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Description
Bear Fountain in Espenhain
The Bear Fountain is a fountain structure with a figure composition of two bears looking up at a bear sitting on a column with her sitting cub. The sculpture is made of concrete and is located in an octagonal fountain basin. The sculpture is estimated to date back to 1900, making it older than many of the later constructed fountains in Espenhain.
The fountain is thought to have originally come from the villa park of the country house belonging to Georg Stöhr, the owner of the Leipzig worsted spinning mill in Großdeuben. This older villa park was destroyed in the early 1950s due to the expansion of the Zwenkau open-pit mine, which allowed the sculpture to be relocated.
After losing its original location, the Bear Fountain was moved to the park of the "Clara Zetkin" cultural house in Espenhain, which was a central meeting point in the district at the time. The fountain was located there in a publicly accessible park directly in front of the cultural house - close to the current Espenhain primary school and in the area of the then Federal Highway 95.
This location now holds historical significance as the 95 national highway ran through here before it was relocated in the 1970s due to the Espenhain open-pit mining.
Due to the activities of the Espenhain open-pit mining in the late 1970s (approx. 1976–1978), the Federal Highway 95 was relocated and the park of the cultural house considerably reduced. In this context, the Bear Fountain was also dismantled and moved to the "Wiesengrund" allotment garden complex, where it is still located today. The site is open to the public and part of the design of the "Wiesengrund" allotment garden, which has been situated on the site of a former clay pit since 1946 and is now a popular place for garden lovers and local recreation.
