Redesign of Parsberg Market Square, Fountain Concept (Competition)

Two-Stage Art Competition for the Redesign of the Market Square in Parsberg

Not realized, 2nd favorite of the jury

Design: Paul Diestel

Visualization: Dominik Rados, SoloconArt

150 million years before the settlement of Parsberg, everything was sea. This is commemorated by the Parsberger Reef Belt, a 35 km wide reef zone consisting of coral and sponge reefs. "In the core of the reef belt, small islands once rose above the sea level" (quote from Parsberger Burgmuseum). The Parsberg Castle sits atop such a sponge rock. Jurassic fossils such as corals, ammonites, belemnites, shells, and snails give an impression of the marine life and plant world of that time.

Every step through the city takes you over mineral layers, within which the life forms of this geological era have become fossils. On the Market Square, this geological background is to be made visible, narratable, and experienceable.

In the Parsberg Castle Museum, the footprint of an ammonite is on display. It served as the inspiration for the fountain sculpture, which has a diameter of 2 meters. From the center, the highest point of the walkable fountain, water flows, spiraling downward, splashing over the edge. The fountain invites you to trace the flow of water with your eyes and influence it with your hands.

From all directions, the main figure of the square is visible from a distance: a 2.4-meter-high bronze tower snail marks the center of the town square. In the spiraling sculpture, one imagines the ascent of water until it bursts from the snail opening, like a cornucopia, flowing abstractly down the sculpture's body.

Inspired by a relic from the Castle Museum, the fountain sculptures tell the geological history of Parsberg. The idea that “... here, everywhere was sea, with small islands—on one of which stands our castle—and animals and plants that can still be found fossilized beneath our city today...” inspires wonder and creates a positive identity. For both children and adults.