I guess you're right, kat, the thing is a fountain. Funny, but I didn't notice any water. Perhaps the point was that people could get water out of a low pool at its base.

I never went right up to it, what with the fence all around it and the rain coming down.

Thanks for the lead to the site which explains about St Sebaldus. We had been on a trip up the Danube and had visited gorgeous churches and monasteries, but St Sebaldus seemed to us to have the most Christian spirit and activities of any of them -- the breakfast for the homeless, the craft sale from third-world countries, the eternal building & grounds issues...

I only wish I could have been there to hear the Phantom of the Opera (silent film) accompanied by the church organ, but alas, we had to leave on a Monday, and the Phantom wasn't until the next Friday. Sigh.