"The legend hunter"

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The stone fisherman is a reminder of a time when fishermen did not always abide by the rules of the trade...

(Bild: Kogler Christina Natascha/Christina Natascha Kogler)

In his home town, Max Müller gets to the bottom of an old story in the next episode of "The Legend Hunter": Why did the fisherman turn to stone? Why is he standing in the Benedictine market?

A customer at the market is said to have once questioned a fisherman's scales. He replied: "I shall turn to stone if I have weighed wrongly." And he did. The stone fisherman still stands today as a monument to fairness in trade at the market, now at Benediktinermarkt.

There, Max Müller, who is known from the TV series "Rosenheim Cops" but also as a baritone, meets market coordinator Martina Derhaschnig, who tells him about the market rules that applied in the Middle Ages - and how they were circumvented.

The stone fisherman at the Benedictine market in Klagenfurt.

(Bild: Kogler Christina Natascha/Christina Natascha Kogler)

Legend hunter on Sunday

The stone fisherman from the Benediktinermarkt in Klagenfurt is the subject of the episode "Der Sagenjäger" on Sunday, February 16, from 17:55 on ORF 2.

Many helpers in the search for clues
The fisherman and hotelier Seppi Motschiunig reports that fishing still takes place just as it did in the 17th century, when the legend is set according to the inscription on the statue. The legend hunter asks fishmonger Claudia Rogatschnig to explain exactly how the scales weigh today. And publisher and gourmet Lojze Wieser explains the great importance of fish in those days. A picture of the customs of the time emerges in conversation with Austria Guide Horst Ragusch.

The great settlement of tastes
Incidentally, taste experiences have only been available at the Benediktinermarkt in Klagenfurt since 1948; before that, markets were held in other places: The weekly market was previously held on Alter Platz. Fruit was once sold on Dr. Arthur Lemisch-Platz, which was even called Obstplatz. Kardinalplatz served as a vegetable market for wholesalers, Feldmarschall Conrad-Platz as a market for pigs and Heiligengeistplatz as a fish market. Hay and straw were sold on Heuplatz. Weekly markets were also held on Neuer Platz, formerly Kaiser Franz Joseph-Platz. You can still hear what the meat market was for.

Doughnuts and boiled fish prohibited
The oldest surviving market regulations for Klagenfurt "in the Duchy of Carinthia" divided the stalls according to type of goods. Butter, lard, eggs, "green goods and vegetables" were considered "actual market goods". Farmer's doughnuts and boiled fish were forbidden as "foodstuffs highly detrimental to human health".

The old market regulations issued a general warning "that anyone who sells foodstuffs of the wrong weight and measure at a price that exceeds the regulations, or unhealthy, unsweetened or adulterated foodstuffs, will be dealt with harshly in accordance with the existing laws".