The Winkelried monument is a monument of impressive size on the village square in Stans. It was inaugurated in 1865 and was created by the Basel sculptor Ferdinand Schlöth. The fact that it is also on display in the Swissminiatur Museum in Melide shows how important it is... ;-)
The Winkelried Monument is a memorial to Arnold Winkelried in the village square of Stans, Canton Nidwalden, Switzerland. Its location between the church and the town hall underscores the importance of the monument. It depicts a group of three figures in Carrara marble. The initiator of the monument's construction was Anton Albert Durrer (1793–1865), who submitted a corresponding application to the Stans municipal council on the occasion of the 1853 Federal Field Shooting Competition in Lucerne and carried out a fundraising campaign. A first competition for the design of the monument was held in the same year. The results were evidently unsatisfactory, because two years later, in 1855, a second competition was held under the aegis of the Swiss Art Association. The winner of this competition was Ferdinand Schlöth, a sculptor from Basel who worked in Rome; he carried out his project in Rome in marble with slight revisions. The monument had now been designed, but the hall to protect the marble was missing. In 1857, another competition was announced for this, but the results were not satisfactory. In 1858, the Swiss architect Ferdinand Stadler was given the task directly, but it would take another six years before important questions such as the location were clarified and Stadler was given the final contract. A year later - in September 1865 - the monument was officially inaugurated in the presence of the artist, along with the hall that had since been completed. Like some of Stadler's church buildings, the memorial hall is in the neo-Gothic style. The Winkelried monument represents an attempt to capture a heroic gesture in a harmonious, classicist triangular shape. This was a new form of war memorial, but it had no successor. An exception is the Fontana monument by Schlöth student Richard Kissling in Chur, which was erected in 1903 and translates the three-figure group of the monument in Stans into a two-figure composition. The Winkelried monument has been included in the list of cultural assets in Stans. A model of it can be found in the Swissminiatur in Melide.