Ulm Sparrow

[1] The landmark is a statue of a bird that sits atop the Ulm Minster, the tallest church in the world.

As they were about to tear the gate down, they noticed a sparrow carrying a straw for its nest; which turned it from crosswise to lengthwise in its beak.

Since that epiphany, they have placed long loads along rather than across their carts and were able to enter the city without rebuilding their gate.

It is not a sparrow, but a dove carrying an olive branch in its beak, as in the biblical story of Noah's Ark.

Due to its perceived size, the inhabitants came to refer to it mockingly as a sparrow, and the legend grew from there.