sculpture Of Saint Florian

This rich sculpture was bought in France under the name of Saint Florian de Lorch; he was a veteran of the Roman army and held the position of official princeps in Cetia, Austria, secretly practicing the Christian religion.

He surrendered to a group of former comrades by confessing his faith and, after being interrogated and tortured by the principal Aquilino, he was thrown into the river Anesio with a stone wheel tied around his neck.

Its particular iconography is due to the tradition, according to which St. Florian as a young man put out a fire in the house with prayer; according to another similar but different tradition, he would have put out a fire using only a bucket of water and for this reason he is considered the chief of the fire brigade and is invoked against fires and floods.

Very popular in Bavaria and in the Triveneto, he is the patron saint of Upper Austria and Poland.