Linzer Klapperjunge

The caper boy

The new gate formed the northernmost entrance of the former city wall. The bronze sculpture of the “Linzer Klapperjungen” displayed there represents the Easter custom of replacing the church bells by rattling the cartages. Even today, around 200 citizens of Linz clatter through the streets on both cartages.

Artist: Inge Heim

Linz rattle run

Klipp klapp, klipp klapp that's how the mills rattle after a German folk song on the rushing brook. For the “colorful city on the Rhine”, rattling is a lovingly cultivated, Catholic tradition. Citizens as well as guests in Linz am Rhein will be “all ears” at the Kartagen because of the Easter clatter, because then around 200 “Linz rattling boys and girls” will replace the silent bells. With large rattling mallets, a wooden instrument in which a wooden clapper is swung left and right, young and old run through the old town of Linz, making loud rattling noises. The Easter ritual is said to have come to Linz with the Capuchins, who settled in the city in 1627. The bronze figure of the rattle boy set up at the Neutor by the Linz artist Inge Heim is a reminder of this ancient custom.

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