The town well
Title and year
The town well, 1996
Materials
Black diabase, red granite, and Moseløkke granite from Bornholm
Artists
Jesper Kjærgaard, Erik Dahlgreen og Kirsten Lausten
Location
The marketplace between H. P. Hanssens Gade and Madevej, Aabenraa
Description
In 1996 the pedestrian shopping street, Gågaden, in Aabenraa was renovated. That same year the town’s Water Supply Authority celebrated its 200th anniversary. The occasion was commemorated with this fountain, collaboratively designed by two architects and an engineer from Aabenraa Municipality.
The sculpture illustrates how water was originally led from “gallows hill” (Galgebakken) north of the town to seven fountain wells in the town centre: The black slice of granite represents a slice of the hills that is intersected by a water vein. The water wells up to the surface in the round, red pool of the well, then runs along an inclined conduit and flows naturally down to the seven granite bollards, which symbolize the town’s seven original fountain wells. Diabase – a dark, fine-grained, hard type of rock – was formerly known under the commercial name “black granite” and is highly sought-after by artists around the world for its superb quality.
