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ITALY
THE SPELL OF TYROL
THE SPELL SERIES
Each volume wilh one or more colored plates and
many illustrations from original drawings or special
photographs. Octaoo, with decorative cover, gilt
top, boxed.
Per volume $2.50 net, carriage paid $2.70
THE SPELL OF ITALY
By Caroline cAtwater c^Vlason
THE SPELL OF FRANCE
By Caroline cAtwater oTWason
THE SPELL OF ENGLAND
By Julia de W. cAddison
THE SPELL OF HOLLAND
By Burton E. Stevenson
THE SPELL OF SWITZERLAND
By Nathan Haskell Dole
THE SPELL OF THE ITALIAN LAKES
By William D. cTWcCrackan
THE SPELL OF TYROL
By William D. cTWcCrackan
THE PAGE COMPANY
53 BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
KITZBUHEL
Down over the edge from where we
stand, lies Kitzbuhel, the town."
(See page 70.)
SPELL
TYROL
William D. McCrackan
Author of "The Spell of the Italian Lakes,** "Rom
and Teutonic Switzerland," etc.
ILLUSTRATED
from photographs andh original paintings 'by
Woldemat Itier
* 1
\
BOSTON
THE PAGE COMPANY
MDCCCCXIV
==
I' -J
Copyright, 1903
BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
/*// rights reserved
Published, April, 1905
Third Impression, April, 1907
Foutth; ^rnpreision, March, 1911
New £d»tibn*, Ajnil, 1914
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C. H. 8IMOND8 ft CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.
THIS
BOOK IS DEDICATED
TO MY DEAR BROTHER
ffiefc. Joijn J^ J&cCracfcan
A LOVER OF THE TYROL
AND ITS PEOPLE
334249
Some of the material contained in this book
has already appeared in various periodicals:
" Frescoes of Runkelstein " in Harper s Monthly
Magazine ; " The Sette Comuni" in The Bul-
letin of the American Geographical Society ;
" Andreas Hofer " in the New England
Magazine ; and " Toy Town and Toy Land"
and " Trent " in The Churchman.
I take this opportunity of thanking the editors
of the foregoing publications for permission to
reprint.
My thanks are also due to the Curator of
the Ferdinandeum at Innsbruck for kindly and
courteous assistance and to Miss Charlotte H.
Coursen, of New York, for the use of her Col-
lection of Tyroliana.
THE AUTHOR.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
THE favour accorded to the re-issue of Mr. Will-
iam D. McCrackan's THE SPELL OF THE ITALIAN
LAKES has led the publishers to believe that a new
and enlarged edition, with illustrations in colour,
of Mr. McCrackan's equally popular THE FAIR
LAND TYROL will meet with a similar cordial recep-
tion.
Like its predecessor, the re-issue is included in
the well-known SPELL SERIES of travel books, and
for this reason the title has been changed to THE
SPELL OF TYROL.
FOREWORD
IN writing about a land and people the first
thing needful is to bring appreciation and
affection to the task. It is well to be able to
discriminate in a kindly manner between the
transitory idiosyncrasies of men and things
and their enduring qualities; it is admirable
to set aside the grotesque and the fantastical
in behalf of the good, the true, and the beauti-
ful ; it is wise to be always just in estimating
motives and acts; but it is more important
still to admire and to write from the heart
rather than from the head only.
No one can travel and tour in the Tyrol, see
its glorious scenery, enjoy the hospitality of its
inns, receive the pleasant deference, and hear
the warm-hearted sentiments of its inhabitants,
without learning to love both land and people.
It is the province of this book to praise, to
repay in a measure the friendly reception
which was everywhere accorded the writer,
to wish good speed and long life to all the
Foreword
dwellers in that greatly blessed and beautiful
country, as well as to help the foreign way-
farer to a true understanding and full enjoy-
ment of that happy land Tyrol.
It is not the purpose of the writer to at-
tempt any profound analysis of things Tyro-
lese, but merely to set down here some of the
characteristics which impress the visitor upon
crossing the frontier. A change is apparent
in men and manners, in habits and customs, in
the speech, the dress, and the very carriage of
the people. The scenery may not differ
greatly from that of the rest of the Alps,
the mountains, the torrents, and the forests
may resemble each other, the very houses may
look like those of Switzerland, Bavaria, and
other highland districts, still at the frontier
of the Tyrol a subtile change takes place in
the general mental atmosphere, and this
mental change translates itself naturally into
visible differences and outward acts.
In the Tyrol, men, women, and children
display a great fondness for greens of all
shades, from yellow to grass and brown-
greens. Especially is green the favourite
colour for hats, but in many villages also for
braids, embroideries, and other ornaments.
While the men of Meran wear broad green
vi
Foreword
suspenders, at Lienz even green woollen trou-
sers may be seen.
The moment you enter the country, you will
also notice feathers on the hats, — generally
the short, curly ones of the blackcock, or
straight, defiant, eagle's quills, but often
ordinary, every-day feathers, dropped by the
barn-yard fowl. Strolling singers from the
Zillerthal or the Salzkammergut usually dis-
play drooping white feathers, .that make a
wide sickle sweep at the back of the head.
The ornament known as the Gamsbart, or
beard of the chamois, is not strictly a beard
at all. In winter, namely, the hair of the
chamois grows long and thick over the spine;
this is cut off by the hunters, bunched together
and worn at the back of the hat, side by side
with the feather. The taller the tuft, the
prouder the hunter.
The Rucksack is another distinctive posses-
sion of the Tyrolese, and their neighbours in
the Eastern Alps. It is a simple loose sack
of canvas, which hangs from the shoulders
by straps, and settles in the small of the back
in such a manner as to distribute the weight
to the best possible advantage. Its colour, of
course, is green.
The Tyrolese commonly harness one horse
vii
Foreword
to a carriage made for two. This may be
noticed even of the cabs in Innsbruck. When
two horses are used the custom prevails of
passing an extra rein from the bit of the horse
on the right hand to the whiffletree of the
horse on the left. The explanation given is
that the stronger horse is always placed on
the right, and this check is intended to equal-
ize the drawing-power of the two horses.
Not the least interest which attaches to the
Tyrolese and their neighbours, is due to their
speech. A common characteristic, is the
broadening of the a until it becomes almost
oa, e. g., in Wasser the a is pronounced as in
our English " water." This pronunciation
is noticeable throughout the German-speaking
portions of the Austrian empire, as well as in
parts of Bavaria. Other vowels are modified
in a similar manner, e. g., in the Zillerthal u
becomes u, and o, o, so that du is pronounced
du, and so, so.
A peculiarity is the use of plural endings
when the singular is meant; a man will order
." eine Flaschen Bier" at the inn; the con-
ductor shouts at the small stations, " eine
Minuten."
The Tyrolese are ever ready to add a dimin-
utive erl to their words in token of affection.
viii
Foreword
In the mouths of educated people, Austrian
German becomes truly charming. Such
dialect expressions as " gehn's" or " gebn's
her " possess a certain quality which the nice-
ties of mere literary language do not give.
In eating, it is well to remember that,
off the beaten track, the Tyrol is not the
land of table d'hote dinners. The Crown
Land possesses many splendid hotels with
such dinners, but Austrians eat somewhat
more frequently than we do, though not
necessarily more. With them it is appar-
ently a habit of " little and often." You order
what you want from a bill of fare, which is
often signed by the host with an engaging
" respectfully yours." A very pretty expres-
sion is the Wunsch gut zu speisen, " Wish you
may eat well," which is commonly said to you
as the soup is brought in. When you have
finished, you must call for the Zahl Kellner,
or Kellnerin, the pay waiter or waitress, as
the case may be, who alone is authorized to
receive payment. You are expected to dictate
what you have had to eat, while the pay-
waiter jots down the items and renders the
bill.
There are certain gradations in many a
well-ordered Austrian hotel or restaurant
ix
Foreword
which present novel features. After the pay-
waiter, in the family of waiters, come the
Speisentrager, or carriers of the viands. Then
comes a curious little specimen of humanity
called facetiously the Piccolo, a boy in ap-
prenticeship, between eight and fourteen
years old. He wears a dress suit like his
superiors, and carries the less weighty orders.
This elaborate order will not be found in
the country inns, nor in the higher placed
summer resorts, but a warm-hearted welcome,
and the kindliest of attentions await the way-
farer and sojourner at every point in the
country. Much old-fashioned hospitality and
many pleasant old world ways attract the
tourist and call forth responsive feelings of
gratitude toward the Tyrolese. This friendly
attitude on the part of the people constitutes
a truly valuable possession, and by its results
adds much to their popularity and general
welfare.
The tourist can do much to make travel
agreeable and profitable by meeting the Tyro-
lese at least half-way in their pleasant manners
and their simple overtures toward friendship.
Nothing but mutual benefit can come from a
trip in the Tyrol, undertaken under such
circumstances, and lasting good should surely
x
Foreword
result from the inspiration which the moun-
tains shed broadcast over the traveller's stay
in the Tyrol.
A breath of exalting power passes from
range to range. Exquisite colours continue a
constant interplay upon the mountain flanks,
from the sombre bases to the topmost peaks
of wrhite. The torrents flow swift and gray
from the glaciers into the lower valleys,
where, purified by their headlong struggle,
they gleam clear and clean under the sun. It
is they which feed the transparent lakes of
green and blue that fill the pockets of the
Alps, and make up their gems and jewelry.
Within the sweet-scented forests of the
lower slopes, the hares, squirrels, and some
lesser game birds seek shelter and protection.
On the timber line the splendid blackcock
flies, while beyond the utmost trees, on green
oases, watered by the melting of snow, the
chamois graze on the watch, and the marmot
colonies dig their holes. Up there the
stretches of grass are brilliant with clusters
of vivid blue gentians, the slopes rejoice in
the friendly red of the alpine roses, massed
against green hillsides in ordered rows, or
bordering the sharp edges of the crags like
decorative hedges. On bare summits, and
xi
Foreword
beside the abrupt precipices, the edelweiss,
hiding from the curiosity seeker, imitates the
limestone and the granite with its inconspicu-
ous gray and buff.
Between the timber line and the perpetual
snow line lie the thrice-blessed summer pas-
tures, carpeted for many thousand cattle.
The summer pasture, known in the Eastern
Alps as the aim-, and in Switzerland as the
alp, is a world apart, with occupations, man-
ners and customs, joys and sorrows, songs and
sayings, and men and women of its own.
Perchance, after the sights of the lower
valleys have been visited and praised, the call
to mount higher will come, and other sights
and sounds will please and fill out the memory
of your trip in the Tyrol with the tinkling of
bells, the smile of flowery slopes, and the
peace and serenity of this upper world of the
earth.
One of the many charms of the Alps con-
sists in their intimate appeal to the affections.
With all their grandeur and immensity, in
spite of their perils and difficulties, the Alps
invite a closer and kindlier memory by reason
of the presence of man and the signs of man's
activity throughout their length and breadth.
No recess seems too secluded or remote, no
xii
Foreword
slope too steep, no corner too abrupt, and no
fleck of grass too tiny to escape the mountain
craft of the alpine dwellers. Even the per-
petual snow can no longer exclude the rail-
road, the shelter hut and the observatory.
Casual visitors must be impressed with this
happy characteristic, and for the student and
lover of the Alps it forms a striking feature
to be long remembered.
The valleys are cultivated with utmost
minuteness, and in small patches, so that their
variegated crops present an aspect of singular
picturesqueness.
The forests are tended with special care,
because they form a screen against the high
lying masses of snow in winter, and afford a
partial shelter against the avalanches.
The rivers, torrents, and brooks are as com-
pletely as possible controlled with stone
sluiceways, breakwaters, and guards.
The summer pastures, offering grazing-
ground for the cattle during fully half the
year, are preserved and nourished almost as
industriously as the hay-fields in the lower val-
leys. On many an aim the loose stones which
have splintered away and rolled down from
above are gathered into heaps, and thus new
Xlll
Foreword
ground won for the sprouting grass and the
sweet flowers.
Elsewhere the rivulets and brooks from the
melting snow are guided over the slopes in
miniature canals, and made to irrigate the
fields.
Great industry and tireless activity is appar-
ent in the Alps, and the traveller cannot fail
to admire the results in enhanced productions
and beauty.
What shall be said of the alpine dwellings?
What adequate return can be made by the
traveller for the sight of cozy cottages, pictur-
esque and high-perched against the sombre
scenery of rocks and ravines? Who can
measure the gratitude due to the pioneers who
penetrated into the primeval forests in the
centuries long passed, cut their clearings for
the hungry cattle and the rude crops, over-
came the wild beasts in their lairs and the
eagles in their eyries, laid out the first zig-
zags up the frowning slopes and over the
connecting saddles and mountain passes, and
built the primitive timbered huts, which have
formed the basis of alpine architecture pretty
much over the whole range from Styria to
Savoy.
The general tendency in the Alps is to build
xiv
Foreword
in wood where the forests are abundant and
best preserved. The wooden house is also
found principally in the Teutonic portions
of the Alps, the stone house generally betray-
ing the nearness of Romance influences.
In the Tyrol the house built entirely of
wood is not as often seen as, for instance, in the
Bernese Oberland in Switzerland, at least
the substructure and the first story of the
Tyrolese house being generally built of stone
and mortar, and mural paintings of historical
and ethical interest abound throughout the
Crown Land.
In Italian-speaking Tyrol, wooden houses
disappear almost entirely except in such dis-
tricts as that of Auronzo, where noble forests
and wood in plenty lie close at hand for build-
ing purposes. But the Tyrol surpasses the rest
of the Alps in its array of castles, which smile
or frown from crag and plateau in brilliant
and bewildering array.
Thus, even to the robber knights of old,
some thanks are due from tourist and traveller
for their good taste in selecting apt and noble
sites for their dwellings.
Then let the journey in the land Tyrol be
punctuated with words and works of genuine
appreciation for the good, the true, and the
xv
Foreword
beautiful, so greatly in evidence on peak and
plain. May good-will pervade, and fraternal
fellow-feeling mark the traveller's days, so
that in the retrospect the memories evoked
may radiate health and happiness and a
pardonable desire to return and revisit.
xvi
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. INNSBRUCK — AN ALPINE CAPITAL
II. THE HOFKIRCHE — TYROL'S WESTMINSTER
ABBEY
III. MAXIMILIAN — THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS
(1459-1519)
IV. ROUND ABOUT INNSBRUCK ....
V. PHILIPPINE WELSER (1527-1580)
VI. THE VORARLBERG APPROACH
VII. DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE INN
VIII. KITZBUHEL — LIFE ON THE ALM .
IX. THE ACHENSEE
X. THE ZlLLERTHAL
XI. OVER THE BRENNER PASS ....
XII. THE PUSTERTHAL
XIII. FRANZ VON DEFREGGER : PAINTER OF THE
PEOPLE
XIV. BRIXEN
XV. THE GRODEN VALLEY
XVI. Two MINNESINGERS
XVII. THE BASIN OF BOZEN
XVIII. THE ROSENGARTEN — A GARDEN OF ROSES
XIX. THE FRESCOES OF RUNKELSTEIN
XX. MERAN, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF TYROL
XXI. ANDREAS HOFER (1767- 1809)
XXII. THE VINTSGAU
PAGE
3
21
32
39
45
53
68
76
80
89
97
128
134
143
157
167
177
186
197
217
XVll
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
XXIII. ABOVE THE SNOW LINE . . . .223
XXIV. THE ORTLER: THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN
IN THE TYROL 227
XXV. TRENT 239
XXVI. DANTE IN THE TRENTINO . . . . 247
XXVII. VALSUGANA 256
XXVIII. THE SETTE COMUNI : A TEUTONIC SUR-
VIVAL ON ITALIAN SOIL . . . 264
XXIX. THE DOLOMITES 278
XXX. A STRING OF PEARLS: PRIMOLANO, PRI-
MIERO, PANEVEGGIO, PREDAZZO, AND
PERRA 284
XXXI. CORTINA Di AMPEZZO .... 296
XXXII. FROM CORTINA TO PIEVE Di CADORE . 301
XXXIII. To CORVARA 308
XVlll
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
KITZBUHEL (in full colour) (see page 70) . Frontispiece
THE FRAU HITT - SPITZE 5
INNSBRUCK 6
INNSBRUCK: ARCH OF MARIA THERESA — HOUSE
OF THE GOLDEN ROOF 8
THE KALKKOGEL, NEAR INNSBRUCK (in full colour) 14
STATUE OF KING ARTHUR OF ENGLAND IN INNS-
BRUCK 16
STATUE OF THEODORIC IN INNSBRUCK . . . 18
MARBLE TABLET ON TOMB OF MAXIMILIAN IN INNS-
BRUCK 26
VlEW FROM THE WEIHERBURG 32
STATUE OF ANDREAS HOFER ON BERG ISEL . . 34
CASTLE AMBRAS 37
THE VORARLBERG MOUNTAINS 45
LANDECK 50
MiJNZERTHURM IN HALL $6
THE LIVING - ROOM IN THE CASTLE OF TRATZBERG 65
HOUSE IN BRIXLEGG 66
THE KAISERGEBIRGE, NEAR KUFSTEIN ... 68
THE KAISERGEBIRGE (in full colour) ... 70
WOMEN OF THE ZILLERTHAL AND INNTHAL . . 84
THE SNOW MOUNTAINS OF STUBAI .... 89
IN THE STUBAI VALLEY 90
STERZING 92
MlTTEWALD AND PFLERSCH ON THE BRENNER ROUTE 94
CASTLE BRUNECK 101
IN THE AMPEZZO VALLEY 107
CLOISTER IN BRIXEN 128
CASTLE TROSTBURG 134
xix
List of Illustrations
THE SELLAJOCH (in full colour) . . . .140
THE SANTNERSPITZE OF THE SCHLERN RANGE . 142
KLAUSEN 144
TOMBSTONE OF OSWALD VON WOLKENSTEIN . .150
STATUE OF WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE IN
BOZEN 162
THE ROSENGARTEN 167
THE WlNKLERTHURM 170
CASTLE KARNEID 174
CASTLE RUNKELSTEIN 178
MERAN AND ITS PEASANTS 186
CASTLE TYROL FROM THE SOUTHEAST AND WEST . 190
IN THE PASSEIER VALLEY 200
MAN OF KUFSTEIN 202
INNS IN THE PASSEIER VALLEY . . . .213
SCHLANDERS IN THE VlNTSGAU 2IQ
A COURTYARD IN THE CHURBURG . . . .220
A SHELTER -HUT OF THE GERMAN - AUSTRIAN AL-
PINE CLUB 224
THE ORTLER FROM TRAFOI 227
THE KONIGSPITZE AND THE PAYERHUTTE (in full
colour) 229
SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE IN TRENT, WHERE THE
COUNCIL WAS HELD 245
STATUE OF DANTE IN TRENT 247
THE VAJOLETT THJRME (in full colour) . . . 278
THE FEDAJA PASS IN THE DOLOMITES . . .288
CORTINA DI AMPEZZO 296
ANNEX OF HOTEL AQUILA NERA IN CORTINA DI
AMPEZZO 298
CLIMBERS ON THE CINQUE TORRI .... 304
THE DURRENSEE AND MONTE CRISTALLO . . 312
XX
NORTHERN TYROL
The Fair
Land Tyrol
CHAPTER I
INNSBRUCK — AN ALPINE CAPITAL
INNSBRUCK is preeminently the alpine
capital of Europe. The mountains seem to
block the ends of its streets. The houses look
as though they ran right up against a lofty
range, which is white most of the year and
only turns gray for the summer months.
Let every place receive its due. Innsbruck
lies i, 880 feet above the level of the sea, higher
than Salzburg, higher than Zurich, Luzern,
and Bern, higher even than Interlaken.
Truly, Innsbruck is under the very shadow
of the mountains, closely overtopped. At the
same time the plain of the river Inn widens
here to its greatest extent, allowing the eye to
3
The Fair Land Tyrol
range southward over Berg Isel and the
charming foot-hills of the Mittelgebirge
sown with white villages, church steeples,
cultivated fields and wooded groves. These
foot-hills rise like terraces toward the higher
mountains of the Patscher Kofel and the
pyramidal Waldrast Spitze, or Series Spitze.
East and west the valley of the Inn lies flat
and streaked with long strips of real American
corn, while the stream itself glitters under
the sun, coiling its way between narrowing
ranges into remote mauve and blue mono-
tones, where stands the Kaisergebirge and
Kufstein lies.
Innsbruck is a full-fledged city, containing,
with its suburbs, more than fifty thousand
inhabitants. It has its rows of stores, its
churches, theatres, museums, monuments,
cafes, and its special industries. It has an
imperial palace, military barracks, a univer-
sity, schools, and even a botanical garden;
but when you look up from the Maria There-
sienstrasse, you think you must be in some
village summer resort. While the city basks
warm in the lap of civilization, the cool
clouds drift over the savage scene above. In
this contrast lies the chief charm of Innsbruck.
While you enjoy the art treasures in the Hof-
4
THE FRAU HITT - SPITZE
Innsbruck
kirche and the Museum Ferdinandeum, while
you dine at the restaurant, or hear good music
of an evening in the concert halls, while every-
thing down below seems to be cozy and com-
fortable in a warm-hearted Tyrolese world,
up there the Frau Hitt, the Hafelekar, the
Rumer Spitze, or whatever those fantastic
peaks may be called, turn a cold shoulder
upon you, and sometimes even in the height of
summer suddenly appear white, Arctic, and
remote.
Innsbruck (The Bridge-over-the-Inn) is
well placed to catch the tourist travel, being
at the intersection of an international traffic
that passes from Paris to Vienna, and from
Berlin to Rome, over the Arlberg and Bren-
ner routes.
In the height of the season the place makes
a distinctly gay impression. Travellers come
from pretty much everywhere, but the great-
est contingents flock in from near-by Germany,
and from other provinces of Austria itself.
These Teutonic contingents enliven the streets
with their cheery enthusiasm. Mountaineers
in costume range the city, doing a little sight-
seeing; peasant women return from market
with baskets on their arms, wearing black
felt sailor hats, heavily embroidered in gold
5
The Fair Land Tyrol
under the brim, and flying two long ribbons
at the back. Porters in brilliant red and green
caps wait, not too impatiently, at the street
corners; cabs, pulled by one horse, though
made for two, stand by the curb, and officers
in uniform clink their swords on the pave-
ments. There is everywhere a great deal of
green, and a great many feathers point in a
great many different directions, to show that
we are really in the Tyrol at last.
Nobody can be more than a few hours in
Innsbruck without passing through the Maria
Theresienstrasse ; if for no other reason, be-
cause the K. K. Post Office is there with its
Poste Restante. At one end of the street rises
a triumphal arch, erected by the citizens in
1765, in commemoration of the visit of Em-
peror Francis I. and Maria Theresa to the
city on the occasion of the marriage of Arch-
duke Leopold to the Infanta Maria Ludovica.
As the wedding festivities were suddenly
stopped by the death of Emperor Francis I.,
only the southern side of the arch displays
symbols of joy, the northern being decorated
with those of sorrow.
Farther down, in the middle of the busy
street, stands the Annasaule. It is a shaft
rising from an ornate pedestal, and crowned
6
Innsbruck
by a figure. The sculpture is unmistakably
Italian, and so we are not surprised that a
certain Benedetti from Castione near Trent
was its maker. This monument celebrates
the expulsion of the Bavarians and French
from Tyrolese soil on St. Anne's day (July
26, 1703) during the War of the Spanish Suc-
cession. It was unveiled on another St.
Anne's day, in 1706.
Some noteworthy houses flank the Maria
Theresienstrasse. No. 18, for instance, the
former Oesterreichischer Hof, has a court
fagade, frescoed by Ferdinand Wagner;
large figures represent Industry, Good For-
tune, Prudence, Honesty, Commerce and
Competition. Almost opposite is a house
decorated by a bust of the poet Hermann
von Gilm, to denote where he was born. The
Ottenthalhaus has frescoes by Plattner (the
Virgin and five famous Tyrolese, Peter Anich,
Andreas Hofer, Oswald von Wolkenstein,
Count Frederick, " With the Empty Pockets,"
and Jos. Ant. Koch) . The Landhaus contains
a hall of sessions for the Tyrolese Landtag,
lighted by fine stained-glass windows. The
K. K. Post and Telegraph Offices are lodged
in the former palace of Thurn and Taxis.
The Fair Land Tyrol
The so-called Paris Saal is rich in frescoes by
Knoller.
In spite of these many evidences of culture,
every time you look up to the heights, there
are the limestone peaks peeping into the
street, to remind you that you are in an Alpine
city after all.
When the snow melts in spring, certain fan-
tastic figures in black stand out from the snow
on the limestone range, — veritable silhouettes
on a grand scale. These are called locally
Ausapcrungsfiguren. A sudden south wind
may bring them to life in a night, or a day's
sunshine free them from their white shroud.
There are groups called " The Torch-bearer
and the Angel," the " Landsknecht," " The
Hunter and Dog," "The Water-carrier,"
" The Witch," and " The Knitting Woman."
The townspeople have learned to look for
these recurring images, and to measure the
approach of warmer weather by them.
At its northern end the Maria Theresien-
strasse suddenly contracts and becomes the
Herzog-Friedrichstrasse. You find yourself
in mediaeval Innsbruck, caught in the half-
light of quaint and curious arcades. Many
bow windows and hanging signs project into
the street. A very ordinary-looking house,
8
Innsbruck
with a very extraordinary balcony, closes the
vista of the Herzog-Friedrichstrasse. It is
the house of the " Goldene Dachl," — of the
Golden Roof. The balcony consists of two
stories, supported from the ground by delicate
arches, the balustrades being decorated with
carved armorial bearings in marble, and the
walls with paintings. The roof, the Dachl,
is covered with gilded copper tiles. The style
is late Gothic, and the whole is brilliantly
pictorial. The Goldene Dachl has now un-
dergone a complete restoration. After being
hidden from public view for many months,
it was unveiled again on Aug. 3, 1899. The
stone-cutters and fresco-painters had effected
a transformation, and the 3,450 tiles had been
regilded at an expense of about eight thousand
gulden.
For a long time it was supposed that the
Goldene Dachl owed its origin to that popular
favourite, Count Frederick of Tyrol, nick-
named "With the Empty Pockets." The
story went that he deliberately built this
costly gilded roof in order to disprove the
slur implied by his nickname. The fact is
that Frederick built the house, but not the
ornate balcony nor its gilded roof. It was
the Emperor Maximilian who added these
9
The Fair Land Tyrol
features after his second marriage, the one
with Bianca Maria Sforza of Milan. The
date 1500 is to be read above the central win-
dow.
In the little square where the house of the
Goldene Dachl stands, you cannot fail to no-
tice a highly decorated rococo house, the
Holblinghaus. Near by, too, rises the Stadt-
thurm, which is often climbed for the view.
Around the corner is the Gasthof zum Gol-
denen Adler, the Inn of the Golden Eagle,
where so many celebrities have lodged in their
day: Goethe, Heine, Andreas Hofer, and
crowned heads like Emperor Joseph II., King
Ludwig of Bavaria, and Gustave III. of
Sweden. The proprietor will show you the
middle window from which Andreas Hofer
is said to have delivered his speech to the
crowd in the street, on August 15, 1809. This
was after the third battle on Berg Isel, when
Andreas Hofer entered Innsbruck as the vic-
torious commander-in-chief. A copy of this
speech and two portraits of the hero are shown
in the inn. Goethe was here in 1790, accom-
panying the widowed Duchess Amalie of
Sachsen-Weimar. The room he occupied is
now adorned with a bust. Heine wrote that
he found such naturally antagonistic portraits
10
Innsbruck
as those of Andreas Hofer, Napoleon Bona-
parte, and Ludwig of Bavaria hanging peace-
fully side by side in the dining-room. Nie-
buhr also visited the inn.
There are many interesting features about
mediaeval Innsbruck which deserve to be
noticed. The Ottoburg, for instance, is the
oldest building in the city. It was the origi-
nal castle of the Andechs family. Frederick,
"With the Empty "Pockets," inhabited the
house with the Goldene Dachl. During the
reign of Maximilian I., the seat of local
authority was transferred to a castle which
stood on the site of the present Hofburg.
This modern Hofburg was patched together
by Maria Theresa at the end of the last cen-
tury, out of the remaining parts of the former
castle. It looks rather bare and barrack-like
on the outside, but there are some fine rooms
in the interior, and a Riesensaal with pictures
by Maulbertsch.
For a complete review of life in the Tyrol,
it is well to visit the handsome, well-appointed
Ferdinandeum on the Museumstrasse. If you
have special studies to pursue, you will find
the Gustos a learned, and, what is more, an
enthusiastic guide.
There is a rich archaeological collection,
ii
The Fair Land Tyrol
containing among its rarest objects the coffin
of a Longobardian prince, which was orna-
mented with gold bands and contained a
golden cross. It was found at Civezzano,
near Trent. In another room are the globes
made by the peasant geographer, Peter
Anich; also peasant costumes, musical in-
struments and carnival masks. Philippine
Welser's jewel-case is shown, as well as a
priest's vestment embroidered by her. Special
care is bestowed on the souvenirs of Andreas
Hofer, Speckbacher, and Haspinger, which
are viewed by the Tyrolese with almost relig-
ious feelings. Among the paintings of modern
Tyrolese artists, there is Karl Anrather's
" Chancellor Biener," but, best of all, there
is the Defregger rotunda, where the master's
pictures relating to the war of 1809 are
exhibited. Only three of the paintings, how-
ever, are actual originals: (i) " Speckbacher
and his son Anderl in the Inn of the Bear at
St. Johann;" (2) "The Three Patriots,
Andreas Hofer, Speckbacher, and Has-
pinger;" and (3) "The Innkeeper's Son"
(the son of the Tharer Wirth at Olang in the
Pusterthal). The rest are copies of Defreg-
ger's masterpieces made by his pupils under
his personal supervision: " Speckbacher's
12
Innsbruck
Call to Arms " (the original in the posses-
sion of Herr Franz Lipperleid in Matzen,
near Brixlegg) ; " The Mountain Forge "
(original in the Dresden Gallery) ; " The Last
Ban " (original in the Kunsthistorische
Museum in Vienna) ; " The Return of the
Victors " (original in Berlin) ; " Hofer in
the Castle of Innsbruck" (original in the
possession of the Emperor Francis Joseph) ;
" Hofer Going to Execution " (original in
Konigsberg) .
A valuable library of Tyroliana is also
maintained by the Ferdinandeum. Here,
too, are kept the archives of the German and
Austrian Alpine Club.
Take it all in all, there is a great deal of
individuality about this Alpine capital. Inns-
bruck does not go to sleep in the winter, but
has become a popular resort all the year
round, where the pleasures of open air, out-
of-door life are made accessible to a grow-
ing contingent of visitors.
Pretty much everything in the way of edu-
cational facilities is provided by the city.
There are babies in the kindergarten and
students in the university. There are all
manner of games and amusements. There is
a theatre; a panorama of the Battle of Berg
13
The Fair Land Tyrol
Isel; a relief model of the Tyrol, and a per-
manent industrial exhibition; while the
brand-new Stadtsale supply concerts. Beyond
the Hofgarten park, on the banks of the Inn,
a peasant theatre gives representations of
highly romantic knightly plays, or of droll,
local comedies. Innsbruck, being the capital
of a province, is also the seat of a governor,
and the headquarters of an Austrian army
corps of several thousand men.
Hence, let us rejoice in Innsbruck, while
the dear old peaks of the limestone ridge look
down as severely as they may, or withdraw
within their circling clouds; let the rapid Inn
whirl by in a gray flood of melted snow, while
the winds sweep across the meadow-lands, or
whisper through the rustling patches of corn;
let the sun lighten the mountain flanks and the
groups of young trees in the forests; let the
smell of flowers hover over the sloping pas-
tures, while the smoke of pine-wood fires, ris-
ing from many a high-placed aim, denotes the
meek and humble homes of the sturdy toilers
in the heights.
THE KALKKOGEL, NEAR
INNSBRUCK
The dear old peaks of the limestone
ridge look down as severely as
they may"
CHAPTER II
THE HOFKIRCHE — TYROL'S WESTMINSTER
ABBEY
THE Emperor Maximilian I. made ar-
rangements during his lifetime for a sumptu-
ous, monumental tomb to himself, and this
was slowly finished in the course of the six-
teenth century. To-day the tomb and its
accompanying statues almost fill the church.
The Hofkirche has become the veritable
Westminster Abbey of the Tyrol. For not
only does it contain the tomb of Maximilian
I., but also that of the national hero of the war
of 1809, Andreas Hofer. On either side of
the latter lie his companions in arms, Josef
Speckbacher and Joachim Haspinger.
When you enter the Hofkirche, a certain
lightness of form makes itself felt. Ten lofty
red marble columns rise to the ceiling, which
is decorated in rococo, and in the centre
Maximilian in bronze is represented, kneeling
on a monster marble sarcophagus. He is clad
15
The Fair Land Tyrol
in crown and armour and in imperial robe.
Twenty-eight bronze figures surround the
tomb, acting as the mourners and torch-bear-
ers. All but two of these figures have the
right hand stretched forward, and their hands
rounded as in the act of holding torches.
It is said that Maximilian himself chose
the personages who were to do court duty
around his tomb. Twenty-three of the
twenty-eight were ancestors of his, or con-
temporary relatives, male or female; five
were his favourite heroes of antiquity.
Among the latter stands King Arthur of
England.
The writer first saw this statue one mid-
winter day, just before Christmas, while pass-
ing through Innsbruck on the way to Meran.
It was then little known in England or
America, and has, in fact, only recently be-
come well known to the outside world at
large. In making the round of the bronze
figures, the writer suddenly came upon this
masterpiece among them., and was amazed
that the whole world had not long since sung
its praises. Americans may justly feel proud
of the fact that the first plaster cast ever made
from the King Arthur statue was one for the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The cura-
16
STATUE OF KING ARTHUR OF ENGLAND
IN INNSBRUCK
The Hofkirche
tor of that institution deserves much credit
in having popularized this artistic treasure
among Americans.
King Arthur stands erect; a tall, soldierly
young man. The pose is faultless. It is one
of military readiness and alertness, yet with-
out provocation. The whole forms an ideal
of knighthood which recalls the age of
chivalry at its best. The head is encased in
a close-fitting helmet, the ornate visor is
turned up, showing a manly face of the Teu-
tonic order. One can almost imagine the eyes
to be blue and the hair blond. Arthur wears
a costly breastplate, plain greaves, and
pointed shoes, while he holds the shield of
Great Britain in one hand.
It is now generally conceded that Peter
Vischer, of Nurnberg, was the maker of this
statue of King Arthur.
Another statue ascribed to Peter Vischer
is that of Theodoric the Great (Dietrich von
Bern), King of the Goths, or Konig der
Goott, as the inscription reads.
It seems quite probable that the same man
served as model for both statues, but Theod-
oric, though he has his fine points, is no
King Arthur. He leans somewhat too deject-
edly upon his halberd, to inspire the same
The Fair Land Tyrol
admiration. Still Theodoric finds favour
with many sightseers, and copies of this work
are to be seen in the store windows almost
as often as those of King Arthur.
Beginning on the right as we enter, we find
( i ) Chlodwig, King of the Franks, a power-
ful-looking warrior, with curly beard and
spiked crown. (2) Philip I., surnamed the
Handsome, King of Spain, eldest son of Maxi-
milian, a young man with classic features,
and an air of much distinction. (3) The Em-
peror Rudolf of Habsburg, who wears his
hair plastered very smooth down to his neck,
where it curls up stiffly. (4) Duke Albrecht
II., surnamed the Wise. (5) Theodoric the
Great. (6) Duke Ernest of Austria and
Styria. (7) Theodobert, Duke of Burgundy,
who is entirely encased in most elaborate
armour. (8) King Arthur. (9) Archduke
Sigismund of Austria. (10) Bianca Maria
Sforza, second wife of Maximilian, (n)
Margaret, his daughter. (12) Cymburgis,
wife of Ernest, Duke of Austria and Styria.
The statues of (13) Charles the Bold, of Bur-
gundy, and of his father (14) Philip the
Good, are sharply contrasted. Charles is rep-
resented as a cheerful, happy, and wholesome
sort of man, while the good Philip is given
18
STATUE OF THEODORIC IN INNSBRUCK
The Hofkirche
a somewhat unsympathetic appearance. (15)
Emperor Albrecht II. .(16) Emperor Fred-
erick III., father of Maximilian. (17) Leo-
pold III., Margrave of Austria. (18) Count
Rudolf of Habsburg, grandfather of the
Emperor Rudolf. (19) Duke Leopold III.
of Austria, who fell at Sempach, fighting
against the Swiss. (20) Frederick IV., Count
of Tyrol, surnamed " With the Empty Pock-
ets." (21) Emperor Albrecht I. (22) God-
frey de Bouillon, with a crown of thorns.
(23) Elizabeth of Hungary, wife of Albrecht
II. (24) Mary of Burgundy, first wife of
Maximilian. (25) Eleonora of Portugal, the
mother of Maximilian. (26) Kunigunde, sis-
ter of Maximilian. (27) Ferdinand of Ara-
gon. (28) Johanna, daughter of Ferdinand
and Isabella of Spain, and wife of Philip I.,
surnamed the Handsome, Maximilian's son.
The bronze figure of Maximilian himself
is by Ludovico Scalza, called Del Duca,
while the four allegories of Justice, Prudence,
Strength, and Wisdom, are by Hans Lenden-
streich.
The authorship of the surrounding bronze
statues is no longer in doubt. Apart from
those of King Arthur and Theodoric, which,
as already stated, were by Peter Vischer of
19
The Fair Land Tyrol
Niirnberg, they have all been identified as
the work of Gilg Sesselschreiber of Munich,
of Stephan Godl of Niirnberg, or of Chris-
toph Amberger of Niirnberg. There was a
foundry at Miihlau near Innsbruck, where
almost all the casting was done.
It is evident that a big book could be
written around these personages, and made
to cover the history of Europe during several
centuries.
Twenty-four reliefs in marble decorate the
sides of the great sarcophagus on which Maxi-
milian kneels. They may well be described
as veritable pictures in stone of Carrara, as
fine as ivory. So delicate is the workmanship
that they are kept under glass, and one has to
secure the services of the custodian to open the
screen which surrounds the sarcophagus. In
making the rounds as a tourist, it is, of course,
difficult to estimate such minute work at its
full value. The scenes represent various
striking incidents in Maximilian's reign. All
but three tablets in the series are by that
Alexandre Colin who, though born at
Malines, in Flanders, lived forty years in
Innsbruck, and died there in 1612. The
remaining three are by Bernhard and Arnold
Abel of Cologne.
20
CHAPTER III
MAXIMILIAN — THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS
(1459- 1519)
WE cannot do much sightseeing in Inns-
bruck, or for that matter in the Tyrol at large,
without continually coming upon traces of
Emperor Maximilian I., of the house of
Habsburg- Austria.
His was an all-pervading personality, fill-
ing his age, and leaving a trail of legends to
his credit in the mouths of his people. What
did Maximilian I. look like? He was a man
with an aquiline nose set in a broad face, with
a delicately chiselled mouth, of which the
lower lip protruded slightly, with keen, dark
eyes, and long hair hanging to his shoulders,
— he had the face of an artist, strong and
sensitive, romantic and imaginative. His
personality was commanding, yet full of
temperament, full of kindliness. These
traits appear in the many portraits of him
which are extant, whether we take that su-
21
The Fair Land Tyrol
perb portrait by Bernhard Strigel in the
Pinakothek at Munich, his full face, by
Lucas of Leyden, in the Gemaldegalerie of
Vienna, his kneeling figure in Bernardo Zer-
nale's picture in the Pinacoteca of Milan, his
profile by Ambrose de Predis in the Kunst-
historische Museum in Vienna, or, finally, that
portrait by Albrecht Diirer, showing him in
his declining years, which is now kept in the
Gemaldegalerie in Vienna. The features
are everywhere the same, even on numerous
medals, coins, and in woodcuts.
The marble tablets that surround Maxi-
milian's cenotaph, in the Hofkirche, tell the
story of his life. Let us turn the leaves of
that illustrated text-book. We find, (i)
" The Wedding of Maximilian with Mary
of Burgundy." Charles the Bold, of Bur-
gundy, had no son to succeed him. He left
an only daughter, Mary, who presently found
herself beset with difficulties, plunged into
that network of intrigue into which the wily
Louis XI. had drawn her father, the Swiss
Confederates, and the house of Habsburg.
She found her subjects in Flanders rebellious,
at the same time that Louis XI. was drawing
the duchy of Burgundy to himself and press-
ing upon her the unwelcome suit of his son.
22
Maximilian
In her troubles she appealed to young Maxi-
milian, her betrothed from childhood. He
started for Flanders to protect his bride, and
to fight the King of France. He was only
eighteen at the time, and she twenty. The
wedding took place on August 19, 1477.
It is not often that people marry for poli-
tics and find love, but the marriage of these
two young people, who had never seen each
other before, certainly proved an exception
to the rule. Their children were Philip, born
in 1478, and Margaret in 1480. Mary of
Burgundy was a young woman of consider-
able charm. Her portraits do not show great
beauty, but her eyes were attractive, her tem-
perament bright, her carriage graceful, and
she proved an eager companion for Maxi-
milian on his rides and hunting expeditions.
There is a touching little woodcut extant,
in which the young couple are shown sitting
together: Maximilian teaching his bride
German and she teaching him French.
In 1479 Maximilian defeated the French in
(2) "The Battle of Guinegate."
But his married happiness came to an end
in 1481. In the spring of that year Mary
accompanied her husband on one of his expe-
ditions, and during the hunt her horse stum-
23
The Fair Land Tyrol
bled, threw her, and finally fell upon her.
She died of her injuries, and was buried in
the cathedral in Bruges, where the body of
her father, Charles the Bold, already lay.
(3) "The Storming of Arras," 1482.
In 1486, Maximilian's father, the Emperor
Frederick III., called an imperial diet of the
Princes Electors, to Frankfurt, to determine
the succession. A marble tablet represents:
(4) " The Coronation of Maximilian as
Roman King," 1486. The festivities at
Aachen were on a sumptuous scale. After
a triumphal entry into the city, Maximilian
was crowned in the minster with the Roman
crown, then he sat in Charlemagne's stone
chair and knighted two hundred followers.
A whole ox was roasted for the populace;
inside the ox was a pig, inside the pig a goose,
inside the goose a chicken, and so on to the
smaller animals. This has been aptly called
an example of the " grotesque gastronomy "
of those days.
(5) "Victory of the Tyrolese over the
Venetians at Galliano, on the Adige between
Trent and Rovereto," 1487. In the mean-
time Maximilian, the Habsburg widower,
began to look about him for a second wife.
He first applied for the hand of a daughter
24
Maximilian
of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. His
overtures were not received. Two years later
he turned his attention upon Anne, the young
Duchess of Brittany. He offered his hand
and was accepted. Anne of Brittany was
hardly more than a child, and had been much
attracted by what she had heard of Maxi-
milian. But political necessity overthrew this
project. As once before, the French broke
into Maximilian's plans. Young Charles
VIII., son of Louis XL, made war upon
Anne's possessions, undermined her authority,
and brought her into his power. As Maxi-
milian did not come to her aid, he being
involved in affairs in Hungary, she at first
decided to go to him. But at the last moment,
the poor young thing, hemmed in on all sides,
gave up this attempt, and ended by marrying
Charles VIII. and becoming Queen of
France.
Vienna had for several years been held by
Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, but
upon his death there followed the (6) " En-
try of Maximilian into Vienna after its
abandonment by the Hungarians," 1490.
This was followed by a short campaign in
Hungary itself to establish the rule of Habs-
burg there. (7) "The Storming of Stuhl-
25
The Fair Land Tyrol
weissenburg," the city where the Hungarian
kings were crowned, 1490.
Maximilian's grievance against Charles
VIII. of France was twofold, — not only had
he robbed him of his bride, but he had broken
his engagement with Maximilian's daughter,
Margaret, who had been betrothed to Charles
since childhood. Maximilian had given her
in charge of Louis XI. when she was only
two years old. She had grown up at the
French court. Now Charles held Margaret
as hostage on account of Artois and Franche
Comte, which were her dowry. Maximilian,
deeply humiliated, was eager for war, but
managed to obtain a treaty which gave him
back his daughter and her dowry in lands.
(8) "Return of Margaret," in 1493.
Maximilian's second wife was Bianca
Maria Sforza, niece of Ludovico Moro of
Milan. A portrait of her by Ambrose de
Predis, now kept in the Gemaldegalerie in
Vienna, shows the pure Italian oval of her
face, and a quaint and dainty arrangement
of hair and jewelry. This marriage brought
Maximilian four hundred thousand ducats in
cash, and an opportunity of extending his
power over the Alps into the rich plains of
26
Maximilian
Lombardy. The wedding took place in Inns-
bruck in 1494.
(9) " Expulsion of the Turks from
Croatia."
The mere mention of the subjects depicted
in the tablets shows Maximilian's restless
activity.
(10) " Alliance between Maximilian, Pope
Alexander VI., Venice, and the Duke of
Milan against Charles VIII. of France."
( 1 1 ) " Investment of Ludovico Sforza with
the Duchy of Milan."
(12) "Wedding of Philip, Maximilian's
eldest son, to Johanna of Arragon, daughter
of Ferdinand and Isabella."
In the same year Margaret was married
to Johanna's brother, Don Juan.
(13) "Victory of Maximilian over the
Bohemians at Regensburg," 1504.
(14) "Siege of Kufstein," 1504.
(15) "Taking of Guelders," 1505.
(16) "The League of Cambrai," 1508.
(17) "Entry into Padua."
(18) "Expulsion of the French from
Milan," 1512.
(19) "The Second Victory at Guinegate,"
the Battle of the Spurs, 1513.
(20) " Meeting of Maximilian with Henry
27
The Fair Land Tyrol
VIII. of England at the Siege of Tournai,"
1513-
(21) " Battle of Vicenza against the Vene-
tians/' 1513.
(22) " Battle of Murano," 1514.
(23) " Double wedding of Ferdinand,
Maximilian's grandson, and Maria, his
granddaughter, with Anne and Ludwig, chil-
dren of Vladislaw, King of Hungary," 1515.
(24) " Defence of Verona against the
French and Venetians," 1516.
The marble tablets of the Hofkirche, no
less than the bronze figures which stand
around the sarcophagus, recall many deci-
sive moments in the world's history.
The name of Charles the Bold, of Bur-
gundy, recalls his attempt to found a middle
kingdom between France and Germany.
The mention of Louis XI. of France brings
forward historical events of great moment.
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain are brought
into the story at the very time when Christo-
pher Columbus was discovering our new
world. The tablets show us the Republic of
Venice at the beginning of its decline, and the
Swiss Confederation at the height of its
military power. They give us a kaleidoscopic
28
Maximilian
picture comprising also Hungary, Turkey,
and the Papal States. In them we are re-
minded of that long struggle for the posses-
sion of the duchy of Milan; of the Flemish
cities with their wealthy and independent
citizens; of many leagues, marriages, and
festivities. But Maximilian marches from
one tablet to another, debonnaire and mediae-
val. He goes a-hunting between chapters in
history-making; and appears now and again
in his character of " The Last of the Knights."
Throughout his life Maximilian remained
proud of the house of Habsburg, and did not
hesitate to place on his seal that play upon
the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, which reads,
Alles Erdrelch 1st Oesterreich Unterthan,
All the World is Austria's Subject.
It is to be observed that nothing appears
in these tablets to show Maximilian's defeat
at the hands of the Swiss Confederates in
1499; and nothing of his imprisonment in his
own castle by his Flemish subjects soon after
his coronation. In truth, our hero was not
always victorious. The tremendous hold
which he obtained upon the popular imagina-
tion must be sought in certain personal traits,
in his activity, his generosity, his interest in
29
The Fair Land Tyrol
the life and pursuits of the people, as distin-
guished from the aristocracy, and especially in
his patronage of the arts and sciences.
He caused certain series of woodcuts to
be made to celebrate the deeds of the house
of Habsburg and of himself. The first series,
by Hans Burgkmair of Augsburg, was called
" Geneologie." It contained seventy-seven
drawings of Maximilian's ancestors in the
flesh and in fantasy, beginning with Hector,
Priam's son.
Then came the " Austrian Saints," by Leon-
hard Beck of Augsburg. "The Freydal"
contained pictures of tourneys and festivities
in which Maximilian participated. Other
biographical series were called " Weiss-
kunig " and " Teuerdank." Albrecht Diirer,
himself, in cooperation with the court his-
torian Stabius, drew up plans for an " Eh-
renpforte," or Triumphal Gate. Ninety-two
sheets of this work were finished, though not
paid for, and were sold singly after Maxi-
milian's death. Finally Maximilian ordered
a series called the " Triumphzug," the Tri-
umphal Procession. When completed, this
work contained 137 sheets, of which sixty-
seven were by Hans Burgkmair, seven by
Maximilian
Leonhard Beck, and the rest, certainly one
of the imperial chariot, and of the several
triumphal cars, by Albrecht Diirer, him-
self.
CHAPTER IV
ROUND ABOUT INNSBRUCK
Martlnswand
ALTHOUGH Maximilian liked to surround
himself with men of the arts and sciences, he
was an outdoor man of the most pronounced
kind.
If you look up from Innsbruck toward
the limestone range to the north, you will see
the Weiherburg, a favourite hunting castle
of Maximilian.
Maximilian's name is also connected with
a great wall of rock lying westward from
Innsbruck toward Zirl. The Martinswand
is nothing more than a vast precipitous spur
of the limestone range, already mentioned in
the description of Innsbruck.
The story goes that one day in 1493, Maxi-
milian, while out chamois hunting on top of
this spur, missed his footing, and rolled to the
Round about Innsbruck
edge. There he clung, unable to move up or
down. But his peril was observed from be-
low, and a chamois hunter climbed around
by the back and managed to rescue the much
exhausted Maximilian. This chamois hunter
was afterward ennobled under the name of
Hollauer. A little path with a railing now
leads up to the site of the rescue, where a cross
and a bust of the emperor have been erected
within a grotto.
Berg Isel
Pass out under the triumphal gate some
morning to see the sights toward the south.
Turn your back .upon the cruel limestone
range of the north and let your eye search
the gentle spurs of the Mittelgebirge and the
green mountains beyond where the Brenner
Pass winds its way. The name of Berg Isel
is popularly given to that little hill, off there,
at the exact entrance of the Pass, although the
name really covers the whole of the spur
which runs down from the Stubai Valley in
the direction of the valley of the Inn. Berg
Isel recalls the heroic figure of Andreas
Hofer, whose statue stands in the tiny park
on the top of the hill. This statue is the work
of the Tyrolese sculptor, Heinrich Natter.
33
The Fair Land Tyrol
We find a powerful figure, dressed in the cos-
tume of Hofer's native valley, the Passeierthal.
The costume is of the beginning of last cen-
tury. Andreas Hofer faces Innsbruck and
points down upon it with his right hand,
while his left presses the flag of Tyrol to his
heart. The monument is flanked by two
eagles. A bronze tablet bears the words,
" For God, Emperor, and Fatherland."
The notable dates for Berg Isel were April
i3th, May 2510 and 29th, August 13™, and
November i, 1809. The Tyrolese, under
Andreas Hofer, took Innsbruck three times
in the same year from the Bavarians and the
French.
The sculptor frequently visited the Pas-
seierthal in making his studies for the statue,
but he died in 1892, a year before the unveil-
ing, which took place amid great popular
rejoicings. The Emperor Francis Joseph
himself unveiled the monument in the pres-
ence of the archdukes, the local authorities,
and a vast concourse of peasants.
The hill belongs to the Kaiser-Jager, or
imperial sharpshooters, who also have a mu-
seum there, and a little monument to them-
selves, in memory of those of their number
34
STATUE OF ANDREAS HOFER ON BERG ISEL
Round about Innsbruck
who have fallen in battle, in the Tyrol, in
Italy, Hungary, and in Herzegovina. A
rifle range is to be found on the side toward
the Sill Valley.
The Tummelplatz
On the way from Berg Isel to Schloss
Ambras lies one of the most impressive and
characteristic spots in the whole of the Tyrol.
During the wars of 1798 and 1809 Schloss
Ambras was used as a military hospital and
its ancient tournament grounds as a cemetery
for friend and foe, to the number of almost
eight thousand.
The tournament grounds have now been
changed into a sweet and silent grove. Parties
of peasants wind their way among the trees,
singing antiphonally. The soft sward under
the pines muffles every footfall. The breeze
sighs peacefully in the branches. The wood-
land smell is sweet, and in this moist shelter,
away from the glare of the country road,
there is great calm and serenity, so that the
voices of a jolly party, coming along the
forest-path, drop to whispers as each person
comes within the quiet circle of the trees.
35
The Fair Land Tyrol
Schloss Ambras
It may be generally assumed that every
castle in Europe was once a Roman castellum.
Ambras, too, had a Roman beginning, but the
first structure on the spot, which was worthy
of the name of castle, was erected here by the
family of Andechs, that family which was
extremely influential in the valley of the Inn,
before the rise of the Counts of Tyrol. They
were a characteristic feudal race, these An-
dechser, distinguished on battle-field and in
council-hall. They were crusaders, pilgrims
to Rome, officers of the empire, founders of
many ecclesiastical institutions, and owners
of estates from Burgundy to Istria.
Edmund Oefele, their historian, claims for
them that they were " beloved on earth, es-
pecially by singers, for whom they always
kept open house, and beloved in heaven, which
they supplied with several saints." Upon
the death of the last Duke Otto II., the family
possessions passed into the hands of the Counts
of Tyrol.
The reader must be cautioned against de-
riving the name Ambras, or Amras, as it is
often written, from " Am Rasen," " By the
Round about Innsbruck
Turf or Grass Plot." This derivation is not
countenanced by historians.
Enter the castle gate and you find yourself
in a court, where a ticket of admission is re-
quired. This can be obtained gratis, but only
at the Hofburg in Innsbruck. Three parts
of the castle are shown to sightseers: the
Unterschloss, the Spanish Hall, and the
Hochschloss. Since 1882 the three form a
series of museums. In 1806, the main collec-
tions were transported to Vienna, but in 1880
portions of them were returned. The Unter-
schloss contains a collection of armour and
weapons, covering the period from the fif-
teenth century to our own day. The frescoed
Spanish Hall in its present restoration is bril-
liant in colour, and interesting to the his-
torian on account of its portraits of counts and
dukes of the Tyrol from 1229 to 1600. Among
the hunting trophies are many horns of the
steinbock, an animal now extinct in the Alps,
except in the royal Italian preserves in Pied-
mont. The curios, bric-a-brac, and portraits
of the Hochschloss are not of great value, and
on the whole Ambras is not much of a suc-
cess as a museum, but it captivates the vis-
itor by reason of its charms of site and ar-
37
The Fair Land Tyrol
chitecture. Moreover, it was the home of that
interesting woman, Philippine Welser, the
burgher wife of Archduke Ferdinand of
Austria.
CHAPTER V
PHILIPPINE WELSER (1527-1580)
THERE is a portrait of Philippine Welser
which no one who visits Innsbruck can fail
to see in photographic reproductions. The
original is in Vienna.
She may not look a great beauty in the por-
trait, owing to the somewhat peculiar head-
dress of her day, but serenity sits upon her
forehead and a light shines from her face,
Her blond hair was such a marvel to the
Italian artists who frequented the archducal
court, that they called her simply " la bella
Filipina."
For a long time the romantic story-tellers
had their way undisturbed with her life, but
recently scientific historians have been prob-
ing and setting facts in order. These will be
found at their best in the account published
by Wendelin Boeheim, and issued from the
press of the Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck.
Philippine Welser's father, Franz Welser,
39
The Fair Land Tyrol
was a well-to-do merchant of Augsburg.
His brother Bartholomaus was, in fact, very
rich. It was with ships supplied by the Wel-
ser family that Venezuela was conquered by
the Spaniards and colonized from Seville as
the point of departure.
Philippine was born in Augsburg, in 1527,
in a house on the corner of the Maximilian
and Katharinen Streets. The exact day of
her birth is not known.
Her marriage with Archduke Ferdinand
took place in Bresnic, in Bohemia, in January
of 1557, Ferdinand being twenty-eight years
of age at the time} and Philippine thirty, two
years his senior.
In 1563, Ferdinand was appointed Gov-
ernor of the Tyrol. He enlarged Schloss Am-
bras, filled it with works of art, and made
Philippine a present of it. In 1567 she
moved in. The marriage was an exceed-
ingly happy one. They had two sons, Andrew
and Charles, the latter becoming ruler of
Tyrol, under the title of Archduke Ferdinand
Karl. Philippine was the typical Hausfrau
living in a castle. The Venetian ambassador,
after a visit to Ambras, reported to his Senate
that " he [the archduke] could not be an
hour without her." Philippine looked after
40
Philippine JVelser
Ferdinand's comforts in the true Teutonic
way, and when he was ill she tried her special
medicines on him, for she kept a large store
of them at Ambras. Once he came all the
way from Hungary, where he was campaign-
ing, in order to be nursed by her. Twice they
travelled together to Karlsbad for the waters.
She also went about nursing the sick of the
neighbourhood, and kept a book in which
she noted down those medicines which she
thought were efficacious. This book, a folio
of 127 pages, is also kept in the Court Li-
brary of Vienna, while in the archives of
Innsbruck more than fifty petitions are pre-
served, directed to her from rich and poor,
asking for favours of various kinds. She took
special delight in surprising young women
by giving them their wedding-dresses.
Especially did she pride herself on her
cooking, and actually wrote a cook-book.
Hence she has her place in literature, as well
as in romance. She was one of the first of
that long line of ladies who have found pleas-
ure in putting down their recipes. Her
cook-book, with its 136 pages, reposes with the
above mentioned documents in the Court
Library of Vienna.
I quote the following recipe, to show how
The Fair Land Tyrol
Philippine used to make a " Black Torte,"
for Ferdinand. " You begin by taking eight
to fourteen pears, according as they are large
or small, then roast them, until they are soft,
but not burned. Do the same with a quince,
which will need more time, because it is
harder. These fruits are then carefully
peeled and pared, and placed in a pint dish,
half-full of milk. Add nine eggs (yolk and
white), sugar (rather too much than too lit-
tle), and half a measure of grated almonds,
making sure that there are no bitter ones
among them. Force this mixture through a
sieve, add cinnamon bark, cloves, pepper, gin-
ger, and nutmeg, according to taste. The
whole is served on a crust as thin as paper;
finally, a frosting made of rose-water, white of
egg, and sugar is poured on top." This is one
of the simpler recipes in the cook-book;
others are marvels of even greater complexity.
Altogether, considerable state was kept up
at Ambras, and there was much entertaining
of one kind or another. The castle sheltered
not only the usual assortment of servants,
pages, and ladies in waiting, but also artists,
scholars, clowns, giants, and dwarfs. At one
time even some Turkish prisoners were sta-
tioned there. Philippine had an enormous
42
Philippine Welser
larder to keep stocked, and Ferdinand was
ready to expend vast sums on festivities,
dances, banquets, mummeries, comedies, tour-
naments, and hunting expeditions. He also
amused himself in a well-furnished workshop
in hammering gold and silver, or in turning
objects of wood. He could even blow glass
and cast metal.
Philippine was in frequent communication
with the Bavarian and Florentine courts.
Sometimes she would send the Duke Al-
phonso of Ferrara good things to eat, such
as pots of preserves, Preisselbeeren, etc. Then
the duke would retort with a present of fine
hunting dogs. Philippine managed to get
on very well with Ferdinand's ducal sisters,
and Ferdinand was very good to her people,
although some of the latter apparently tried
to make his life a burden by constant appeals
for money and place.
From 1570 to 1580 the mistress of Ambras
suffered from recurring attacks of sickness.
On the 24th of April, in the latter year, she
finally succumbed and died, attended by her
husband, her sons, and many friends, for each
of whom she had a kind word. At the last
she is reported to have looked up and smiled.
"Why do you smile?" asked Ferdinand.
43
The Fair Land Tyrol
" I see something which pleases me," she
answered, simply, and with this happy
thought we may close the recital of her
earthly career. News of her death was sent
at once to the various European courts, and
in Innsbruck her many modest friends and
beneficiaries mourned for her greatly and
long missed her sweet presence.
Her will stipulated a great number of
bequests which Ferdinand executed scrupu-
lously. Her body lies buried in the Silver
Chapel of the Hofkirche at Innsbruck. A
mass of traditions and anecdotes quickly clus-
tered around the figure of Philippine Welser,
but we can best read her simple career in the
souvenirs of the Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck,
or in the Court Library of Vienna. Her
prayer-book, cook-book, and medicine-book
tell their stories. The cradle of her children
tells another. A tournament favour em-
broidered by her, a little desk, and even a
leather case, containing knife and fork and
spoon, her Essbesteck, all these bring her
daily life before us.
Hers was truly a sweet and capable indi-
viduality, graced by much beauty of thought
and gentle serenity of disposition.
44
CHAPTER VI
THE VORARLBERG APPROACH
As you journey from Switzerland to Inns-
bruck you pass through the Vorarlberg, a
small Austrian crown land. The name Vor-
arlberg means very simply " Before-the-
Arlberg," and includes all that is Austrian
on the westward side of the Arlberg Pass —
with the exception of the tiny vassal state of
Liechtenstein. The summit of the Arlberg
Pass forms the watershed between the Rhine
and the Danube. The crown land is adminis-
tered from Innsbruck in combination with
the Tyrol. There is the same Statthalter, or
imperial and royal governor, for them both,
and the official documents are issued " For
Tyrol and Vorarlberg." The latter also sends
representatives to the Landtag at Innsbruck.
There was an historic moment at the be-
ginning of the fifteenth century, when the
Vorarlberg, and a part of the Tyrol, too, came
very near joining the Swiss Confederation.
45
The Fair Land Tyrol
It was just after the mountaineers of Appen-
zell and St. Gallen had thrown off allegiance
to their abbot, and had beaten back the house
of Habsburg at the battle of the Stoss.
In alliance with the men of Schwiz, these
mountaineers of Appenzell then crossed the
Rhine valley and plunged into the Eastern
Alps, crying liberty to the peasantry there,
and destroying the castles of the nobility. In
fact, Ital Reding of Schwiz had planned a
new Alpine Peasant Republic. All Vorarl-
berg and Western Tyrol had already taken
the oath of allegiance, and the machinery of
the feudal system had practically broken
down, showing itself temporarily powerless
to check the aspirations of this League of the
People, when there occurred one of those
strange reversals which history shows can
hinge on very small matters.
In January of 1408, a body of the men of
Appenzell lay before Bregenz under the lead-
ership of a certain captain from Schwiz.
Here they were surprised and defeated by an
army of Swabian knights, in league with
Austria. This comparatively insignificant
loss resulted in breaking the backbone of the
Appenzell movement.
In the end, the League of the People was
The Vorarlberg Approach
dissolved by imperial sentence; the men of
Appenzell withdrew once more to their
mountains, and were admitted into partial
membership within the Swiss Confederation;
while the Vorarlberg, with the Western
Tyrol, returned to the rule of Habsburg-
Austria.
The Bregenzerwald
The northern part of the Vorarlberg is
called the Bregenzerwald. It is a well-
wooded region, rolling and crossed by tor-
rents, a region, too, of soft slopes, given over
to cattle raising and dairying. It has been
named the Austrian Black Forest. There is
an Outer and Inner district, just as Appenzell
has its Outer and Inner Rhoden. Near
Bezau, in the Inner district, stands a me-
morial which shows how closely the political
organization of the Bregenzerwald peasantry
once resembled that of their neighbours, the
Swiss.
A Gothic column marks the spot where
an ancient council-chamber formerly stood.
There the " popularly elected Landammann
and Council of the Inner Bregenzer Wald "
made laws for the people. A simple wooden
house stood on four wooden columns. The
47
The Fair Land Tyrol
councillors mounted by a ladder, and then the
ladder was withdrawn. It was not put back
until the councillors had come to an agree-
ment.
There was a chief magistrate called the
Landammann, as in the pastoral Cantons of
Switzerland to-day; with him were asso-
ciated a Landschreiber, or secretary, and
Waibel, or sheriff, and twenty-four council-
lors. Then there were forty-eight representa-
tives from the different Gemeinden, or par-
ishes. The election of the Landammann took
place in a large field near Andelsbuch.
This method of direct democracy and pure
self-government lasted for centuries, until
1807, when the wooden house disappeared.
At present Bezau is only the seat of a district
court.
Angelika Kaufmann (1740-1807)
The village of Schwarzenberg, close by
Bezau, was the home of Angelika Kaufmann's
parents. " Miss Angel," herself, as Sir Joshua
Reynolds used to call her, was born in Chur,
Switzerland, and died in Rome.
The parish church contains an altar-piece
by her, and a marble bust of her stands in the
The Vorarlberg Approach
left aisle. A pretty outlook hill near Schwar-
zenberg has been called the Angelikahohe.
So, too, at Bezau there is a house with eight
pictures by her, which may be seen for a fee.
Her father, John Joseph Kaufmann, was a
painter, and little Maria Anne Angelika
Catherine, to give her full name, very early
proved her talent. At twelve she was already
painting the portraits of persons of distinction,
and at fourteen she was studying the old
masters at Milan.
She visited Rome, Bologna, and Venice.
In Rome, especially, she enjoyed great popu-
larity not only on account of her talent as a
painter, but also by reason of her personal
charms. Lady Wentworth, the wife of the
English ambassador in Rome, persuaded her
to go to London.
Angelika Kaufmann was twenty-five when
she made her appearance in England, in 1765.
Among her most noted portraits were those
of Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Lady
Hamilton. In the first catalogue of the Royal
Academy, that of 1769, her name was fol-
lowed by an R. A. Reynolds, especially, be-
friended her. In his pocket-diary her name
appears as Miss Angelica, or Miss Angel.
Royalty smiled upon her. She was appointed
49
The Fair Land Tyrol
with others to decorate St. Paul's. She con-
tributed largely to the Royal Academy, prin-
cipally in the way of classical and allegorical
subjects.
The last twenty-five years of her life were
spent in Rome, and, when she died, in 1807,
she was honoured by a great funeral under the
direction of Canova.
" The entire Academy of St. Luke's, with
ecclesiastics and virtuosi, followed her to
the tomb in St. Andrea delle Frate, and, as
at the burial of Raphael, two of her best pic-
tures were carried in the procession."
Her pictures are to-day found widely scat-
tered, in London, Paris, Dresden, St. Peters-
burg, and Munich. Three portraits of herself
have retained a certain popularity, one in
the Munich Pinakothek, another in the Uffizi
at Florence, and a third in the National Por-
trait Gallery of South Kensington.
Landeck
Between Feldkirch and Mayenfeld lies
the station of Schaan. It gives access to
Vaduz, the capital of the independent
principality of Liechtenstein, which con-
tains forty-two square miles, and ten thousand
50
The yorarlberg Approach
inhabitants; has a prince who is a vassal of
Austria, a legislature of fifteen members, —
and no taxes.
In the valley of the young Rhine meadows
and fields of American corn alternate with
swamps and beds of gravel. There are mon-
strous mountains to right and left; they cul-
minate in torn teeth, and their walls are blank
and staring.
As far as Feldkirch, the train travels, gen-
erally speaking, within sight of the Rhine,
which forms the boundary between Switzer-
land and Austria. There, however, it turns
eastward to climb over the Arlberg to Inns-
bruck. It mounts by successive curves and
tunnels over embankments and bridges to the
Arlberg Tunnel. Thence it descends with
equal care on the other side to Landeck.
At Landeck, that " Corner-of-land" we
meet another much frequented approach from
Switzerland: the Finstermunz carriage-road
from the valley of the Engadine.
Hence it happens that Landeck is often the
first place of any size which the tourist sees
in the Tyrol. Strictly speaking, it is a village,
but so large a one that it looks more like a
town. The old fortress has lost much of its
value since the alliance between Austria and
The Fair Land Tyrol
Germany, so that nowadays Landeck is prized
more as a railroad station than as a strategic
point. The big church is decorated in a
modern way with glass windows from Inns-
bruck and Munich, and on the open valley
floor fertile crops wave in the Alpine air.
The Finstermunz is the tailing-off of the
Engadine. It is a canon-like gorge, at the
base of which the Inn flows turbulently, and
seeks an outlet from Swiss upon Austrian soil.
The road runs along the face of the bare wall
with an air of great skill and not a little
bravado. Altogether, it affords one of the
choicest sights in the Alps and is characterized
by a keen and grim daring which is height-
ened by the fortifications that are still main-
tained.
After Landeck, Imst deserves mention on
account of an industry which flourished there
during the eighteenth century. It was the
centre of a great trade in canaries. Dealers
in these birds found their way from Imst as
far as Constantinople. There was even a
regular depot for them in Moorefield Square,
in London. Spindler's romance of the
" Vogelhandler " is said to give a good pic-
ture of this trade in its heyday.
CHAPTER VII
DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE INN
THIS trip takes us from the capital of the
Tyrol down to the farthest tip of the province,
where the Inn slips from our sight into
Bavaria. We follow the course of the stream,
attracted by the pale horizon, the mountains
apparently meeting at times, but always mov-
ing apart as we approach. The floor of the
valley is sown with strips of different crops,
like a quilt of many colours. White church
towers mark the towns, castle turrets dot the
countryside, and noble forests flank the val-
ley on either side with their stately presence.
Every gradation in the Alps has its distinct-
ive charms. Those visitors who do not mount
to the topmost peaks to clamber among the
everlasting snows, may find their solace in the
wonderful wastes of stone, in the summer pas-
tures, or in the forests of pine on the slopes.
One need ascend no higher than the lower
53
The Fair Land Tyrol
woods to enjoy a great measure of pleasure
and profit from a stay in alpine regions.
Many a spot will be found where noble
beech-trees abound, rearing their smooth gray
trunks amid the tender green of their foliage.
At their bases and in the sockets of their
branches these beeches are adorned with rich
green moss of opulent depth and smoothness
well designed to set off the gentle mouse
colour of the trunks. Elsewhere larches
spread their pale green lace-work to the sky,
and carpet the ground with fragrant needles.
Beneath the trees hypaticas and anemones
dot the ground in spring, and in places fa-
voured by woodland rills and quiet pools
sweet-smelling cyclamen balance themselves
gracefully on their stems and nod to the way-
ward breeze.
It is pleasant, too, to wrest a secret from
the cyclamen plant, and to find the under side
of its smooth green leaves resplendent with
a fine and noble red.
A multitude of joyous surprises lie along
the paths in the lower woods. Wild straw-
berries, blackberries, and huckleberries bloom,
blossom, and ripen in their seasons. Mush-
rooms are there for those who understand
them. A great variety of lovely butterflies
54
Down the Valley of the Inn
spread their wings and hover over the flowers
of the forest glades. Red squirrels, with sharp-
pointed ears, dart and dangle among the
interlacing branches, or stop to scold from
their points of vantage. Ever and anon also
in these lower woods of the Alps the cuckoo
calls rhythmically and systematically from
his hiding-places, and gives a characteristic
note ever after to be associated with the
forest landscape.
Hall
Hall is " the Niirnberg of the Tyrol," a tiny
pocket edition of the big Bavarian folio. The
town for a time seemed to present a case of
arrested development. It stopped growing
in the sixteenth century, like many another
Tyrolese town, and we see it to-day very much
as it was then, quaint and compact, with
mediaeval accoutrements.
A steep little street leads to the heart of
the miniature municipality, to the principal
square, where the Rathhaus and the great
parish church stand facing each other. As
for peaked roofs, jutting balconies, swinging
signs, street fountains, carved doorways, Hall
abounds in them all, to the delight of the anti-
quarians, historians, artists, and tourists alike.
55
The Fair Land Tyrol
But Hall is also now feeling the rejuve-
nating and awakening spirit of modern enter-
prise, as witness the steam tram which
connects it with Innsbruck, and the excel-
lent water-works and electric lights which
have been installed.
Certain salt mines in the mountains at the
back gave Hall a start in life. For more than
a thousand years salt has been mined there.
Then Hall was also the head of navigation on
the Inn. Boats came up the Danube into the
Inn, and thence as far as Hall, where mer-
chandise was transferred to carts. Many
hundred men and horses were regularly em-
ployed in this primitive method of transporta-
tion. A certain Joseph Pirnsyder had a
printing-press here as early as 1524, that
being the first printing-press in the Tyrol.
Hall was, furthermore, the seat of a Tyro-
lese mint, in evidence of which a delightful
old tower called the Munzerthurm still stands
not far from the station. In 1809 Andreas
Hofer minted his so-called " Hofer-Zwan-
ziger" here.
The town archives, which are said to be
unusually rich, show that Hall was in the
full blast of its activity during the fifteenth
century, when the traffic from Venice to
56
MUNZERTHURM IN HALL
Down the Valley of the Inn
Germany passed through the town, and when
the salt mines were being worked under full
pressure. In those days even the courts of
justice were opened with feasts of eating and
drinking. Emperor Maximilian was often
within hailing distance, and was frequently
prevailed upon to grace the flourishing town
with his imperial presence.
The end of Hall's feudal prosperity came
on slowly during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, with the decay of the mining in-
dustry, and with a change in trade routes.
To-day Hall is reviving slowly and placing
itself upon a modern basis. It contains active,
loyal, and devoted citizens, who are filled
with the spirit of enterprise, and desire to
see their native town take a prominent part
in performing the great tasks toward which
the Tyrol is steadily advancing.
Jakob Stainer, Violin Maker (l62I - 1683)
Absam is a village near Hall, on a height
to the north. Here Jakob Stainer, " the
father of the German violin," was born in
1621.
Little is known of his life, and apparently
nothing at all of the manner in which he
57
The Fair Land Tyrol
learned to make violins. Stories of his visits
to Venice or Cremona lack historical founda-
tion, but it is known that when Stainer was a
young man, the ducal court at Innsbruck was
particularly hospitable to Italian artists and
musicians. He may, therefore, have become
acquainted with one of the violinists stationed
there, and may have started his life-work by
imitating an Italian instrument. There is
reason to believe that Stainer's first model
was an Amati, but he undoubtedly developed
a form of his own, as he progressed in work-
manship.
One thing is certain, namely, that in 1641,
when Stainer was only twenty years of age, he
was already peddling his violins about the
fairs at Hall, selling them for six florins
apiece.
At one time a prosperous future seemed
to stretch before him, after Archduke Ferdi-
nand Karl had called him to Innsbruck, and
named him violin maker to the ducal court.
Later in life he was created violin maker to
the imperial court by Emperor Leopold I.,
but nothing seemed to be able to keep him
out of debt, or to overcome his dire poverty
and want. He was constantly harassed and
hampered by want of funds, and at length
58
Down the Valley of the Inn
was actually dismissed from his much-cher-
ished official positions. When he wrote to
the emperor in his troubles, the latter refused
to help him. At length the violin maker,
overwhelmed by his cares, stopped work, and
died in a pitiable condition in 1683, but his
good work survived him and made his name
honoured and respected. To-day a genuine
Stainer is a highly prized possession, and
through the sweet and noble tone of the in-
struments he produced, the poor violin maker
left a rich legacy, and earned the lasting
gratitude of many friends.
Fortunately, Stainer worked diligently, and
turned out many violins. He was especially
careful in selecting the wood for his instru-
ments. Indeed, the pains which he took in
this matter are astonishing. He would wander
for days in the forests back of Absam, study-
ing the trees. As a rule, he chose mellow,
old ones, which were already beginning to
die of! at the top. Before he felled them,
he would always strike their trunks with a
hammer in order to try the tone. But
Stainer had also observed, what is familiar
to every mountaineer, that tree-trunks, in com-
ing down the lumber slides, give forth sing-
ing notes as they strike against obstacles.
59
The Fair Land Tyrol
Stainer used to listen near these lumber slides,
and then pick out for his purpose the trees that
sang best. For certain parts of the violin, he
preferred to use the seasoned wood of old
doors or tables.
Stainer also introduced innovations in the
construction of the violin. The tops of his
instruments are more highly curved than the
Italian types. If a genuine Stainer is held
sideways, and one looks into one of the /
holes, one ought to be able to look out through
the other. These / holes are also a trifle
shorter than is usual in violins, and their end
points are quite round. It is said that Stainer's
changes made the vibrations in the instru-
ment describe an ellipse instead of a circle,
as had been the case before.
Connoisseurs claim that the tone of a genu-
ine Stainer is more flutelike, more sympathetic
and singing than that of an Italian violin,
while the latter is conceded to be more bril-
liant, and in general, better suited to resound
in concert halls.
Mozart is reported to have owned a Stainer.
The instrument bore the maker's name, and
the date 1656. Many imitators arose after
Stainer's death. Klotz, a pupil of Stainer,
turned out many copies of his master's work
60
Down the Valley of the Inn
from Mittenwald, a village just over the
frontier in Bavaria, not far from Oberam-
mergau. To this day the chief industry of
Mittenwald is the manufacture of violins and
guitars, which are exported in considerable
quantities to England and the United States.
Even Cremona, it is alleged, did not think it
beneath her dignity to send out false Stainers.
Violin experts of to-day have no easy task,
therefore, in separating the spurious from
the genuine Stainers, but whatever their suc-
cess, it remains a curious commentary upon
modern improvements that the form of the
violin has hardly varied at all in all its his-
tory, and that the older the instrument the
better it grows, the sweeter, the nobler, and
the more sympathetic its tone.
Joseph Speckbacher (1767-1820)
The second in the trio of heroes in the war
of 1809 was Joseph Speckbacher, who was
born on a farm in the Gnadenwald, back of
Hall. His father was a well-to-do peasant.
Young Speckbacher earned some notoriety
as a poacher, then settled down on a farm at
Rinn, in the Mittelgebirge, almost opposite
Hall. The house of this "Man of Rinn"
61
The Fair Land Tyrol
is about half an hour's walk from the Baths
of Rinn.
The facts in his life which are of historic
interest, may be summed up very briefly.
He threw himself into the struggle of 1809
with fiery enthusiasm. The Tyrolese histo-
rian, Zingerle, says that he represented the
strategic and intellectual side of the insur-
rection, as Hofer represented the patriarchal,
and Haspinger the ecclesiastical. His early
poaching made him an ideal leader of sharp-
shooters. He fought with more or less suc-
cess until he was disastrously defeated on
October 17, 1809, at Melegg, on the road to
Reichenhall. Here his forces were com-
pletely routed by the Bavarians, he himself
severely wounded in the ensuing hand-to-hand
struggle, and his little son, Anderl (Andrew),
taken prisoner. King Max of Bavaria him-
self took charge of the boy, and had him
educated for seven years at his own expense.
At the time of his defeat, Speckbacher barely
escaped to his farm at Rinn, and remained
in hiding there for seven weeks before he
could escape from the Tyrol.
Many conflicting accounts concerning the
leader's sufferings and wanderings found
their way into print, but Doctor Steub, an
62
Down the Valley of the Inn
enthusiastic and indefatigable traveller in the
Tyrol, took pains to extract the truth from
Speckbacher's own descendants, and has set
down the result in his interesting work.
It appears that Bavarian soldiers were
actually quartered in Speckbacher's house
during the whole period of his concealment.
He took refuge in a pit under his house. It
was about four feet deep, and he could only
hide there in a sitting posture. His wife, the
doctor of the village, and two neighbours
alone knew of his presence. He would move
out of his hiding-place when the soldiers went
off to drill in the village of Rinn. After his
broken rib (a wound received at Melegg)
healed, /. e., in about three weeks, he took
shelter in the sheep stall, and finally, toward
the first of May, after many narrow escapes,
managed to cross the frontier into the Prov-
ince of Austria, where he was well received
and rewarded.
In 1814, when the war was over, Speck-
bacher returned to Rinn, sold the farm, and
settled in near-by Hall with his wife. He
was now a real major, retired, on a pension
of a thousand gulden a year. Here he spent
six quiet years, until his death, in 1820.
The Fair Land Tyrol
He was generally well pleased to talk over his
stirring career.
In 1870, Doctor Steub was fortunate
enough to hear some further details of Speck-
bacher's life from the parish priest of Rat-
tenberg, F. X. Asher, who spent several years
in Speckbacher's house at Hall.
It appears from this account that Speck-
bacher was present in Vienna at the great
Congress of 1815. When King Max of
Bavaria arrived in that city, the Emperor
Francis of Austria said to Speckbacher:
" You must go to the King of Bavaria and
thank him for having had your boy learn
something." The emperor addressed Speck-
bacher with the familiar du, which pleased
the sharpshooter immensely; so did the
present of a golden medal and fifty ducats.
Speckbacher thanked King Max as he had
been told to do, and King Max generously
said:
" Enter my service as a major and I will
promote you at once to be a general. Leave
your son; he will do better in Bavaria than
in Austria."
Speckbacher thanked the king for his kind
intentions, but declined the honours. In our
own day a play entitled " Speckbacher " is
64
THE LIVING - ROOM IN THE CASTLE OF TRATZBERG
Down the Valley of the Inn
enacted in the big village of Brixlegg during
the summer season.
Toward Kufstein
In our progress down the valley of the Inn
to Kufstein, we pass a succession of attractive
and interesting places where the traveller
will do well to linger for a closer acquaint-
ance. The old town of Schwaz, across the
river from the railroad, once contained some
thirty thousand inhabitants, and its silver
mines greatly enriched the princes of the
Tyrol. To-day only a little iron and copper
mining remains to tell the tale of former work
and wealth.
A little farther along a sudden opening in
the mountains appears on the left, and high
up against the green of the forest are seen a
white church and house, perched upon a pre-
cipitous crag. That is St. Georgenberg, an
ideally placed pilgrimage resort.
Below Schwaz the castle of Tratzberg
rises on the left, one of the most imposing of
Tyrol's many castles, as well as one of the
richest in antiquities and objects of art.
Now Jenbach looms in the distance, and two
new valleys open on either hand: one to the
65
The Fair Land Tyrol
\
north, leading to the Achensee, and another
to the Zillerthal on the south.
For the present let us keep straight on down
the valley of the Inn.
Just before Brixlegg is reached three castles
start up on our right: Kropfsberg, Lichtwer,
and Matzen. The last is the property of Mr.
Baillie-Grohman, whose book on " Tyrol and
the Tyrolese " has done so much to familiar-
ize English-speaking travellers with land and
people.
Brixlegg itself has attracted attention in
recent years on account of its Passion Play,
which is given there periodically. The play
has been given in 1868, 1873, '883, 1889, and
1903.
The train passes under the castle of Ratten-
berg, with which place the name of Wilhelm
Biener, Chancellor of the Tyrol until 1651, is
associated. His story has inspired Karl An-
rather's large painting in the Ferdinandeum
at Innsbruck, as well as an historical novel,
" Der Kanzler von Tyrol," by Hermann
Schmid.
After Rattenberg there is open ground for
awhile, then comes the railroad junction of
Worgl, and finally at the very end of our
journey down the Inn stands Kufstein, block-
66
_
Down the Valley of the Inn
ing the narrows of the river, so that there is
barely room for the river, the carriage and
the railroad to pass.
With what wonder and delight does the eye
welcome the splendid and courageous little
city. It is not possible to see Kufstein for the
first time unmoved. It belongs to the category
of Austrian cities with citadels, like Salzburg
and Graz. Though not as large as they, it yet
belongs to the class of dramatic and proudly
perched cities whose very aspect challenges
attention and respect.
Kufstein's position is eminently strategic,
and, in fact, it has had more than its share of
sieges on account of the curious hostility
which once existed between the Tyrolese and
Bavarians. This feeling has now happily
changed to one of mutual good-will between
the allied German and Austrian empires, and
peace and prosperity reign undisturbed on the
border.
67
CHAPTER VIII
KITZBUHEL — LIFE ON THE ALM
COME, my friend, the valleys seem too con-
fining, and the mountains call. There are
slopes where anemones bloom and gentians
gleam in their full pride; where straying
bees flutter over the early heather, and the
breeze is fresh with the keen tonic of the
mountains. Come to the summer pastures,
smooth as velvet, swelling and sinking in
monster billows; I know where there are bare
crags casting jagged shadows, and where tiny
huts, huddled together in basin-like depres-
sions, will give us shelter, and where we can
study the life on the aim, and hear its songs.
Kitzbuhel is our starting-place, and the
Kitzbuhelhorn our goal.
Pass your stick between the straps of your
Rucksack as a chamois hunter carries his
rifle. Then get into the steady swing of the
mountaineer and lean well forward to perfect
your balance, for the path is steep.
68
Kitzbiihel
As we mount, our figures pierce the morn-
ing mist that clings to the mountainside in
thin streamers. When we have left the last
groves of pine, and have come out above the
timber line, it is time to stop for a moment
to send a shout into the valley below. Here
and beyond begins a new world; a new air
fans the cheeks and new sounds come to the
ears. The jingling of bells rises and falls
on the breeze. The cattle are being driven off
from the huts to feed in the open, to wander
all day among the Alpine flowers.
At the door of the first hut we stop for a
drink of milk. The woman herder in charge
of the hut smiles pleasantly as she hands out
a shallow wooden bucket, which serves as well
as a glass.
There is no better district in the Tyrol for
studying that life on high, than the Kitzbiihel
range. Over the border, in Salzburg, the
territory contiguous is equally profitable. In
fact, the whole mountain group which lies
between Kitzbiihel, Saalfelden, Zell am See,
and Mittersill, is good ground for our re-
searches. Here customs are retained which
have disappeared elsewhere. Annual athletic
contests are held on certain plateaux, whither
champion wrestlers come from the valley of
69
The Fair Land Tyrol
the Inn, the Pinzgau, the Oetzthal, and the
Pusterthal. The contest on the Kitzbuhelhorn
takes place every June, on a level space near
the mountain inn.
The view from the tiny white chapel on the
summit of the Kitzbuhelhorn is certainly one
of the most paying for the pains.
The Hohe Salve, though equally accessible,
and rejoicing besides in the subtitle of " The
Rigi of the Lower Innthal," is not quite as
high as the Kitzbuhelhorn, and its view does
not comprise quite so many snow peaks.
From the Kitzbuhelhorn the whole Tauern
range gleams toward the south. So do the
Zillerthal mountains. The Gross Glockner
and the Gross Venediger lie silver-white upon
the horizon, like spring clouds resting upon
the west wind.
Northward, the naked, gray Kaisergebirge
rear massive limestone walls, bleak and bris-
tling. Down over the edge from where we
stand, lies Kitzbuhel, the town. A train on
the long curve near the town, leaves a tail
of smoke behind it. There is a thin, distant
whistle, and a long-drawn rumble. From the
lower woods comes the call of the cuckoo, a
recurring fluty rhythm, pulsating through the
70
THE KAISERGEBIRGE
Northward, the naked, gray Kaiser-
gebirge rear massive limestone
walls."
Kitzbuhel
atmosphere. A peal of bells rings up from
the parish church below.
The peculiarity of the Kitzbuhelhorn-
massif is, that the pastures rise and fall for
miles. It is possible to walk for days at an
average altitude of about five thousand feet,
first to the Gaisstein, then by the Pinzgauer
Promenade to the Schmittenhohe, in the prov-
ince of Salzburg. This mountain group
forms a vast dairying summer resort.
Stopping at another hut, we ask if anybody
plays the zither there. A young herder is
pointed out to us, but he shakes his head, and
will have it that he cannot play. The peas-
ants have a way of denying any accomplish-
ment, when first asked, but presently, after
some parleying, the herder takes down his
zither from the wall, and begins to play. And
how he enjoys it, that young fellow! How his
instrument tingles, and the syncopated notes
leap from the ring on his thumb! Think of
making music up there, above the timber line,
in the full sunshine, with nothing between you
and the sky! Only the herds of cattle look
on, and jingle their bells on the summer pas-
tures.
Cloudy days, too, have their charm on the
aim, days when a silent mantle of mist or haze
The Fair Land Tyrol
settles upon the scene, inviting meditation and
the sweet solace of an alpine quiet. The day
may have dawned surpassingly fair and clear,
but suddenly, from many quarters, the clouds
are detected creeping upon us like some
stealthy enemy, to surround and hedge us in.
They prove to be a welcome, kindly enemy,
that means no harm. They come from
around the corners of the ridges, over the
mountain saddles, and between the peaks.
They feel their way along the precipices, and
advance fitfully over the green, halting once
and again to scout and reconnoitre the ground.
Little streamers and separate cloudlets are sent
on ahead, or to the sides, and there they hover
timidly till the main body of clouds overtakes
them, and the whole mass pushes forward to
capture the landscape with a gentle and moist
caress. The clouds blot out one by one the
landmarks of the aim, the farther slopes, the
little alpine lake, where the cattle drink, and
the isolated cedars that have stood the storm
and stress of a century. Finally the mist cuts
off from view the near-by huts and the graz-
ing cattle as they munch the damp grass,
dotted with many perfumed flowers. A
pleasant stillness pervades the aim, a peace-
ful, protective hush enfolds it, until such time
72
Kitzbuhel
as a clearing gust shall blow through the ra-
vines. The clouds have for the present brushed
aside distracting sights. We seem to be at sea,
or up in the air, separated from the humdrum
human occupations of another world.
As we listen, there comes through the mist
a measured jingling from the bells of unseen
cattle. Close by a cow gives her bell a rapid
rattle as she rubs against the rough side of a
stable hut, or briskly switches off the flies.
The dull thud of the strokes of an axe reaches
us from where some one is splitting wood for
the fire, or a herder calls to the sheep ranging
in the lofty recesses of the surrounding moun-
tains.
It is a great privilege to know the aim at
any time, even in the hour of the clouds. But
in the heights, clouds and mist do not always
mean rain, for they come and go uncertainly,
flitting and drifting before the wind. There
may be the smell of fog, and the touch of the
hand may grow moist, but the dwellers on the
aim go about their work unheeding and un-
mindful of the change. A sudden break may
come at any time, and even while we look,
behold the peaks stand out once more clean cut
against the blue, the landmarks of the aim
return one by one to view, and the cattle are
73
The Fair Land Tyrol
seen again "browsing unconcernedly and con-
tentedly just where the clouds found them and
left them.
As the day declines, the cows are driven in,
to be milked. Herds of calves are shooed into
enclosures for the night. Now the children
also are caught and put to bed, in spite of
some remonstrance on their part. They are
mostly tow-headed little things, the little girls
with their hair in pigtail braids, and the
boys wearing faded felt hats, ornamented with
cock's feathers. Women wash wooden pails at
a fountain, surmounted by a rudely carved
figure of St. Florian. Presently a man is seen
making his way cautiously toward the central
hut, where the cheese is made. He carries a
hod full of fresh milk. When he has care-
fully deposited his milk, the herders and their
women take a short rest on the benches in front
of the huts, before going to bed, while the
fountain trickles and gurgles complacently.
From near by comes a shout and a laugh,
and a man comes striding down the mountain
path. The moon is up, and he carries his
shadow with him. He is going the way we
shall go to-morrow, — down the slopes to St.
Johann-in-Tyrol. Occasionally he disappears
behind a knoll.
74
Kitzbuhel
To the south the impalpable snow moun-
tains glisten in the faultless air. The cattle,
after having been milked, have been driven
off, and are out for the night. Sometimes a
cow, standing on a projecting hillock, bellows
triumphantly over the scene.
The cool night-wind draws through the
recesses of the range. The footfall of the pass-
ing herder can no longer be heard, nor the
vibration felt on the sod, but after awhile a cry
comes from afar off, through the Alpine still-
ness, a final yodel, tense, defiant, and true,
but mellowed and refined, by the distance.
It is time to turn in and leave, the little flowers
to the gentle dew, and this blessed and benign
scene to the peace of the end of the day.
75
CHAPTER IX
THE ACHENSEE
THE Achensee is so very blue, that, by con-
trast, the other lakes of the Tyrol would seem
to have turned green with envy. The blue
of the Achensee has a quality apart, as unmis-
takable as the blue of/ the gentian or the for-
get-me-not, when it climbs above the timber
line.
Among the lakes of the Alps, Lago di
Garda, the Walensee, and Lake Leman are
blue, yes, marvellously blue, but the Achensee
is blue in its own way. Take ultramarine and
mix into it a little of the early morning sky
and the pure glitter of the glacier, and you
will get the colour of the Achensee when the
suo shines.
A little mountain railroad climbs from
Jenbach to Seespitz. There are some people
who never walk when they can ride, but if you
care to make the ascent on foot, settle your
Rucksack more firmly into the small of your
76
The Achensee
back, and take the road along the mountain
torrent. You may see much on the way to
repay you as you swing along.
At Seespitz a whole gallery of Defregger
types walked into the inn where I sat. They
were gamekeepers from the neighbouring
chamois preserves of the Duke of Coburg.
Their tight-fitting toggery had weathered
into strange colours, their bare knees were
brown from exposure, and their iron-shod
shoes made a great clattering and scrunching
on the stone floor.
The picture was complete, when they laid
their rifles aside, and sat there smoking and
pounding the table, while some crooked-
legged Dachshund chen waddled about, look-
ing for scraps.
A steamboat makes the tour of the Achen-
see, and rowboats of the usual flat-bottomed,
Alpine type can be hired at the various settle-
ments on the shores.
The Pertisau is a delta-shaped pasture that
creeps down to the water's edge from the
shelter of the mountains. Here are several
hotels, notably the Fiirstenhaus, the property
of the Benedictine abbey of Viecht, near
Schwaz. The Fiirstenhaus was once a shoot-
ing-lodge of the princes of Tyrol. The Abbet
77
The Fair Land Tyrol
of Viecht rebuilt it into a summer residence,
and it is now kept as an open house for
guests.
Seehof, across the lake, was built by Lud-
wig Rainer, nephew of Joseph Rainer, the
famous yodeler from the Zillerthal.
The Scholastika Inn, at the upper end of
the lake, calls for comment. Its name comes
from a certain good spinster, Scholastika,
niece of Anton Aschbacher, one of the heroes
of the insurrection of 1809. Under her care
the place became quite famous as the resort
of scholars and men of letters. Dr. Ludwig
Steub describes the life of the inn during the
early half of last century as one of great charm
and interest. The evening hours were filled
with discussions, when a dozen or fifteen
guests sat under the patriarchal sway of Dr.
Johann Schuler of Innsbruck.
The old spinster is now long since dead, and
the inn has grown into a hotel, as indeed the
Achensee itself has become one of the most
important among the show places of the
Tyrol, since the railroad brings an annual
stream of many thousand tourists.
The descent from Seespitz to Jenbach may
be made by way of Eben, along a pleasant
foot-path that goes turn and turn about, over
78
The Achensee
and down, this way and that, zigzagging into
the green valley of the Inn from the shores of
that thrice blue Achensee, greatly blessed with
beauty.
79
CHAPTER X
THE ZILLERTHAL
The Valley of Song and Dance
THE Zillerthal is the valley of the zither
(music), the Schuhplattler (dance), and the
Schnaderhupfl (poetry). Three, at least, of
the Muses are always at home there to their
friends.
From the village of Strass the Zillerthal
stretches in a wide and flat floor as far as
Maierhofen. It is even swampy in parts, for
the torrent of the Ziller has built up a bed of
rubble for itself above the level of the valley,
and a constant process of infiltration and
inundation has made the valley floor spongy
and mossy.
On either hand, however, the higher slopes
glow with velvet pastures, and the mountains
wear their regulation clothing of green-black
firs up to their waists. The greeting of the
80
The Zillerthal
people is that genial " Gruss Gott! " which
carries with it peace and kindliness.
The Tyrolese Yodel
Fiigen, in the Zillerthal, was the home of
that Joseph Rainer, who, in the early years
of last century, started the Tyrolese yodel
carolling round the world.
He was first of all a cattle dealer, like many
another man from his native Zillerthal. His
business carried him frequently into the great
outside world of plains, even to Mecklenburg
and Prussia. One day, in Leipzig, his atten-
tion was caught by a poster which advertised
a concert by four Tyrolese singers. He went
to the concert. It proved to be a great success,
and Rainer promptly wrote home to his
brothers and sisters that there was money in
yodeling. He told them to take some gloves
along, to peddle, in case their songs failed to
draw audiences. Gloves were then, and are
still, a common merchandise for peddlers
from the Zillerthal.
Four of the family joined Rainer, three
brothers and one sister. They met at Frei-
sing-on-the-Isar, north of Munich, and there
began to sing before small audiences. In
81
The Fair Land Tyrol
1828, the Grand Duke of Baden invited them
to sing in the theatre at Karlsruhe. That was
the beginning of great things. Finally, a tour
in England netted them 56,000 gulden, or
about $23,000. Rainer returned to Fugen,
bought an old castle, turned it into a hotel,
hung the rooms with English prints, and
eventually died there.
Various members of the original Rainer
family continued for many years to yodel in
distant parts of the world, even in the United
States. Their example was followed by
others, notably by certain Leo brothers, who
were very successful.
The first Tyrolese song was the Schnader-
hupfl, of four lines, which the dancer extem-
porized as he threw down his money for the
musicians. This pay gave him the privilege
of the floor for his Ldndler (waltz), or his
Schuhplattler. By process of selection, the best
of these Schnaderhupfl survived, and were
added to the permanent stock of folk-lore.
But the Schnaderhupfl was found to be too
short for concert purposes, and new songs had
to be written for the strolling singers. The
songs we hear nowadays are not, as a rule,
local products at all; they are written in the
82
The Zillerthal
plains, though many of them have worked
their way back into the Alps.
A change has likewise taken place in the
make-up of these singing companies. At first
the singers went out into the world by families,
merely transferring their performances from
the family hearth to the concert hall. But
after awhile the demands of art called for
tenors, sopranos, altos, and basses, and took no
account of family ties. Still, however, the
selections were made from the same valley or
district. Now even this requirement has been
abolished, and it is alleged that some so-called
Tyrolese quartettes are made up of artists who
have never been in the Tyrol at all, but come
from the neighbouring highlands.
Zell am Zlller
Zell is the chief place of the valley, the
capital of the Zillerthal. Seen from the sur-
rounding slopes, it looks as though it had been
dropped ready-made from the sky upon the
banks of the rapid torrent of the Ziller, a
little place of a distinct individuality which
has been derived from the time when inter-
communication between different valleys was
The Fair Land Tyrol
rarer than now, and there was no steam-
engine to disturb the stillness of Alpine life.
Early one morning of my stay there was a
tremendous burst of gunpowder from mortars
fired on the neighbouring hills. Every house
was seen to be beflagged with the red and
white colours of the Tyrol, or the black and
yellow ones of Austria, and through the streets
thus made brilliant, a procession slowly
wound its way. In front marched a company
of Schutzen (sharpshooters), clad in tight
black breeches, white stockings, high laced
shoes, wide belts, marked with the wearers'
names, red vests, and gray jackets, bordered
with black braid.
But the crown of the costume was the Ziller-
thal hat. This is made of black felt, and in
shape resembles somewhat the traditional cap
worn by Mercury in his statues, though the
crown is not quite as flat. It is enlivened by a
cord, and two gilt, or silver tassels, which
hang down in front. The whole forms as
simple and becoming a bit of head-covering
as can be found the world over. Curiously
enough, this hat has been discarded by the
men, except in the case of these local com-
panies of Schutzen. On the other hand,
almost all the women still wear it on Sundays,
84
WOMEN OF THE ZILLERTHAL AND INNfHAL
The Zillerthal
— young and old, tassels and all, with the
most charming results. It expresses a quality
which the Tyrolese greatly appreciate,
Schneid, which means dash, sauciness, ready
wit, and a great many other qualities too nu-
merous to mention. And, indeed, it was a
pretty sight, the bevy of women walking
sedately to the tune of a brass band, their eyes
shaded by the glinting tassels.
If your itinerary permits an extra day or
two in Zell, it will pay to climb to the Gerlos
range, lying to the east of the valley, in order
to visit the summer pastures up there, and see
the life on the aim. Though the fare may
be primitive, and possibly confined to bread
and milk, and though you may have to sleep
on the hay, with the cold night air drawing
through the slits in the sides of the barn, yet
the outlook will amply repay. Whoever has
not looked off from a high-placed aim upon
the world beneath, has yet much joy ahead.
You seem to be suspended in space, and yet
you stand on a firm green foreground and
gaze into a blue distance. The air and sun
are both keen and caressing, and give relish to
your thoughts. From the Gerlos range the
whole of the Zillerthal proper is visible with
its villages and river. At daybreak the valley
85
The Fair Land Tyrol
lies in the nebulous half-light of the waking
earth. A yellow line of road winds south-
ward to Mayerhofen, where the Zillerthal
divides into four branches, or ramifications,
and these in turn into many Grunde or bot-
toms, as we should say, until the great snow
mountains cut them off short at the end. It
is all glorious and grand, and calls for grati-
tude. The impression and recollection will
deepen as you descend once more into the
expectant valley while the rays of the rising
sun penetrate farther and farther into its re-
cesses.
Ginzling
From Mayerhofen, at the end of the Ziller-
thal proper, a path leads through the superb
gorge, known as the Dornauberg-Klamm, into
the Zemmthal. This Alpine ravine can hold
its own with many of the more celebrated
narrows of the Alps.
When we emerge on the other side, we are
in the midst of the real mountains at last.
Whatever of tameness the flat floor of the
Zillerthal proper may express, here all be-
comes rugged and dramatic. The very rocks
along the boiling Zemmbach make the
stranger welcome, for they are covered with
86
The Zillerthal
a red growth that looks like rust, but when you
rub it on your hands, it emits the familiar and
lowland perfume of the violet. Thus does
this rock vegetation teach the homely lesson
that oppression may even be made to serve
the purposes of good.
Ginzling consists of a church and parson-
age, an inn, a schoolhouse, a forester's lodge,
and detached peasant cottages, the whole
forming a microcosm of the patriarchal Aus-
trian system. Until recently the mail arrived
only once a day, on the back of a donkey. If
you inquire, you will find that the school-
teacher is the busiest man in the place. Not
only does he teach, but he also plays the organ
every day in church, and when his choir of
men and boys are away earning their living
as guides and porters, he sings the responses
himself. Between times he cultivates his fields
of oats and flax. Even the linen he and his
family wear are home-grown and home-made.
As elsewhere throughout the Tyrol, many
good-humoured German tourists, in woollen
mantles of Loden, a material manufactured
principally in Innsbruck, bring cheer to the
Ginzling inn with their marvelous good
spirits and their contagious enthusiasm.
The torrent of the Zemmbach is more im-
87
The Fair Land Tyrol
portant than it looks. Not only is it full of
trout, which, by the way, I was informed, the
innkeeper alone has the right to catch, but
it also acts as the boundary between two
bishoprics: Brixen and Salzburg.
The inn, on the right bank, belongs to the
parish of Mairhofen, in the diocese of Salz-
burg; and the church, on the left, to the
parish of Finkenberg, in the diocese of Brixen.
The forester's lodge pairs off with the inn, but
the school with the church.
In the wide valley of the Floitenthal are
the chamois preserves of Prince Auersperg,
whose family belongs to the group of great
territorial magnates. High on the mountain-
sides haystacks are visible, which the game-
keepers prepare for the chamois for winter
use. The keepers themselves are often seen
stalking about in full war-paint, their rifles
slung across their backs, dogs at their heels,
and china-bowl pipes in their mouths. Their
hats are always the greenest, their feathers the
curliest, and their bare knees the most bronzed
of any among the men.
CHAPTER XI
OVER THE BRENNER PASS
THE Brenner railroad is a vast rope, coiling
itself over the mountains, through convenient
openings, and at the points of least resistance.
Now and then it burrows into the earth, now
and then it throws out a loop.
When you have crossed one railroad pass,
you have crossed them all. It is a repeated
turning and twisting, punctuated by a succes-
sion of Ohs! and Ahs! that are promptly
suppressed by tunnels, or projecting crags.
These Alpine passes give rise to a wind
called the Fohn, a warm wind that blows
down from the heights into the valleys. It
was once supposed that this wind came all the
way from the Desert of Sahara, but modern
meteorology has at last explained the Fohn.
It is a wind that falls from the heights into the
valleys. It is sucked down to fill a vacuum,
caused by light air pressures in the plains. It
starts ice-cold above, it arrives hot from
89
The Fair Land Tyrol
friction below. It can occur on both sides of
the Alps, but it is more common on the north
than the south. This warm wind is found not
only in the Alps, but in every mountain chain,
even on the west coast of Greenland, where a
species of Form comes down from the ice-
caps to the sea, as warm and dry as though
from a desert of Africa.
From Innsbruck to Brixen the scenery of
the Brenner route is practically Alpine, with
only Matrei and Sterzing to give the con-
trast of country-town life. The names sprin-
kled along the route are Raetian, Roman, and
Teutonic in about equal parts, and they pro-
vide the etymologists with an unsurpassed
field for research, of which they have fully
availed themselves. Great, for instance, are
the possibilities in a name like Pflersch, with
its seven consonants, and only one poor little
vowel !
The train, in descending on the southern
side of the Brenner, makes a magnificent
sweep into the Pflerschthal. At the back of
that valley the snow mountains of Stubai
glisten alluringly.
Such a name as Gossensass is worth some-
thing to the tourist trade, — it sounds so quaint
and cosy. Indeed, those visitors who know
90
Over the Brenner Pass
a good thing when they hear it, flock to the
village of that name in great numbers during
the short season. The etymologists once
derived Gossensass from Gothensitz, the
" Seat of the Goths." They implied that
Gossensass was the northernmost outpost of
the Goths who came up the Brenner from
Verona. But the latest news from the land of
research would derive Gossensass from a cer-
tain unknown Gozzo, and not from the Goths
at all.
The name of Sterzing also is now explained
as a patronymic, built on the name of one
Starzo as a base.
The outskirts of Sterzing are so countrified,
that one is not prepared to find the town itself
so wonderfully ornate. Sterzing seems to have
burst forth all over into arcades, balconies,
and turrets. It has almost stood still for cen-
turies, like the townlets along the valley of the
Inn, at a time when streets were made narrow
in order to lessen wall circumference, and
houses considered it necessary to go a-bow-
windowing and a-hanging-out-signs all the
way down the vista.
The Rathhaus stands on great arches, and
is distinguished by two curious, polygonal
bow windows. The so-called Jochelsthurm,
The Fair Land Tyrol
now used by the town magistrates, was once
the seat of a rich family. It contains a re-
markable Gothic ceiling, which was finished
in 1469, but is still in excellent condition.
The parish church deserves a visit, and almost
in the centre of the town stands the so-called
Zwolferthurm, the tower from which the
noon hour is rung.
These little places along the Brenner route
had their heyday before the advent of the
railroad, when heavy wagons and their drivers
stopped early and often. Railroads have a
way of emphasizing terminal points and
junctions, and of reducing the importance of
intermediate ones. So Sterzing has suffered
along with the rest. But its principal source
of income really failed long before the rail-
road came, when the silver and iron mines of
the neighbourhood were exhausted, for trans-
portation and mining were the mainstay of
Sterzing. To-day, a steady recuperation is
manifest, which deserves the best wishes of
all who love the Tyrol.
Sterzing was the scene of the first serious
battle of the war of 1809, when Andreas
Hofer crossed the Jaufen from the Passeier-
thal, and drove the Bavarians back over the
Brenner. Farther down, too, at Mittewald
92
STERZING
Over the Brenner Pass
and the Sachsenklemme, the French and their
Saxon -allies lost terribly at the hands of the
Tyrolese, all of which is set forth in the chap-
ter on Andreas Hofer.
Southward from Sterzing stretches a plain
called the Sterzingermoos. It was once very
marshy, but it has now been drained and re-
claimed for tilling and pasture-lands, this
enterprise being typical of the productive
activity which modern conditions are bringing
to the fore in the Tyrol.
Before reaching Franzensfeste, the train
passes through a heavily wooded defile, known
as the Sachsenklemme, where many of the
Saxon allies of Marshal Lefebre were over-
whelmed or captured by the Tyrolese during
the war of 1809. The village of Mittewald
reposes here, peaceful amid sylvan scenes,
the scent of the forests rising under the touch
of a genial sun, and only a cannon-ball or two
fixed over the door of an inn recalling other
days of stress and war.
93
MITTEWALD AND PFLERSCH ON THE BRENNER ROUTE
CENTRAL TYROL
CHAPTER XII
THE PUSTERTHAL
THE Pusterthal railroad connects the Tyrol
with Carinthia and Styria, and thus also with
Vienna.
The Romans began the historic era in the
Pusterthal itself. They built a road through
the valley, because it was a great natural
approach from east to west, from Aquileia to
Augusta Vindelicorum. It was an Alpine
artery, wherein they promptly caused mer-
chandise and military power to flow. An
important centre arose where Innichen now
stands, called Aguntum. An ecclesiastic,
Venantius Fortunatus, who, in 564, was on a
pilgrimage from Ravenna to the tomb of St.
Martin in Tours, mentions Aguntum as exist-
ing in his day.
At the end of the sixth century, the Roman
power being in decay, a Slavonic invasion of
the Pusterthal took place from the east, and
a Teutonic one from the west. The two
97
The Fair Land Tyrol
forces met on the highest ground in the Pus-
terthal, on the great plateau of Toblach.
For a time the Christian Bavarians were
driven back by the heathen Wends, who
destroyed Aguntum and Roman civilization.
In later years, however, a line was estab-
lished between the two races, at the brook of
Amras. To the west of that the Christianized
Bavarians held sway, and in 770 their Duke
Tassilo founded a monastery at Innichen,
where Aguntum had once stood, " in order,"
as he said, " to lead the unbelieving race of
the Slavs in the way of the truth."
That, in short, is the first item in the modern
historical development of the Pusterthal.
Franzensfeste lies at the point of contact
between the Brenner and the Pusterthal.
From the train it is possible to see much
masonry of the fortification type. Forest-clad
hills rise all around, dark and heavy with
military secrets, for the strategic value of
Franzensfeste seems evident even to a layman.
As you stand on the station platform, turn
northward and you face Germany, turn south-
ward and you face Italy, turn westward, and
Switzerland lies not far beyond the horizon,
turn eastward, and Vienna is not many miles
away. The Pusterthal is a wedge that pierces
98
The Pusterthal
the geographical vitals of Austria, and Aus-
tria has made arrangements to keep it in her
own hands.
The Maid of Spinges
The Pusterthal had almost more than its
fair share of trouble during the two invasions
of the French, in 1797 and in 1809. It offered
too tempting a passage. The very quality that
gave it trade in time of peace also gave it
trouble in time of war. In 1797 General
Joubert was advancing up the Pusterthal to
make connections with Napoleon, who was
leaving Italy. Some of Joubert's troops met
with stout opposition at a little village called
Spinges, not far from Franzensfeste, on a hill
to the left of the railroad. A few companies
of the Tyrolese Landstrum, or militia, went
forward to meet Joubert's soldiers. The latter
pushed forward with bayonets. Then a cer-
tain Anton Reinisch, of Volders, jumped in
among the French with a long scythe, and
succeeded in making an opening for his com-
rades, through which they were able to pene-
trate and break up the French formation. He
himself fell under the many thrusts of the
enemy.
Doctor Steub has pointed out the resem-
99
The Fair Land Tyrol
blance of this act to the more famous one of
Winkelried.
That same day there was fighting also
around the churchyard of Spinges. A certain
" Maid of Spinges " distinguished herself
in defeating the assaults of the French. They
attacked three times in vain, for this girl
stood among the men on the wall, perform-
ing prodigies with a hay-fork. It is not
known who she was. She has been praised
in song as " The Maid of Spinges," and in
popular imagination her very anonymity has
helped to make her the representative of the
many women who fought and suffered in the
Tyrol during the years of foreign invasion.
Bruneck
The railroad describes a wide curve of
admiration in sight of the little castled town
of Bruneck. The train turns aside, as a
painter sidles off from his easel, with his head
on one side, so as to obtain a better view of his
work.
Bruneck stands for a moment of the past,
and for a hopeful future. It strikes the visit-
or's attention as a quaint little provincial
town of the mountains, and for that reason
100
The Pusterthal
is doubly interesting to the dweller in the
large cities of the plains.
The castle still stands erect and martial,
having dark pines for a background, upon a
hill of green. From the tower, the view
reaches far up the Taufererthal, and it em-
braces wheat-fields, slopes of pasture-land, and
forests, while above and beyond, the summits
are crowned with snow, the whole forming
a typical Tyrolese view.
A battalion of sharpshooters is stationed in
the castle, and the feudal effect is heightened,
when a sudden blare of trumpets starts the
lounging soldiers from the shady terraces.
Bruneck was founded by a Prince Bishop
of Brixen, Bruno, by name, who erected the
castle on the hill, and called the result Bru-
neck, in reminder of his own name. This
was sometime between 1250 and 1256.
The prince bishop attracted quite a flock
of noblemen to Bruneck, who perched them-
selves on the rocks around, and built castles
of their own.
The town presents a compact and solid
front to the outside world, being completely
walled in. Some gates lead into a long, single
street, that runs through the interior. One
is reminded of Sterzing, though there is more
101
The Fair Land Tyrol
ornament there. Bruneck, on the other hand,
is noticeable for its monster rain - pipes,
painted red, with which every house is pro-
vided. The rain-pipe starts above in the
shape of a funnel, and comes down to the
sidewalk in a blaze of red light. Line on
line, the rain-pipes follow each other down
the vista of the street.
The Rienz, flowing close outside, against
the walls, has made awful havoc more than
once with the compact little town. As re-
cently as 1882, the town experienced a week
of terror. The mountain torrent became a
vast stream, filled with Alpine refuse, that
bore down everything it touched. Many
houses and barns were swept away, and all
but one of the bridges rode off on the back
of the flood.
Those who are interested in antiquarian
researches will do well to ask permission to
see some of Bruneck's private collections of
paintings, weapons, coins, etc. The town
archives also are said to be exceptionally full,
the minutes of the Council being complete
since the thirteenth century.
Bruneck was for a while the home of the
Tyrol's most noted poet, Hermann von Gilm,
who was there in government service from
102
The Pusterthal
1842 to 1845. He was born in Innsbruck in
1812, studied at the university there, and
entered the employment of the state in the
department of justice. He first wrote a cycle
of songs called Marzenveilchen, and then in
memory of Natters, a little village in the
Mittelgebirge, near Innsbruck, he continued
with another cycle, called Sommerfrische in
Natters.
In 1840, having been transferred to Schwaz,
Hermann von Gilm wrote further cycles,
entitled Theodollnde and Lieder eines Ver-
schollenen.
Then came three years at Bruneck, during
which the Sophienlleder were produced. In
1845 came a transfer to Rovereto, and in 1854,
at Linz, we find him writing his last cycle of
love-songs, the Rosaneum.
But Hermann von Gilm's real fame does
not rest on his love-songs. He was, for a time,
the real voice of the Tyrol, the interpreter of
its . inspirations. His Schutzenlieder, begun
in Bruneck, and finished in Rovereto,
throbbed so loudly with fresh Alpine exhila-
ration that the heart of the Tyrol responded
and beat in unison. These songs, very Teu-
tonic, very heroic and hopeful, stirred the
103
The Fair Land Tyrol
silent peasants to a tremendous pitch of
patriotism.
The poet took part in the revolutionary
movements of 1848 at Vienna, but he died at
Linz in 1864, an(^ ms remains now lie in
Innsbruck.
His work and words are remembered with
much love by his compatriots, and his name
has been duly honoured by the placing of
his bust on the house where he was born in
the Maria Theresienstrasse at Innsbruck.
The Tharer Wlrth
After Bruneck, comes the village of Olang.
If the unnamed " Maid of Spinges " is the
heroine of the French occupation of 1797 in
the Pusterthal, the son of an innkeeper at
Mitterolang is the martyr of that of 1809.
His name was Peter Sigmaier, and he was
known as the Tharer Wirth. The French
General Broussier was particularly active
in capturing the peasants, whose only crime it
was that they were fighting for their native
soil.
One of his drag-net orders brought in an
old man, whose son was active in the Tyrolese
cause. The order was given that, if the son
104
The Pusterthal
did not present himself within three days, the
father was to fall by proxy. But the son,
rather than sacrifice his father, promptly
presented himself. His filial conduct raised
hopes that Broussier would relent, and the
son's young wife pleaded strongly for his life,
but Broussier hardened his heart, and the son
of the Tharer Wirth went to his death. Franz
von Defregger has, within a few years,
painted a picture, which hangs in the Ferdi-
nandeum at Innsbruck, commemorating this
martyrdom.
Joachim Haspinger (1776 - 1 8 58)
Northward from Welsberg in the Puster-
thal lies the Gsieserthal, where Joachim Has-
pinger was born, the third in the great
triumvirate of 1809. The hamlet of St. Mar-
tin was his birthplace, and 1776 the year
of his birth, the very year of the American
Declaration of Independence. His parents
were poor peasants. He took part in the
struggle of 1797 against the French, probably
fighting at Spinges. Certain it is that he re-
ceived a silver medal for his bravery at that
time. Then, in 1802, he entered the Capuchin
Monastery at Klausen. When the war of
105
The Fair Land Tyrol
1809 broke over the Tyrol, Haspinger at
once joined the native troops as chaplain.
But Andreas Hofer instead gave him a com-
mand, which he inspired with his fiery zeal,
and led with success. After the defeat of
the Tyrolese cause, he escaped through
Switzerland to Milan and Vienna, disguised
as a Handwerksbursche, or journeyman ap-
prentice.
The last years of his life were spent quietly
as parish priest of Hietzing, near Vienna.
The emperor had presented him with this
office. In 1848 he reappeared for a while in
Innsbruck as the chaplain of a company of
students, commanded by Adolf Pichler. A
brilliant reception was given him in the Tyrol
at that time.
His body lies beside those of Hofer and
Speckbacher, in the Hofkirche at Innsbruck.
Toblach
The Pusterthal is unique in that two streams
rise in it, the Rienz and the Drau, and flow
in opposite directions. The watershed be-
tween the two is at Toblach. The Rienz flows
into the Adige and the Adriatic, the Drau into
the Danube and the Black Sea.
106
The Pusterthal
Toblach is a favourite gateway to the en-
chanted region of the Dolomites. There is
a village of that name in the plain, but the
principal hotels cluster about near the rail-
road.
At Toblach the Pusterthal presents an
interesting contrast. The northern side of the
valley is Teutonic to a " t," with greens in the
usual gradations, starting from cultivated
fields below and mounting through pine for-
ests and pastures to a smooth sky-line above.
The southern side of the valley, however, is
the romance side, where the Dolomites stand
guard, gray and soft in colour, sheer and
shorn in shape, with their bases enveloped in
rich, luxuriant fir-trees.
Herein lies the chief charm of Toblach,
in this contrast between its workaday Pus-
terthal side and its artistic Dolomite aspect,
so that Toblach has two strings to its bow.
On moonlight nights, when the Ampezzo
valley, back of Toblach, is flooded with a
shower of gold, and Monte Cristallo gleams
above the black forests, the full fantasy of the
scene becomes apparent. There is much
peace in the soft touch of the air on such
nights, and the woodland smells come fresh
and pure to the nostrils.
107
The Fair Land Tyrol
There is a forest of larch-trees running all
the way to Innichen, so that you can walk
for about an hour under its delicate tracery,
with eyes turned up to the lace of the branches
above. I had almost said that this forest path
alone was worth the journey to Toblach.
Innichen
Most of the towns and villages situated in
the zone between Teutonic and Romance
Tyrol have double names. To people coming
from the south, they assume Italian disguises,
to those coming from the north, they turn
their German side.
Even places which are quite within the
racial pale use convenient aliases, according
to their needs. Hence it happens that Bozen
is also Bolzano; Trento, Trient; Brixen,
Bressanone, and Innichen, San Candido.
The name of Innichen was originally Agun-
tica, then it became Intica, and finally Inni-
chen. The Italian name of San Candido,
however, is due to the fact that when the
Bavarian Duke Tassilo founded the monas-
tery there, he dedicated it to a St. Can-
didus.
The monastery church in Romanesque
108
The Pusterthal
style shows its great age, dating from the
thirteenth century. It is one of the most re-
markable buildings in Teutonic Tyrol, with
its half-vanished frescoes, and its little-under-
stood carvings of centaurs, unicorns, and
other imaginary beings.
There is also a little sunken chapel, built in
imitation of the Holy Sepulchre. A native of
Innichen once made a pilgrimage to Jeru-
salem, and on his return, had this chapel built.
You go down a few steps into a species of
crypt, and there, in an inner chapel, is the
imitation of the sepulchre itself.
During the season there is much animation
at Innichen. It is a favourite resting-place
for people who are going up the Sextenthal,
to the fashionable Wildbad, much favoured
by the Viennese; to the Fischeleinboden,
among the great Kofel and Spitzen of the
Sexten Dolomites; or, perhaps, over the easy
Kreuzberg Pass into Italy. The Dreischus-
terspitze, which belongs to the Sexten Dolo-
mites, dominates Innichen with the majesty
of its presence.
Lienz
Lienz is the jumping-ofl town in the Tyrol
toward the east. Beyond it lies Carinthia,
109
The Fair Land Tyrol
and a pronounced Slavonic element then
makes itself noticeable in the population.
There happened to be a cattle market there
the day I arrived. The place was full of
peasants from remote valleys; some of the
men even wore green trousers, or let their hair
grow long, and most of the women clung to
their extraordinary peaked hats. These are
of black felt, with broad, stiff brims. The
crown rises as though to end in a peak; then
it seems to reconsider this intention, and ends
in sort of a plateau. These hats are cut off
at the apex of their ambition. Dr. Henry Van
Dyke, in his search for " Little Rivers, " once
strayed into Lienz. He says of this hat: " It
looks a little like the traditional head-gear
of the Pilgrim Fathers, exaggerated. There
is a solemnity about it which is fatal to fem-
inine beauty."
The place itself is not exactly a summer
resort. It has a life of its own which circu-
lates in front of the Lieburg, a long building
with two towers, used by the district authori-
ties. Here, too, the Stellwagen starts for
Windisch-Matrei, and for the pure-white
glories of the Gross Venediger and the Gross
Glockner.
no
The Pusterthal
Windisch-Matrei
There is a Deutsch-Matrei on the Brenner
route, but there is also a Windisch-Matrei, a
Matrei of the Wends, north of Lienz. The
latter is the chief village of the Iselthal, and it
has been a little centre of civilization in the
Alps for centuries, but during all its history
it has constantly been threatened with de-
struction by a torrent which tears down from
the Bretterwand on the east. The village has
long since entrenched itself behind huge stone
dams, but these do not always avail to avert
the fury of the elements. In 1895, the torrent
swept great masses of earth and rubble upon
the fields, and buried them apparently beyond
recovery, and since then the place has also
been visited by a fire.
During a debate in the Tyrolese Diet at
Innsbruck, in the session of 1899, the continua-
tion of Windisch-Matrei upon its present site
was even considered to be problematical. A
plan was proposed to transfer the village to
a safer site near by, and a subvention was
offered by the Diet for that purpose, but the
church, the school, and twenty other build-
ings, spared by the flames, still act as a centre
of attraction for the population, and the centre
in
The Fair Land Tyrol
of the village is not likely to be shifted so
easily. In the meantime we can wish Matrei
safety and prosperity in the continuation of
its task as an abode for men at the foot of the
mountain ridges and snow peaks of the great
Tauern range.
CHAPTER XIII
FRANZ VON DEFREGGER: PAINTER OF THE
PEOPLE
PAINTING is perhaps somewhat of a rare
accomplishment among Alpine peoples.
Technical training, such as is required even
by a beginner, is difficult to obtain; besides,
paints, brushes, and canvas are expensive, —
a serious, and sometimes a final consideration,
among mountaineers.
As a matter of fact, the art impulse in
the Alps generally turns to wood-carving.
Every mountaineer has a knife in his pocket,
and plenty of time on his hands, while he is
tending the cattle in the uplands, or during
long winter evenings. Nor is there any lack
of. wood to be had for the cutting.
It is doubtful, therefore, whether De-
fregger would ever have had a chance to
paint those delightful pictures of Tyrolese life
and history, had not his father been a man
of some means.
The Fair Land Tyrol
The painter was born on April 30, 1835,
on the family farm, called the Ederhof, in
the parish of Dolsach, near Lienz, in the Pus-
terthal. Up to the age of fifteen, he herded
his father's cattle and horses on the mountain
pastures. During spare moments he amused
himself by drawing and carving animals,
according to the abundance of models con-
stantly before him.
Thus early did he begin to sharpen his
powers of observation and to acquire that
prodigious memory for form, which has
always distinguished him. His talent does
not seem to have been inherited, but to have
asserted itself spontaneously, under favouring
conditions. He was thrown from infancy into
close contact with the life of all outdoors,
and beauties of outline and colour.
At all events, the boy's artistic progress was
not retarded by any sordid struggle for exist-
ence.
After his father's death, Def regger sold the
Ederhof, and, with the proceeds, sallied forth
into the world, to become a painter. Surely
no youth ever chose his life-work with less
hesitation.
First, he studied drawing in Innsbruck
under Stolz, a teacher in the Realschule;
114
Franz von Defregger
thence he passed to the School of Technical
Arts in Munich, spent some time in a studio
there, and, in 1867, eventually came under
the famous Piloty at the Academy in that
city.
There was a short interval of diligent prep-
aration in Paris; then, in 1868, Defregger
exhibited his first work in Munich, — that
genial historical painting, called " Speck-
bacher and His Son Anderl."
The subject is simplicity itself.
Joseph Speckbacher, one of the leaders in
the heroic but ill-fated insurrection of 1809,
has been sitting at a table in consultation with
his fellow patriots. In the picture he is seen
standing erect and astonished, while a griz-
zled old soldier, his arm around little Anderl,
leads the boy forward toward his father. A
detachment of native troops is seen in the
doorway; a motherly old woman looks on
with folded hands; Speckbacher's fellow
councillors crane their necks to get a better
glimpse.
That is really all there is to the picture, and
yet what depth of feeling is expressed!
Anderl, we must know, has raised this de-
tachment himself, to help his father, and,
moreover, the brave little fellow has been
The Fair Land Tyrol
caught searching for bullets, fired by the
enemy, that they might be used a second time.
Hence, Speckbacher's expression of pride and
wonder, the broad grin of the veteran, and
Anderl's clear, happy, upward look into his
father's face.
In this picture Defregger at once revealed
those qualities which were to endear him to
men and women the world over.
First of all, his ability to tell a story, to
dignify the simplest sort of a situation. No
matter whether the canvas be large or small,
the figures few or numerous, every object falls
into its place, and is handled with consummate
skill, to emphasize the predominant thought.
Each person betrays in face and attitude his or
her special point of view toward the central
character.
But many an artist can do this successfully,
and yet leave the heart cold.
Now, it is one of the most noticeable
achievements of Defregger, that he is always
tugging at our heart-strings. His optimism
is irresistible; he is all wholesomeness, vi-
tality, joyous exuberance. His power of
depicting happiness has never been surpassed.
Especially is he past master of smiling faces.
Surely, nothing in art can be more full of glee
116
Franz von Defregger
than some of his girls' faces, or more whole-
hearted than his men!
Although Defregger opened his career with
an historical picture, he did not at once con-
tinue in this vein.
Being stricken with illness in 1871, he re-
turned to his native mountains in order to
recuperate, and there began to paint the
people he saw about him.
Defregger's pictures can be divided into
certain natural groups, according to subjects,
and it is more satisfactory to consider them
in this manner than in chronological order.
A true genre picture, for instance, is the
" Faustschieber " (literally Fist-shove rs).
The Tyrolese are so fond of athletic con-
tests, that they have invented a test of strength,
even when they are sitting down. Two men
will double up their fists, and try to push each
other's arms off the table. Sometimes they
shoot out their right hands, and hook each
other by the middle finger. The object then
is to pull your adversary over the table, and
on to the floor on the other side. This game
is called Fingerhanggl'n.
In this picture, Defregger's astounding
faculty for expressing thought by the position
117
The Fair Land Tyrol
of the body, the within by the without, is
once again demonstrated.
Not only is this true of the contestants them-
selves, who are straining every nerve, but also
of the spectators, whose feelings are brought
out by different expressions and attitudes.
The group at the main table are intensely
interested and alert, but some men at a side-
table are talking unconcernedly, and a little
girl, with her back turned, seems absorbed in
her knitting, as though she was trying to pick
up a stitch which she had just dropped.
It is characteristic, too, of Defregger that
he should make the most telling use of all
accessories in the way of costumes and furni-
ture, to produce the illusion of reality. A
splendid touch is provided by the dog of one
of the contestants, which has jumped up in the
excitement at seeing its master's exertions, and
is trying to restrain him by a friendly paw
on his thigh. Hardly a single picture of
Defregger but contains a dog or two! Es-
pecially do his Dachshundchen waddle their
way into our affections.
As a further masterly portrayal of peasant
life, take the " Ankunft auf dem Tanzboden "
(Arrival on the Dancing-floor).
A Tyrolese wedding is said to be the most
118
Franz von Defregger
rollicking sort of an affair imaginable. The
guests often arrive the day before the mar-
riage ceremony is to take place, and they begin
to dance at once, generally in the big room
of the local inn.
The key-note of this picture is youthful and
jovial exuberance. A young fellow, who can
no longer contain himself for joy, has jumped
up from where he was, and is cutting all man-
ner of capers, to welcome two delightful girls
who walk in, arm in arm, smiling with gleam-
ing teeth and dimpled mouths. Indeed,
everybody is smiling the real Defregger smile
in this picture. It is contagious, for you find
yourself doing the same, as you look on.
What a sweep of fine feathers and broad
brimmed hats there is, and what enormous
shoes are there to pound the floor in the
rhythm of the dance!
Defregger has treated the dance in another
picture, called " Ball auf der Aim " (The
Ball on the Aim, or Summer Pasture). In
this case an old hunter is dancing with a girl,
while a company of young people are looking
on, much amused.
Outside of his war pictures, which are
naturally of a serious nature, the painter has
for the most part chosen happy, often humour-
119
The Fair Land Tyrol
ous, subjects. Only once did he attempt a
tragic scene, and that was toward the be-
ginning of his career, when he painted
" Der Verwundete Jager" (The Wounded
Hunter).
In the "Jager in der Almhutte " (Hunt-
ers in the Hut on the Aim], we find a party
of hunters, filing out of an Alpine chalet.
One of the party is taking leave of the girl in
charge. The atmosphere is one of great
friendliness.
Among the most successful pictures of this
type must be counted " Der Zitherspieler "
(The Zither-player). A young man, of
massive, superb build, sits in a hut, playing the
zither. The instrument lies across his knees.
Two of Defregger's typical girls are listening
at his side.
One would say that the softening and re-
fining influence of music upon these rugged
Alpine people was the thought which the
artist wished to suggest. This impression is
heightened by the contrast between the
player's huge, iron-shod shoes, rough stock-
ings, bare knees, and the delicate, loving touch
of his hands upon the strings. One can almost
hear the click of the ring on his thumb, and
the long-drawn, metallic singing of the zither.
120
Franz von Defregger
Even the Dachshundchen at his master's feet
seems to be subdued, and made thoughtful, by
the music.
The same theme of the zither is less impres-
sively treated in a picture called " Auf der
Aim" (On the Summer Pasture), and
painted a few years before. This time it is
a girl playing to her friend and two small
boys.
Defregger has been reproached for appear-
ing to consider the commonest occurrences in
daily life worthy of his brush ; for taking the
trouble to depict trivial, domestic happenings ;
but it would seem that the painter has been at
his best whenever he has simplified his situa-
tions, and though his historical pictures may
live among his countrymen, and deservedly,
too, on account of the interest of their subject-
matter, yet his genre pictures of the inti-
mate, homely sort are more likely to deter-
mine his position in the great world of art
outside.
Defregger's list of genre pictures is a long
one, but the more local he is, and the truer
to the Tyrol, the more he seems to reflect
human nature at large.
His " Brautwerbung" (Making the
Match), for instance, is an exceptionally
121
The Fair Land Tyrol
fine piece of story-telling, but it leaves little
room for the imagination.
A father and son have called, to ask for the
hand of the eldest daughter of the house. The
old man is full of genial importance; the
lover, a callow youth, stands awkwardly be-
hind, holding a bouquet to his belt. The
mother has risen to greet the guests. She is
all friendliness. The chosen girl, in the
shelter of her mother's broad back, smiles
knowingly at her younger sisters. There is
also a grandmother present, and the acces-
sories are all designed to fall into the obvious
situation.
" Der Urlauber " (On Leave of Absence),
and " Kriegsgeschichten " (War Stones), are
somewhat alike.
In the first, we find a young soldier in the
bosom of his family. Every expression and
attitude of the various members speak of joy
at his home-coming, down to the little brother,
who reaches up to play with the shining brass
buttons of the uniform.
In the second picture, the soldier's youthful
face looks lean and worn, as though he had
seen hard service. He wears two medals on
his breast, and his listeners are hanging on his
lips.
122
Franz von Defregger
From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the uni-
form of the -Austrian private does not lend
itself as readily to artistic effects as the pictur-
esque costumes of the Tyrolese.
In " Die Heimkehr " (The Home-com-
ing) , a hunter, on his return, lifts his young-
est child from its mother's arms, while a little
girl begs to be taken up also.
As for children, he shows them to us with
loving solicitude at all ages, from their first
arrival to their adolescence.
"Der Besuch" (The Visit), and " Der
Erstgeborene " (The First-born), are scenes
laid in that part of the Tyrol where, until
recently, women still wore tall hats, like the
modern silk hat of civilization. In both
cases a young mother is showing her wonder-
ful baby to appreciative friends.
Those blessed little things in " Das Tisch-
gebet" (Saying Grace), how the heart ex-
pands to take them all in; from the eldest
girl, just in her teens, to the smallest urchin,
whom grandmamma is teaching to fold his
hands!
"Das Erste Pfeiferl" (The First Little
Pipe) is remarkable for the exquisite beauty
of the mother, who stops for a moment in
123
The Fair Land Tyrol
her knitting, while the father amuses their
sturdy little boy with his empty pipe.
Some of these children's pictures have small
artistic merit, but they are all suffused with
a loving spirit.
There is quite a group of Defregger works
which may be called his tourist pictures, /. e.,
they deal with the tourists, as they are brought
in contact with native life, the two elements
acting and reacting upon each other.
They generally betray a gentle satiric touch,
especially that best known one of this class,
" Der Salontiroler " (The Parlour Tyrolese,
or, as we might say out West, The Tender-
foot) .
In its way, this work is inimitable. A city-
bred tourist, in brand-new Tyrolese toggery;
two giggling peasant girls on the bench at his
side ; half a dozen men looking on ; those are
the figures for the tableau. One sees at once
that the girls are making fun of the tourist,
and that he does not know what to do about
it. The spectators are, of course, immensely
amused, but the victim is too conceited, and
too obtuse, to realize his situation. Much
skill has been shown in conveying the gist
of the joke.
A word should be said about his portraits,
124
Franz von Defregger
which are unmatched for certain vivid, life-
like qualities. He has painted many girls'
heads and half-lengths. Into these he has
crowded his sense of beauty, and wholesome
loveliness. They are so fresh, these young
creatures, bubbling over with the joy of living,
and so thoroughly harmonious in expression
and pose.
One of his best men's portraits is " Franzl,"
the perfect embodiment of a Teutonic Tyro-
lese, with his fair, curly hair, his pipe in his
mouth, his white teeth, and sanguine, sturdy
temperament.
Of course Defregger has idealized his
models. The Tyrolese are not a surpassingly
handsome race. Divested of their pictur-
esque costumes and glorious surroundings,
they might possibly become uninteresting and
commonplace. But the fact remains, that in
travelling through the country one is often
tempted to exclaim: "That was a real De-
fregger type!"
When Defregger returned to his native
country, in his days of physical suffering, he
painted a Holy Family for the altar of the
parish church of Dolsach, and latterly he has
given the world another Madonna of singular
beauty, wherein human loveliness, such as we
125
The Fair Land Tyrol
recognize in his portraits of women, is exalted
and spiritualized.
The patriotic side of his nature is empha-
sized by the great historical canvases, devoted
to Andreas Hofer and the war of 1809. In
less than a dozen paintings, he has set forth
the national struggle, from the first call to
arms, to the final heroic act of the peasant-
commander, striding firmly to his martyrdom.
These pictures, or copies of them, are to be
found in the Ferdinandeum, at Innsbruck, but
for a running commentary and text I beg the
reader to turn to my chapter on " Andreas
Hofer."
Take it all in all, Defregger has deserved
well of his country, as in turn he has made the
most of the material which the Tyrol could
offer an appreciator and delineator of beauty.
Defregger has had many successors in the
same field, and perhaps some imitators, but
within his own circle he is master. His art
is buoyant and young, a fact which certainly
gives it long life, and ensures permanency for
that which is true and good in his work. The
Defregger smile has already taken its place
in art, and has come to stay. Its beneficent
and benevolent contagion has gone around
126
Franz von Defregger
the world. Def regger's kindliness, his sturdi-
ness and gaiety, have won the hearts of men
and women in many lands, and endeared him
to a grateful and faithful host of friends.
127
CHAPTER XIV
BRIXEN
THIS little town forms an ideal resting-
place for visitors to the Tyrol who have been
doing the mountains to the north, or travelling
among the attractions to the south. Although
Brixen has a population of only five thousand
inhabitants, with a garrison of possibly five
hundred men, yet it shelters a surprising num-
ber of establishments, namely, a cathedral, an
episcopal palace, twelve churches, five monas-
teries, an episcopal seminary, an imperial
gymnasium, a girls' boarding-school, a public
school, two printing establishments, and even
a hydropathic establishment. All these are
maintained in this alpine town, which is only
a little larger than a good-sized village, and is
surrounded by the usual green slopes, forests,
and cultivated fields of the Tyrol.
In the town proper we find the interesting
narrow streets, bulging upper stories, and
peaked roofs of quaint mediaeval structures,
128
CLOISTER IN BRIXEN
Brixen
while the crenelations and projections upon
the houses deserve the attention of wayfaring
artists.
The name of Brixen is derived from
Prichsna, a royal estate which Ludwig the
Child gave to the bishops of Saben (above
Klausen), in 901. In 1179 the bishops of
Brixen became prince bishops of the German
Empire, and their see a principality. At
present Brixen no longer possesses an inde-
pendent sovereignty, and the jurisdiction of
its bishops is solely ecclesiastical.
Fallmerayer, the Fragmentlst (iJQO- l86l)
Philipp Jacob Fallmerayer, commonly
called the Fragmentist, was born in Tschotsch,
a village perched southward from Brixen
above the valley of the Eisack.
His father was a poor labourer, but the boy
was able to attend the cathedral school of
Brixen, where he received his first instruction
in Greek. When nineteen, he went to Salz-
burg, and continued to study there, giving
lessons, the meantime, in order to make a
living. He was at Landshut, when the great
War of Liberation, undertaken by the allies
against Napoleon, called him to take up anm
129
The Fair Land Tyrol
He took part in the campaign against Paris,
during the winter of 1813 - 14. After the
second Peace of Paris, in 1815, he was sta-
tioned for half a year near Orleans, in a castle
inhabited by a marquis with his wife and
several relatives. In later years he was wont
to refer to this period with special gratitude,
as having turned him from a peasant of the
Tyrol into a man of the world. His French
accent ever after remained the admiration of
those who knew him.
He remained in the army as lieutenant until
1818, then resigned, and returned once more
to teaching, filling places in Augsburg and
Landshut. In his hours of leisure, he studied
modern Greek, Persian, and Turkish, with
special enthusiasm, and when the Academy of
Copenhagen offered a prize for the best his-
tory of the Empire of Trapezunt, on the
Black Sea, he at once went to work on original
manuscripts in Vienna and Venice, and pro-
duced a work which received the prize, and
was crowned by the academy.
His second work was a History of the
Peninsula of Morea during the Middle Ages.
In it he developed the idea that the modern
Greeks were in reality of Slavic origin.
It was in 1831 that a seeming accident
130
Brixen
brought him in contact with a Russian, Count
Ostermann-Tolstoi, who desired to make a
trip to the East, and was looking for a suitable
companion. The count invited Fallmerayer
to accompany him; the latter accepted joy-
fully, and the two started promptly for Egypt.
They journeyed up the Nile, then returned
and passed into Syria and Palestine, over to
Cyprus and Rhodes, and up the coast of Ionia
to Constantinople. Here the historian wel-
comed the opportunity to practise what he
knew of Turkish. He used to chat by the hour
to chance acquaintances in the coffee-houses
along the Bosphorus, delighted with every
new word, or turn of speech, which he could
add to his store of knowledge.
Turkish, ever after, remained his favourite
among the many languages which he spoke.
In order to secure Fallmerayer's attention,
it was only necessary to ask him some question
concerning Turkish grammar or pronuncia-
tion. He would then sit down and talk of the
East by the hour.
From Constantinople the travellers passed
through the Cyclades to Athens, through
Greece, and back by Naples. At this point
the travelling companions parted, but Fall-
merayer soon renewed his peripatetic studies,
The Fair Land Tyrol
taking short trips to Italy, into Southern
France, or to Paris, and spending the winter
of 1839-40 in Geneva, with his former
travelling companion, Count Ostermann-
Tolstoi.
Then the spell of the East drew him once
more to the Black Sea, to Trapezunt. On his
way back he hobnobbed again at Constanti-
nople with his long-bearded acquaintances of
the Bosphorus coffee-houses. On Mount
Athos he lived with the monks, in Athens he
disputed with the learned Greeks concerning
their historical origin, and on his return to
Brixen in 1842, he was welcomed and ban-
queted by the prince bishop himself.
During the next few years he made Munich
his headquarters, and began to publish articles
in the Allgemeine Zeltung concerning his
Travels and historical studies in the East.
Then came his " Fragmente aus Jem Orient/'
which gave him his name of " The Frag-
mentist." The introduction to this last work
was full of radical utterances, which greatly
stirred German thought during the revolu-
tionary years before 1848. In fact, Fall-
merayer was elected to a seat in the National
Assembly at Frankfurt. He belonged to the
so-called left centre of the Assembly, which
132
Brixen
insisted upon the unconditional subordina-
tion of the separate states to a central mon-
archy. But he made no speeches, and had
little taste for constructive political work,
though he stuck to his post to the end.
When the National Assembly at Frankfurt
broke up in 1849, Fallmerayer joined a few
representatives in continuing the so-called
Rump-Parliament in Stuttgart, until that, too,
had been dissolved. Then he passed over
the frontier into Switzerland, to St. Gallen.
A decree of amnesty, issued in 1850, per-
mitted him to return to Munich, where he
lived on quietly until his death in 1861, a
notable scholar, who had enriched the his-
torical knowledge of his day, a critic rather
than a creator in literature and politics.
133
CHAPTER XV
THE GRODEN VALLEY
Toy Town and Toy Land
ABOUT midway between Franzensfeste and
Bozen, a narrow, gorgelike valley opens un-
expectedly toward the east. A carriage-road
starts from the station of Waidbruck, passes
through a toll-gate under the shadow of the
superb castle of Trostburg, and penetrates the
rocky defile of the Grodnerthal. It leads in
three hours to St. Ulrich, the capital of Toy-
land, where lives a race of mountaineers,
whom time and trade have transformed into
artists and artisans.
Ever since the late Amelia B. Edwards
passed through this valley, some years ago,
and described its curious industry in her
delightful book, " Untrodden Peaks and Un-
frequented Valleys," English-speaking tour-
ists have found their way to St. Ulrich in
increasing numbers.
134
The Grbden Valley
After its long climb, the Stellwagen sud-
denly turns a corner, and Toy Town spreads
its stately white houses on the green floor of
the valley, while the overpowering Langkofel
stretches a tower of blank rock straight into
the sky.
St. Ulrich looks not unlike one of those
Swiss industrial villages, of which there are
many off the beaten track of tourist travel.
Neatness is paramount. Many houses have
their windows decorated with flowers, from
ground to garret. There are plenty of hotels,
and even private houses where rooms may be
had, and so scrupulously clean are such
rooms, that they literally must force the care-
less to contract good habits of order. There
are even quite pretentious villas in this Alpine
environment. In contrast to the almost citi-
fied aspect of some of the houses, brown
barns are freely sprinkled about, built in a
manner peculiar to the valley, namely, with
galleries running completely around, some-
times two and three stories high, where bun-
dles of grain hang to dry, and the carvers
expose their wood to weather.
St. Ulrich, and neighbouring villages of
the Grodnerthal, send a great supply of toys
135
The Fair Land Tyrol
and images of saints to various parts of the
world.
Some of the largest houses in the village are
used to store these local products, the Purger
establishment being perhaps the largest and
best known. Upon entering, you find long
shelves full of playthings in packages, vast
rooms lined with these shelves; whole floors,
for example, teeming with jointed dolls,
measuring anywhere from half an inch to
twenty-four inches in length, and costing
from two kreuzers to three florins the dozen.
There are piles of horses, painted brown,
gray, or yellow, spotted horses, and horses
with curious conventional black lines on their
backs, such as no real horse ever ventured to
possess. Other animals are there in full force,
destined to go into Noah's arks. Certain firms
make a specialty of little wagons, others of
monkeys climbing sticks. Almost the whole
population of the valley, men, women, and
children, are engaged in carving these toys,
doing their work with incredible deftness, and
by a system of minute subdivision of labour.
One family, by tradition and heredity alike,
is devoted to dolls, another to horses, or to cats
and dogs, camels and elephants, or possibly
to Noah's arks. It is astonishing to see with
-136
The Grbden Valley
what rapid skill the characteristics of a maned
lion, a sneaking fox, or a fetching poodle, will
be whittled out of a square piece of wood.
The products of this work, of course, have
become mechanical and stereotyped in ap-
pearance. Although certain simple con-
trivances are now used for the manufacture
of dolls? the animals are still entirely carved
by hand. Figurines, wearing different Tyro-
lese costumes, require special care, and show a
considerable advance in artistic treatment
over the mere toys.
It is no unusual sight to see an old woman,
tending her cows on the slope, and whittling
the while, as in another valley she would
probably be knitting a stocking. At the end
of the week some member of the family gener-
ally carries the result of the week's labour to
the great storehouse of the firm which controls
the family output.
On a much higher artistic plane than this
wholesale manufacturing of toys, stands the
carving of images of saints, of altars, and other
ecclesiastical fixtures. This work is done in
regular studios.
The Grodnerthal carving industry started
from small beginnings. As long ago as the
seventeenth century a certain amount of carv-
137
The Fair Land Tyrol
ing was done in the valley; the statues of a
Dominic Winatzer, for example, marked
1682, show considerable skill; but Johann de
Metz, in 1703, seems to have been the man
to give a decisive impetus to the development
of carving. Beginning with picture-frames,
he gradually added crucifixes, saints, and
toys. In course of time, peddlers from the
Grodnerthal wandered over the whole of
Europe with their wares, even crossing the
ocean to America. Many of them settled in
foreign countries, where they became agents
and middlemen for the thriving home in-
dustry; many of them also returned in their
old age and in affluence to their native valley,
where they built the substantial white man-
sions which one admires to-day.
At the present time, the carver no longer
carries his own products into the cities for
sale, but delivers them to one of the large
local firms, which deal with the outside world.
The only wood used for the toys and saints
was originally the pinus cembra, which grew
abundantly on the slopes of the Grodnerthal.
It is a wood which is peculiarly adapted for
carving. But now that a great part of these
forests have been whittled away, or have gone
into the wide, wide world, disguised as dolls
138
The Groden Valley
and horses, only the more expensive products
are made of plnUs cembra, while the frivolous
toys have to be satisfied with inferior woods.
To-day there seems to be no immediate danger
of the extinction of the pinus cembra, for a
great part of the needed supply comes from
the neighbouring valleys.
An imperial school of drawing and model-
ling has been established in the Grodnerthal,
as well as a permanent exhibition. Many
young men also take a few years in Munich
or Vienna to work in the studios of well-
known masters.
As far as toys are concerned, they have
hardly changed in several generations. As
the father worked, so does the son; as the
mother, so the daughter of the Grodnerthal.
It is likely that the horses will continue to
wear those unnatural black lines on their
backs, and to indulge in the same impossible
spots for generations to come.
The Selser Alp
About two hours' climb from St. Ulrich
brings you to a grassy, undulating upland, the
Seiser Alp, the largest haying plateau in the
Tyrol. It is dotted with more than four hun-
139
The Fair Land Tyrol
dred brown barns, and almost as many cook-
ing sheds; here and there its green stretches
are broken by black groves of pine ; there is
the murmured gurgle of hidden brooks; the
air thrills with exuberance; the blue sky is
above, and the giant Dolomites, the Schlern,
the Rosszahne, the Plattkofel, the Langkofel,
the Geislerspitzen, etc., rear their strange
shapes all around, standing guard. A short
climb to the top of the Puflatsch will reveal
still greater distances.
Here most of the young people of the Grod-
nerthal and neighbouring districts spend a
week or two by turns during haying time. It
is their summer holiday. They work under
the brilliant sun in long rows; they eat five
times a day, picnic-fashion, in jolly groups
on the fragrant ground; and at night they
sleep on the new-mown hay in the barns, while
outside the vast billows of the alp darken and
dampen with the dew. When all the slopes
and level stretches of the Seiser Alp are bare,
they descend in troops, dressed in their very
best, each mower wearing in his hat a bunch
of mountain pinks and rosemary.
Not less interesting than the extraordinary
industrial and agricultural activity of these
people is their history and language. It seems
140
THE SELLAJOCH
The giant Dolomites . . . rear their
strange shapes all around, stand-
ing guard"
The Grbden Valley
to be now generally conceded that the inhabit-
ants of the Grodnerthal are of Raetian origin.
Whether this means Etruscan or Celtic, or a
mixture of both, is a question which remains
more or less unsettled. Be that as it may, the
prevailing language is Ladin. It contains at
least five per cent, of Raetian words, eighty
per cent, of vulgarized Latin ones, and fifteen
per cent, of German ones. This mixture
maintains itself with a tenacity which is as-
tonishing, considering the nearness of German
influences. Most of the inhabitants, it is true,
now speak German as well, but often with a
foreign accent, which is really quite pleasing.
One of the chief reasons why Ladin is still
cultivated by the people is, that they find it
of advantage when they go out into the world
as peddlers. It gives them the key to all the
other Romance languages; in a few weeks
they can master the rudiments of Italian,
French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. As ex-
amples of Ladin, I may cite: Urtischei, the
local name of St. Ulrich; bona seira, is good
evening; bot, a boy; fuya, a pocket, etc.
Beyond St. Ulrich, the valley rises and
narrows gradually. At St. Christina a superb
view awaits you from the church terrace.
From up there the green slopes and the red
141
The Fair Land Tyrol
rocks contrast vividly, while the edges of the
torrent look as though embroidered by the
white foam. Opposite, the Langkofel, no-
where else so majestic, so mysterious and
dominant, rises, sheer and gray, above the
forests of the foot-hills, or wraps its head in
lowering clouds. Not a blade of grass, appar-
ently, can take root on its pitiless flanks.
There was a time when several families of
nobles sat perched in their castles upon the
surrounding heights, not the least of them
being the Counts von Wolkenstein, whose
ruined ancestral seat still clings to the steep
side of the mountain above St. Maria in the
Langenthal. Schloss Fischburg, overlooking
St. Christina, later became the principal castle
of this family. It was built in 1622, and
appears extremely well to this day.
There is something for almost every type
of visitor in the Grodnerthal. The mountains
are an open text-book for the geologists; they
spread their violet grays, their streaks of red,
and the stains of yellow before the eyes of
impressionistic painters, and gladden the
hearts of the expert Dolomite climbers.
142
THE SANTNERSPITZE OF THE SCHLERN RANGE
CHAPTER XVI
TWO MINNESINGERS
Walther von der Vogelweide and Oswald von
Wolkensteln
WHEN one travels southward over the
Brenner Pass, there comes a place where the
north leaves off and the south begins. It is
somewhere in the stretch from Brixen to
Bozen. There the air of the Alps mingles
with the breath from the plain of Lombardy.
The . two atmospheres hold one another in
check. Sometimes they overlap, and each
cries victory. In that region, too, comes a
change in the rocks. The common limestone
of the Teutonic Tyrol gives way to fantastic
Dolomite formations, and to pillars of vol-
canic porphyry, twisted and seared.
In this same region, there is the side valley
opening from Waidbruck, where a remnant
of the ancient Raeti stands at bay. Put your
The Fair Land Tyrol
finger on the map at that point in the Bren-
nerthal where the Grodnerthal joins it, for
you may know that some unusual manifesta-
tion must have taken place at such a racial
cross-roads. And, in fact, there was once a
veritable nest of Minnesingers there. The
greatest of them all was born there, Walther
von der Vogelweide, and within hailing dis-
tance the last of them, Oswald von Wolken-
stein. Over there at Klausen, perched on its
lofty crags, was another of less note, Leuthold
von Saben, but we will not stop for him here.
Walther von der Vogelweide (between
Il68 - 75 and 1230)
Neither the date of Walther's birth nor the
place where he was born have been settled
entirely beyond dispute. For the first, some
year between 1168 and 1175 is generally ac-
cepted ; for the second, there has been much
shifting of ground from Franconia to Bohe-
mia, then to the neighbourhood of Sterzing,
and finally, to a farm above Waidbruck,
called the Vogelweidehof.
In 1874, Professor Ignaz von Zingerle, in
the presence of a throng of scholars and poets,
of Tyrolese townspeople and peasants, un-
144
\
Two Minnesingers
veiled a marble tablet over the door of the
farmhouse. It bears the following inscription :
" Her Walther von der Vogelweide
Swer des vergaeze, der taet mir leide.
(Who should forget him, would grieve me). "
The women of Brixen and Bozen united in
doing honour to the poet, who had sung so
nobly of the German woman of his day.
This tablet and the statue of Walther von
der Vogelweide, in near-by Bozen, have prac-
tically settled the question of his birthplace,
as far as the travelling public is concerned.
Walther belonged to the lesser nobility
(Dienstadel). In his twentieth year he
started out into the world to make his for-
tune. First he went to Vienna. At the court
there he learned to " sing and say," singen
und sagen, i. e., he learned both music and
text. From this period date most of his
lively, fresh spring songs. But he did not con-
fine himself to Minne-songs. His poems tell
us a good deal about himself personally and
about contemporary events. He wandered
from court to court as a strolling singer, his
fiddle (Fiedl) by his side. He tells us that he
travelled " from the Elbe to the Rhine and
The Fair Land Tyrol
into Hungary. From the Seine to the Mur,
from the Po to the Trave."
Walther spent the years between 1204 and
1207 at me court of the Margrave of Thu-
ringia. Poets from all sides were attracted
thither. Tradition has represented the ri-
valry between the different poets as culminat-
ing in a veritable Poets' War, or Sangerkrieg
on the Wartburg. Walther took part, and
five other Minnesingers. Wolfram von Esch-
enbach carried off the prize. A substratum
of historical truth seems to underlie this
Sangerkrieg.
In 1228 he accompanied Frederick II. to
the Crusades. Frederick II. had given him
an estate near Wiirzburg, and there he died
in 1230, two years after his return from Pales-
tine. He was buried in the Lorenzgarten in
front of the door of the new Minster. His
burial-place has lately been rediscovered, but
not his tombstone. This, however, was still
visible in the eighteenth century.
According to tradition, Walther left a
bequest in his will from which the birds were
to be fed on his tomb with grains of wheat and
water. Four cavities, to contain food and
drink, were said to have been hollowed out of
the tombstone.
146
Two Minnesingers
Longfellow has told of Walther's bequest
in his characteristic singing verse:
" Vogelweid the Minnesinger,
When he left this world of ours,
Laid his body in the cloister,
Under Wiirzburg's minster towers.
u And he gave the monks his treasures,
Gave them all with this behest : —
They should feed the birds at noontide
Daily on his place of rest ;
u Saying : c From these wandering minstrels
I have learned the art of song ;
Let me now repay the lessons
They have taught so well and long.' "
Walther von der Vogelweide was the
greatest lyric singer of Germany during the
middle ages. Gottfried von Strassburg, his
contemporary, in his poem on " Tristan "
(verse 4791), praises his name as that of the
master of them all. In fact, his name and
influence lived on through the following era
of the Meistersinger, and in the eighteenth
century the study and appreciation of his
work revived.
Miss Charlotte H. Coursen, in an article
on the poet in The Home Journal of New
147
The Fair Land Tyrol
York, shows true appreciation of his finer
qualities. She says, in part:
" His light-hearted enjoyment does not
preclude a genuine religious feeling, — often
expressed, as in his devout Morning Hymn,
and also when he says that ' he who repeats the
ten commandments and breaks them, knows
not true love/ and ' he who calls God
" Father," and treats me not as a brother,
uses the word in a weakened sense.' His
patriotism found expression in the famous
song, ' Deutschland iiber Alles,' beginning,
' Ye shall say that I am welcome,' and form-
ing the prototype of modern German patriotic
songs. Walther is true; we are convinced
that he feels all that he professes to feel. He
despises hypocrisy. * God knows,' he naively
exclaims, ' my praise should be always given
to the life of courts, if it were always such as
beseems courtiers, and if word and deed
accorded well together. I shudder when one
smiles on me without a reason, — honey upon
his lips, while gall is in his heart.' He ad-
dresses men, and speaks of them in a frank and
manly spirit, while for women he shows a
truly chivalric regard. He never wearies of
praising the beauty, gentleness, and truthful-
ness of his countrywomen, and, though his
148
Two Minnesingers
love-songs are many, he sings much of a love
which rests not only upon the beauty, but also
upon the higher qualities of women. For
children there is evidently a warm place in
his heart, as shown in his ' Teaching of
Children:7
* Would you safely guide them,
Do not harshly chide them.
He who aught of this doth know
Gives a word, and not a blow.
* Children, this is reason ;
Close your lips in season ;
Push the bolt across the door;
Speak those angry words no more.'
" And so on, with a repeated rhyme in each
verse, such as might attract the fancy of a
child.
" His broad sympathies are shown in a spirit
rather unusual for that time, when he says:
' Christians, Jews, heathen, all serve the Great
Sustainer of all.' "
The modern revival of interest in Walther
is due not only to his work as an artist, but
also to his words as a prophet. He stands
close to the German heart of to-day because he
149
The Fair Land Tyrol
sang of the unity of Germany and worked for
that ideal.
Oswald von Wolkenstein (1367 - 1445)
There is something fabulous about Oswald
von Wolkenstein's career. He was born in
1367, in Castle Trostburg, at the entrance of
the Groden Valley. At ten years of age he
ran away from home to join a company of
Tyrolese knights, who followed Duke Al-
brecht III. of Austria, upon an expedition
against the heathen Lithuanians. He re-
mained several years in the state founded by
the Order of Teutonic Knights, then at the
height of its power, perfecting himself in
various branches of military service.
Then the desire to wander seized him, and
he passed through the great Hansa ports out
into the wide world, a man-at-arms, a fiddler,
and a knight errant of many shifts. He
fought for the Danish Queen Margaret
against the Swedes; with the Scotch under
Douglas against the English. He visited
London, Ireland, Russia; was shipwrecked in
the Black Sea; penetrated to the Euphrates
through Persian Armenia; and worked his
way homeward as cook and boatswain, touch-
ISO
TOMBSTONE OF OSWALD VON WOLKENSTEIN
Two Minnesingers
ing at the island of Crete, seeing something
of Constantinople, Greece, Dalmatia, and
Venice.
After an absence of fifteen years, Oswald
returned to his native castle in the Tyrol. He
was only twenty-five years of age, and had
already seen a great part of the then known
world. He did not stay long at home, for
presently we hear of his taking ship at
Genoa for Alexandria in Egypt.
In Cairo he was received by the Sultan. He
prayed on Mount Sinai; entered the Holy
Land at Jericho ; made verses in Bethlehem ;
and was created Knight of the Holy Sepul-
chre in Jerusalem.
On his homeward journey, Oswald touched
at the islands of Cyprus, Malta, and Sicily.
In Italy he learned to know Dante's Divine
Comedy and Petrarch's lyrics.
After an absence of three years he returned
to the Tyrol. It chanced just then that a great
historical movement was pulsing through the
German Empire, due to the desire on the part
of the freemen and the lesser nobility to enter
into direct dependence upon the empire, and
to do away with intermediaries. But the
Dukes of Habsburg, having been driven from
The Fair Land Tyrol
Switzerland, desired nothing so much as to
assure their position in the Eastern Alps.
Knight Oswald von Wolkenstein became
the head and front of the League on the Etsch,
directed against the house of Habsburg, and
a desultory war resulted, lasting twenty years,
in which Habsburg finally subdued the mem-
bers of the lesser nobility one by one.
During a lull in this conflict between the
League on the Etsch and Habsburg, Oswald,
confirmed globe-trotter that he was, once
more set out in the quest of adventure, this
time to fight the Moors in Spain.
Singing his way from castle to court, he
stopped one day at Hohenschwangau, on the
frontier between the Tyrol and Bavaria.
The Schwangau family were fond of music.
A daughter of the house, Margarethe, knew
Oswald's songs, and sang them to the harp.
The two fell in love with each other, and were
betrothed; and it was arranged that the wed-
ding should take place on Oswald's return
from Spain.
Thereupon the Minnesinger continued his
journey down the Rhine to Holland, over to
England. Thence to Portugal, where an
expedition was just being arranged against the
Moors in Africa. He helped to storm Ceuta
Two Minnesingers
(1411), arrived in Granada, where he was
distinguished by Yussuf, the Red King; passed
through Castile, was proclaimed a second
Cid, and reached Aragon.
He landed eventually in Genoa, and in
1413 was once more in his castle in the Tyrol.
He met his betrothed after a separation of
five years, and they were married in 1417.
The best of his songs were written to her, and
through them the fame of her beauty and of
her virtues passed from one German land to
another.
There is extant a touching letter which she
wrote him a few weeks before his death, when
he was seventy-eight years of age, and was
attending the sessions of the Tyrolese Land-
tag in Meran. " If you stay longer at the
Council send for me. . . . Once for all, I
will not be without you, here or elsewhere."
His body lies buried in the Monastery of
Neustift, and in the cloisters of the cathedral
at Brixen there is an upright stone which
shows him in the armour of a Crusader, a
sword by his side, with fluttering flag, and a
lyre that seems to confirm his title to be called
the last of the Minnesingers.
153
SOUTHERN TYROL
CHAPTER XVII
THE BASIN OF BOZEN
As we stray southward, the grass of the
uplands shrivels under the sun; the tall pines
shrink to bushes; the mountainsides grow
bare and burned. The clear, hard greens and
blues of the north turn to browns and laven-
ders. The cool tonic of the Alps meets the
hot air from the plains. Innsbruck shakes
hands with Verona. The vineyards climb up
to the edge of the chestnut forests, and the
flowers seem uncertain whether to be tropical
or arctic. Then we know that we have strayed
into the borderland between Romance and
Teutonic Tyrol.
Here lies the city which the Germans call
Bozen, and the Italians Bolzano. Take your
stand on the Talfer bridge, and use your eyes
well.
Cyclopean walls stand around about the
basin of Bozen; here brown-red precipices of
porphyry, blistering in the heat, upon which
157
The Fair Land Tyrol
the cypress and the cactus grow; there, bare,
gray masses, shadeless, and Oriental. Here
are arboured vineyards, studded with summer
houses and shrines, there many castles tower
from many crags and spurs. Here a vista of
the valley of the Etsch goes a-narrowing and
its mountains a-stooping toward the south;
there, in the east, the group of the Rosengar-
ten points transcendental flowers to the utmost
sky.
The basin of Bozen is an extraordinary
meeting-place of the elements. There is fire
in the volcanic rocks and in the unrelenting
sun; water in the unruly confluence of Talfer
and Eisack, and of Etsch, lower down; and
air, — there is air to suffuse everything and
give it charm.
Bozen acts very like a chameleon. When
you approach it from the south, t!he town
looks German; when you come from the
north, it shows the nearness of Italy. Every-
thing depends upon the point of view, but, in
truth, Bozen the town is Teutonic amid a
Romance environment. The Teutonic touch
is on everything within the town, on the
painted iron scrollwork signs, on the fat
draught-horses, and on the one-horse cabs,
made for two. You see the Teutonic tone
158
The Basin of Bozen
especially in the scrupulous cleanliness of the
streets. Still, Italian is heard more and more
about town every year. Most of the citizens
have learned to speak that language when
necessary. Bozen proper has over thirteen
thousand inhabitants, of whom some fifteen
hundred are of Italian race. Including the
suburbs, the population can be reckoned at
twenty thousand. Another twenty thousand
persons, strangers, pass through Bozen annu-
ally as transient visitors.
All roads seem to lead to Bozen. It is the
cross-roads for the Brenner and the Vintsgau
route: the Stelvio and the Finstermunz.
From time immemorial generals have passed
here with their armies, emperors and pilgrims
to Rome, and merchants plying between Ger-
many and Italy. Now the tourists keep up
the traditions of travel, but Bozen, unlike
Meran, does not depend upon them absolutely.
It is no mere resort, it is a business centre; it
has local products, especially in the way of
wine and fruit.
Have you ever eaten Bozen preserves?
There is a regular Actiengesellschaft fur Con-
servirte Fruchte in Bozen. When you first
taste these conserved fruits, you think there
has been a mistake, for the fruits are in mus-
The Fair Land Tyrol
tard. But many people like fruit thus pre-
served to eat as a relish with meat.
Bozen, like Innsbruck, began life as a
bridge.
On a Roman itinerary, traced during the
reign of Emperor Theodosius, the name Pons
Drusi appears on the spot where Bozen now
stands. Later a curious collection of names
covered the spot: Bauxare, Pauzana, Baza-
num, Bosanum, Bozan, Bulsanum. Out of
this assortment the Germans picked a Bozen
for themselves, and the Italians a Bolzano.
The place proved an apple of discord between
the Counts of Tyrol and the Bishops of Trent,
and received some hard knocks in a tussle for
possession between the two. Many fires, and
repeated inundations by the Talfer also did
their work, but at length, in the seventeenth
century, came the golden age of Bozen.
Through certain special privileges, granted
by the ruling archdukes, Bozen became an
important centre of the transport trade be-
tween Venice, Verona, and the German cities
of the north. Population increased, and the
name of Bozen became known from the
Adriatic to the North Sea. It produced an
aristocracy of trade which was different from
the aristocracy of the castles around about. It
1 60
The Basin of Bozen
was a smaller Augsburg or Nurnberg, with
wealthy patricians and big purses of its own.
The four fairs of Bozen were international
functions in those days, and, in changing much
money, the bankers of Bozen allowed a good
deal of the gold dust to stick to their fingers,
as was right and proper.
Bozen is not what it was then, relatively
speaking, but its present growth is wholesome,
and there is said to be a good deal of money
saved up for a rainy day. Society amuses it-
self in a really sociable way, with almost as
many clubs and societies as a Swiss town of its
size would have. Besides, Bozen is the seat of
several K. K. institutions, of a judicial and an
administrative district. It has a chamber of
commerce and many schools.
In our sightseeing through Bozen, we can-
not do better than begin with the parish
church. A street, shaded by horse-chestnut-
trees and flanked by public gardens, leads
straight from the station to the church.
The building is not easily overlooked. It
is so intensely Teutonic, so distinctly Gothic,
after the many basilicas of the Latin lands
toward the south. There is a slim steeple of
openwork design, fretted and carved out of
good, honest, red stone. There is also a gay
161
The Fair Land Tyrol
roof of green tiles in pattern. The church
might almost be standing in Swabia itself,
imitating the red sandstone, the tall pines, and
the green foliage of the Black Forest!
When all other signs fail, the people of
Bozen will always be able to point to their
parish church, as proof that they are of Ger-
man stock.
And, in fact, when we come to investigate,
we find that the steeple was built by Johannes
Lutz, from Schussenried, in Swabia, during
the years 1501 and 1519. There were origi-
nally two towers, but one had to be torn down
more than five hundred years ago, after an
earthquake, and the second suffered so much
by fire, that Lutz had to rebuild it entirely
in its present form. The church, as a whole,
and as it stands to-day, is fourteenth-century
work; only the west portal, with two lions in
Lombard style, seems to date from an earlier
building. From another period, also (1514),
dates the elaborate pulpit in stone.
A statue to Walther von der Vogelweide
stands in the square called the Johannsplatz.
It is the work of a Tyrolese sculptor, the late
Heinrich Natter. This artist was born in
Graun, a hamlet in the Vintsgau, not far from
Nauders. The Hofer statue on Berg Isel, and
162
STATUE OF WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE IN BOZEN
The Basin of Bozen
this statue of Walther von der Vogelweide,
are his two main contributions toward the
praise of his native land. <He was a simple
man of the mountains, filled with an intense
appreciation for the heroic qualities inherent
in the Tyrolese subjects he treated. He was
also the sculptor of the notable statue of
Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, Switzerland.
Those are happy summer evenings in the
square when the band plays. Many kinds of
people sit at many tables, belated tourists
eating their suppers, or citizens out for an
airing. There are wonderful Alpine climb-
ers, with enormous shoes, short breeches, and
peeling noses. They may look red and un-
shaven, but they feel triumphant. There are
pretty gentlemen in green hats with curly
feathers, who are doing their mountains
mostly in the Stellwagen. There are German
professors who find this borderland between
German and Italian influences a happy hunt-
ing-ground for etymological derivations.
Some ladies have dressed for dinner in fluffy
light things, others glory in weather-stained
green woollens, and wear hobnailed shoes.
The basin of Bozen can become decidedly
hot in summer, even for Americans; it is
hotter, the statistics say, than Trent, though
163
The Fair Land Tyrol
the latter lies farther south. The sun shines
with steady rays, baking and broiling and
driving the people indoors for a noonday
siesta. Business comes to a standstill in the
middle of the day. Only under the arcades
is a languid interest in commercial activity
still maintained. All those who can, go to the
mountains for July, August, and part of
September. They leave for the Ritten, the
Schlern, or the Jenesien, to spend their Som-
merfrische up there, their summer-cooling-ofL
Those who cannot afford to go away entirely,
content themselves with a Saturday-to-Mon-
day trip in the heights. The people of Bozen
know a great many little nooks and ledges on
the sides of their basin, many plateaux on top,
where you can have all the luxuries of the
Alps for next to nothing: milk fresh from the
cow, and air straight from the snow.
The Laubengasse recalls the central street
of Bern. There are the same arcades on either
hand, the same sidewalks sheltered from
sun and rain, where stores display their wares
and form a continuous bazaar. The half-
light produces a feeling of friendly intimacy
and hospitality. The Mercantil-Gebaude,
about midway on the Laubengasse, is an ornate
building, finished in 1717, and containing a
164
The Basin of Bozen
large hall, used for festivities, and especially
for exhibitions. As in Bern, so here, there are
many passages through the houses that are
used by the public. They are short cuts from
the Laubengasse to the parallel Silbergasse
and Karnergasse.
The Obstplatz, however, is distinctly of
Bozen and not of Bern, for the fruits and
flowers, brought there for sale, look and smell
of the semi-tropical southern foot of the Alps.
Even almonds, figs, and melons grow in the
open air. There is no longer much costume
in Bozen, but you will generally see what is
left of it on the Obstplatz. There the women
vendors wear short white sleeves, caught
above the elbow by an elastic or ribbon. A
bright kerchief is folded over the shoulders
and bosom, with a corner pointing down the
back. It is especially the women who sell
mushrooms and yellow-red gourds for drink-
ing vessels, who cling to the local costume.
If the men wear green hats with feathers, that
is all that can be expected of them nowadays.
Take it all in all, if the guide-books must
liken Bozen to some other foreign city, per-
haps they may as well call it " The Florence7
of the Tyrol." The resemblance is not very
close, but Bozen certainly does grow a great
165
The Fair Land Tyrol
many flowers, and does have a special annual
flower-market on the first of May.
There is a Rathhaus, a museum where most
of the Tyrolese peasant costumes are shown,
a palace of the Archduke Henry on the
Johannsplatz, a new Biirgersaal, not far from
the station, and even a theatre, so that Bozen is
a thoroughly well equipped modern city. Its
sturdy inhabitants are doing much to enhance
its beauties, and its growing popularity with
strangers from many lands is proof that the
good people of Bozen make the best of hosts.
166
CHAPTER XVIII
THE ROSENGARTEN — A GARDEN OF ROSES
To the east of Bozen rises the mountain
group to which the poetical name of the
Rosengarten has been given. The roses in
this garden are of rock, and only bloom at
sunset! They are literally flowers of stone.
Their thorns are sharp pinnacles of chalk and
magnesia, and their fragrance is the keen,
sweet smell which rises from beds of snow,
and wastes of stone, and stretches of summer
pastures!
The finer the day, the farther it fades, this
Garden of Roses. The more treacherous the
weather, the nearer it draws. The hotter the
morrow, the redder the roses. The sun sinks
behind the Guntschnaberg, and the Garden of
Roses, facing west, receives the full force of
its parting rays. A violet twilight creeps
over the plain, city, and foot-hills. The roses
blush, then glow like red-hot iron. The
167
The Fair Land Tyrol
violet pursues the red up the precipices. The
shadows follow the colours foot by foot.
Suddenly there are ashes of roses against
the sky. The sun has burned up the flowers.
This nightly wonder of the blushing rocks
has had its own particular effect upon the
people of Bozen. Some fantastic fellow, as
he watched it on a summer evening, called the
company of reddened peaks a Rosengarten,
and presently somebody else, I believe it was
a certain Heinrich von Ofterdingen, made a
full-blown legend to grow up there, one of
the many romances in which the redoubtable
Dietrich von Bern, Theodoric of Verona, is
represented as swinging his great sword Sachs.
To this day the people of Bozen call a snow-
patch just under the summit of the highest
peak, the Gartl, or Little Garden.
The legend of the Rosengarten is as fol-
lows : The dwarf king, Laurin, had his
crystal palace in the interior of the mountain
mass, and there he hid away the golden-haired
sister of Dietlieb of Steier, a henchman of
Dietrich of Bern. But Knights Dietlieb and
Dietrich, with their swordsmen, came up
quickly from Verona, from the land where
the Etsch is called the Adige, and penetrated
into the mountain through a grotto at the foot
168
The Rosengarten
of the Schlern, whereupon Dietrich defeated
Laurin, in spite of the latter's magic spells,
but spared his life at the request of Dietlieb.
Laurin, in return, set drugged wine before his
guests, so that when they awoke, they found
themselves bound in the bowels of the earth.
Then it was that Simild, the sister, came and
freed them. Finally Dietrich and his knights
fought Laurin and his dwarfs and giants, trod
the roses under foot, and took Simild and
Laurin back with them to Verona.
This story explains why the roses no longer
bloom as steadily as they used to do, but only
glow for a few minutes on fine evenings.
The key to the underground palace of the
elfin king was lost somehow during the dark
ages, but it is still possible to climb up into
the Rosengarten and tread its mazes.
There are three main entrances to the
Rosengarten on the Teutonic side : one from
Kardaun through the Eggenthal to Wel-
schnofen, another from Blumau, by the valley
of Tiers and Weisslahn-Bad, and a third from
Waidbruck, over Kastelruth and Vols. But
open the garden gate of your own choice, and
pluck your own roses. You will soon find
that some of these tall flowers are not to be
picked by ordinary climbers.
169
The Fair Land Tyrol
The English are said to have been the first
climbers in the Rosengarten. Messrs. C. C.
Tucker and F. H. Carson made the first
ascents in 1874. Now, practically every tower
and pinnacle has been ascended. Nothing is
too steep, too exposed, or too smooth for the
new school of Dolomite climbers. The Ger-
man-Austrian Alpine Club has covered the
approaches with signs and shelter-huts. In
1887, a student named Winkler, from Munich,
ascended the most southern of the Vajolett
towers, which had been considered impreg-
nable up to that time. It has now been called
after him the Winklerthurm. Then came
another climber " without guides," Delago of
Brixen, who conquered the last arid most
difficult of the Vajolett towers, and gave it
the name of Delagothurm. Among the ex-
traordinary feats in the Rosengarten, must be
mentioned the trip of the late Norman-
Neruda, son of the famous violinist, Lady
Halle, with Dr. H. Lorenz of Vienna, and
R. V. Arvay of Graz, who crossed over the
Funffingerspitze twice in one day, from south
to north, and from west to east. Two English-
men, G. S. Raynor, and J. S. Phillmore, of
Oxford, with two guides, also accomplished
what must be counted among the most diffi-
170
THE WINKLERTHURM
The Rosengarten
cult feats in the whole range of the Alps:
with two guides they climbed directly up the
terrible eastern precipices of the Rosengarten
to the top. A growing number of women also
take part in this marvellous rock-work. In
fact, only the journals of the various Alpine
clubs can do justice to this life above the snow
line.
The majority of visitors to the Rosengarten
are happy if they can only wander about at
the foot of these tall standard roses, and sniff
their perfume from below. The whole dis-
trict of the approaches is rich in natural
beauties. Nowhere else in the Tyrol are the
brooks more crystalline, when they flow over
their beds of white stone. The Karersee itself
is a small lake which reflects the Latemar as
clearly as the Diirrensee does Monte Cristallo,
and its blue has the same silvery sheen as the
famous Blue Lake, on the way from Spiez to
Kandersteg in Switzerland. This, too, is a
region of many hamlets and summer hotels.
The writer entered the Rosengarten from
the Romance side, one July day, from Perra,
in the Val Fassa. The path lay through a
valley whose very name, Val Vajolett, seemed
to conjure up the smell of flowers. As the
path mounted^ the rich firs slowly degen-
171
The Fair Land Tyrol
crated into shrubs, and then ceased altogether.
There followed the white rocks of the upper
solitudes, the characteristic Dolomite debris;
then occasional snow-patches lay in the shade;
and finally the peaks of the Rosengarten itself
rose in a ring, forming a vast cauldron.
Large, unstable clouds drifted along the
precipices, dwelling here and there, caress-
ingly, as though stroking the cheeks of loved
ones; elsewhere little woolly clouds hovered
from peak to peak, like busy bees among the
flowers, while thin streamers wound in and
out, twining themselves like ribbons of tulle
around and about to bind all the roses together
into a united picture of loveliness and exalted
thought.
Round about the Basin
Out on the highways and byways of Bozen
there is so much of beauty to stimulate interest,
that almost anybody might become a Minne-
singer on the spot.
Gries is a favourite suburb. It has a winter
promenade on the hillside, much like Meran,
and there is a Curhaus with regular concerts.
There is also an ancient suburb of Bozen,
called Zwolfmalgreien, but the delimitation
of its boundaries is now difficult to trace. The
172
The Rosengarten
station of Bozen, for example, is said to be in
Zwolfmalgreien, and not in Bozen-town
proper. The name is of interest as an example
of Teutonized Latin. Etymologists derive
" malgreien " from malga or malgaria, mean-
ing an Alpine dairy. Before the Romans
introduced the vine into the land, the place
was probably the seat of twelve dairy huts.
One morning we can stroll up the Calvari-
enberg; another day the Jenesien beckons to
us from the north. But finally the visitor's
attention is sure to be drawn to the heights
between the Talfer and the Eisack valleys,
where lies the table-land of the Ritten, espe-
cially beloved of the people of Bozen. It is a
vast summer resort, between three and four
thousand feet above the level of the sea, within
easy reach of the bottom of the basin, and yet
refreshed by the air of the Alps, and rejoicing
in an unmatched outlook over the Dolomites.
Oberbozen and Klobenstein are the chief
villages of the Ritten.
Attention, also, should be called to the
peculiar earth pyramids, near the hamlet of
Lengmoos, on the northeastern flank of the
Ritten. Similar formations occur in other
parts of this district. These pyramids are
apparently the remains of an ancient moraine,
173
The Fair Land Tyrol
the refuse from an extinct glacier. Exposed
to the action of water, frost, and wind, the
side of the moraine has been worn into col-
umns, surmounted by stones, like capitals, the
whole forming a fantastic array on the moun-
tain flank.
If you move your finger afield on the map
in the neighbourhood of Bozen, a galaxy of
names of castles follows closely, each with
its artistic or martial meaning: Karneid,
Runkelstein, Sigmundskron, Greifenstein,
Haselburg, Eppan, and others, until finally,
near Meran, we come to Castle Tyrol itself,
which has given its name to the whole coun-
try.
Toward the southwest from Bozen the
range of the Mendel looms into view, pre-
senting a wall toward Italy. In mounting to
the Mendel Pass, by carriage or train, which-
ever you may choose, the view extends mar-
vellously over the map-like valleys beneath.
The Dolomites rear into view, the Rosen-
garten beckons, the Latemar frowns, and far
below, the fertile Ueberetsch lies dreaming at
our feet. Though the Mendel Pass is not high
(4,470 feet), the outlook is unique. There is
not only snow in the background, but also
tropical vegetation in the forefront, bleak
174
CASTLE KARNE1D
The Rosengarten
masses of rock cut the sky-line, rich villages
cluster in the plains, and jutting castles dot
the mountainsides. There are arid stretches
and streams that glint and glimmer under the
sun. Then, on the other side of the pass, the
glittering Adamello and Presanella groups
of snow mountains lie toward the south. One
step farther and the language changes. A
little walk along the road, and you hear men
speaking Italian. Such are some of the de-
lights and contrasts of this charming border-
land.
Under the Trellises
The people of Bozen and Meran are not so
Teutonic but what they can train their vines
in arboured trellises, like their Romance
neighbours.
It is a curious fact, that almost the entire
local vocabulary of the grape is of Latin
origin. The trellises themselves, for instance,
are called pergeln from the Italian pergola.
One may question, perhaps, whether the trellis
is as economical as the upright stick, which
is used in northern Europe, but there is no
doubt that the trellis is the more beautiful of
the two. Then vegetables can be grown in the
half-shade of the arbour, protected from the
175
The Fair Land Tyrol
fierce southern sun, so that no part of the soil
need be wasted.
In the spring there is much animation under
the bare arbours, much mending of the
wooden slats, and hoeing of the ground, but in
midsummer the activity in the vineyards is re-
duced to a minimum, for the grapes are left
to ripen under the hot rays. As you look up
the mountain slopes, there may come a flash
or two from a glittering hoe, but in general the
vine-dressers wait patiently for the vintage,
and the coopers prepare the vats and barrels.
The vintage begins in the middle of Sep-
tember, and lasts until well into October. The
vintagers move under the arbours, cutting the
hanging bunches, which fall into wooden
bowls. These bowls, when full, are emptied
into hods, which, in turn, are emptied into
big vats. Here the grapes are crushed with
wooden implements, and the resulting mass
allowed to go through the first process of
fermentation. In a few weeks the new wine
is drawn off, and taken to the cellars, to com-
plete the process of fermentation. Water is
poured on the remaining skins and stems, and,
when drained off, becomes a light house wine
for home consumption.
CHAPTER XIX
THE FRESCOES OF RUNKELSTEIN
THE imperial castle of Runkelstein rises
at the mouth of the ravine-like Sarnthal, only
a short walk from Bozen. It is a solemn com-
plex of stone and mortar, topped by roofs of
dull red tiles, the whole seated on a pedestal
of porphyry, sheer and brown. From the west
the castle looks like a giant crystal, weather-
stained, springing from the living rock.
Around its base the Talfer curls noisily,
while the mountains start up sharply to right
and left, sparsely covered with soft brush. At
the gate a cypress points a black finger over
the battlements, to show the nearness of Italy.
You mount to the castle by a steep little
path, cross a bridge that was once a draw,
enter a gate surmounted by a half-efTaced
coat of arms, and stand within the castle
court, that distils feudal flavour on every
hand. Just in front is the wing known as the
177
The Fair Land Tyrol
Summer-house, where some ancient frescoes
are preserved.
The outside walls are decorated with
figures in groups, and within the Summer-
house is a series of frescoes telling the story
of Tristan and Isolde. They cover the walls
of one of the two rooms into which the house
is divided. The outlines of the figures are
painted in black on a greenish ground. Judg-
ing by the drawing and the fashions of the
clothes, as well as by the history of the castle
itself, we may say that the frescoes were done
soon after 1385, an age wrhen painting, even
in next-door Italy, was still in its infancy, and
was marked by stiffness of drawing and the
most helpless perspective. The name of the
painter is unknown.
Here the story of Tristan and Isolde is
depicted according to the fragmentary ver-
sion of Gottfried of Strassburg, which varies
not a little from the more familiar one con-
tained in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte
Darthur.
The second room in the Summer-house
contains nothing less than the complete legend
of Garel of the Blooming Valley, according
to the version of a certain Pleier, a poet from
Styria or Salzburg, who wrote about the
178
The Frescoes of Runkelstein
middle of the thirteenth century, and whose
manuscript is said to be preserved at Linz,
in Austria.
Garel is probably the Gareth of Le Morte
Darthur, there surnamed Beaumayns, or Fair
Hands.
Toward the end of the series, in a fresco of
surpassing interest, we see the victorious
knights of the Round Table sitting at meat,
- King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Sir Laun-
celot, and many another of the far-famed
company.
In truth, Runkelstein is like an illustrated
text-book of Le Morte Darthur. Here
themes from a dim Celtic mythology, filtered
through French and English sources, have
found a German abiding-place.
On the outside walls of the Summer-house
Tristan and Isolde are to be seen, and with
them other figures of great value. These are
arranged in groups of three, forming triads,
which were a favourite subject for artists of
the time.
First, the three greatest pagan heroes:
Hector, Alexander the Great, and Julius
Caesar, clad in mediaeval accoutrements.
Then the three greatest heroes of Jewish
history: Joshua, David, and Judas Macca-
179
The Fair Land Tyrol
baeus; the best Christian kings: Arthur of
England, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of
Bouillon.
Curiously enough, William Caxton, in the
introduction of his first edition of Malory's
Le Morte Darthur, enumerates these same
groups of heroes as worthy of a writer's pen.
After this, the best knights of the Round
Table: Parcival, bearing a shield with white
anchor on red ground, Gawein, and Iwein
(Percyual, Gawayn? and Ewayne). The
three noblest pairs of lovers are represented by
Duke William of Austria and his Aglei,
Tristan and Isolde, and William of Orleans
and Amelie.
To the right of the portal follow the three
best swordsmen and their swords. The in-
scriptions read : Ditterich vo Pern treit
sachs (Theodoric of Verona, surnamed the
Great, bears Sachs, his favourite weapon).
Sivreit treit er palmung (Siegfried bears the
Balmung). Dietleib von Steyer treit belsung
(Dietlieb of Steier, a knight connected with
the Rosengarten legend, bears Belsung or
Welsung) .
The triads are closed by three groups of the
strongest giants, the most terrible giantesses,
and the best dwarfs, whose names were doubt-
180
The Frescoes of Runkelstein
less familiar enough to the little boys of the
fourteenth century, but need hardly be in-
flicted on the modern reader.
The main body of the castle, the part once
inhabited by the family, called the Pallas,
can boast of five further rooms with frescoed
walls; and the question naturally arises, how
came this extraordinary, and possibly unique,
collection of frescoes to be painted at all, in
a region now so remote from the great centres
of the art world?
The history of Runkelstein can be told in a
few words. In a document, dated February
10, 1237, Ulrich, Bishop of Trent, granted
permission to a certain Tyrolese family, the
lords of Wanga, to build a castle upon the site
of a former rude keep. After the extinction
of the house of Wanga, the castle passed
through the hands of many families of the
local nobility, until, in 1385, it was bought by
two merchants of Bozen, Nicholas and Franz
Vintler.
It was Nicholas by whose orders the fres-
coes were painted and the castle enlarged.
His rule marks the golden age of Runkelstein.
His coat of arms, white bears' paws, appears
most frequently over the doorways. He
gathered about himself a group of artists,
181
The Fair Land Tyrol
poets, and singers. A cousin of his, Hans
Vintler, here laboriously turned into rhyme
a work of the Italian Tommaso Leone, which,
10,172 verses strong, was printed in 1486,
under the title of " Pluemen der Tugent "
(Flowers of Virtue). Here Heinz Sentlinger,
the chaplain of Nicholas, wrote a marvellous
chronicle, now much prized by antiquarians.
Many valiant knights held their jousts in the
castle court, and not a few Minnesingers sang
their couplets from the battlements.
Nicholas Vintler himself was a sufficiently
curious character among the men of his day
to deserve a few lines in the history of his
castle.
As early as 1000 the family of Vintler made
its appearance in Bozen, at that time an im-
portant trade station for the traffic passing
between Verona and Innsbruck, over the
Brenner Pass. The Vintlers of Bozen rose
to be merchant princes, like others in Augs-
burg and Nuremberg.
Acting always according to proved business
methods, Nicholas, master of Runkelstein,
became financial adviser to the Austrian arch-
duke of his day, court banker, general farmer
of taxes, and holder of mortgages on many
castles and estates. In fact, he grew to be the
182
The Frescoes of Runkelstein
money-bags of the Tyrol. Especially did he
hold the purse-strings of that spendthrift
Frederick of Austria, Friedl " with the
Empty Pockets."
The rooms in the main body of the castle
are now dismantled as far as furniture is con-
cerned, but their decorations are so remark-
able that the Vintler period looms up as one
of lavish luxury and astonishing magnificence.
On the first floor is an apartment with the
original wainscoting still preserved. On the
second floor is situated a richly painted bath-
ing-room. Figures of men and women, in
alcoves, lean over a balustrade hung with
draperies. Above them a row of smaller
figures makes the round of the room. In the
embrasure of a window a young woman and
a youth with a falcon on his wrist face each
other, — the latter a work of singular beauty.
The pictures on the third floor are perhaps
the most valuable of all in Runkelstein, at
least to students of the fashions and social
customs of Vintler's period.
Upon entering the antechamber a large
fresco is observed on the left hand, showing
a court dance.
The knights and ladies move hand in hand,
a crowned princess in front and at the rear
183
The Fair Land Tyrol
two musicians, one playing the mandolin and
the other a violin. The step appears stately
and gliding.
To the right of the chamber door a game
of ball is being played, apparently with apples
for missiles. The lady who is about to throw
the apple is said to be Margaretha Maultasch,
while the man standing in front of her is
Henry of Bohemia, her first husband. Other
frescoes in this antechamber depict a tourna-
ment wherein Vintler himself, judging by his
coat of arms, is breaking a lance; or hunting
scenes, showing the slaying of deer, bears, and
wolves; here a party starts out from a castle
of many towers toward the mountains, in quest
of chamois; there ladies and gentlemen are
amusing themselves by the waterside, fishing
with rod and net.
The rich decorations of the hall of armour
resemble somewhat those of the bathing-room
below, to which it corresponds.
As Nicholas Vintler died without direct
issue, Runkelstein, after its golden age, passed
from family to family, until it came into the
possession of the imperial house of Austria
itself.
Emperor Maximilian I. loved the place
well, and had a wing built for his private use.
184
The Frescoes of Runkelstein
More than all, he commissioned the painter,
Friedrich Lebenbacher, of Brixen, to touch up
the frescoes, which was done between the years
1504 and 1508.
For the most part, however, the castle was
placed in the charge of military caretakers,
who prized it only for its strong position.
The passing centuries left their mark. In
1520, a powder-magazine exploded in the
cellar, destroying the whole of the southeast-
ern corner of the castle. The frescoes were
also scratched and scribbled upon by mis-
chievous persons. As recently as 1868 the
rock forming the foundation for the northern
side suddenly collapsed, and carried down
with it two frescoes of the Tristan and Isolde
legend, as well as some of the Garel series.
It was not till 1884 that the thorough
restoration of Runkelstein was begun, by
order of the present emperor. In 1893 he
presented it in free gift to the citizens of
Bozen, to have and to hold in safe-keeping for
future generations, as a monument of Tyro-
lese art and history.
185
CHAPTER XX
MERAN, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF TYROL
ONE is tempted to exhaust the powers of
praise on Meran, for its picture seems to have
no flaw. Its towers and villas lie among
southern vineyards and rich orchards, and yet
mountains rise on every hand, which are
tipped with snow until well into summer.
The soft folds of chestnut-trees merge imper-
ceptibly into forests of strait-laced pines.
Indeed, there is something Oriental in the
first sight of Meran. When you approach it
from Bozen, this quality is, perhaps, less
apparent than from the Vintsgau. From the
bend in the Vintsgau road, where Meran first
comes into sight, the white houses, walls, and
glistening roofs might easily be mistaken for
mosques and minarets, and the tall trees in the
gardens for palms.
Inside the towering gate, Meran is quite
southern in architecture, but intensely Teu-
tonic in sentiment. A long street of arcades
1 86
MERAN AND ITS PEASANTS
Meran
is called " Unter den Lauben." Here, too,
is a house of special historical and antiquarian
interest, the old Landesfurstliche Burg, once
the residence of the Counts of Tyrol. It stands
off from the main street, in a little court, and
is in splendid state of preservation, full of
genuine old Gothic furniture, household
effects, frescoes, and armorial bearings.
The -Burg, moreover, recalls a line of
Scotch history. Thither it was that Sigis-
mund, the son of Friedl " with the Empty
Pockets," brought his bride, Eleonora, daugh-
ter of James I. of Scotland.
One day in September, 1448, three Tyrolese
knights rode up to Dunbar Castle, in Scot-
land. They were Parcival of Annenberg,
Leonhard of Velseck, and Ludwig of Land-
see. They came to take Eleonora to be the
bride of their master, the Archduke Sigis-
mund of Habsburg Austria.
It is related that the young couple crossed
over the Brenner, were welcomed in Bozen by
the nobility of the district, and passed in
triumph from castle to castle as far as Meran,
then the capital of the Tyrol. Here Sigis-
mund had built a house for his bride, and this
house was the Landesfurstliche Burg.
Eleonora was praised by her contemporaries
•
The Fair Land Tyrol
as a keen huntress, but the intellectual attain-
ments of this daughter of the house of Stuart
were especially unusual for a woman of her
time. Meister Steinhovel, physician of Ulm,
who translated Boccaccio's " Book of Cele-
brated Women " into German, dedicated his
work to her, and praised her without measure
in his introduction. But more than that, she
herself translated the French romance of
" Pontus and Sidoni." It was printed in
Augsburg. In the introduction we read:
" Which history the Serene and High-born
Lady Heleonora, born Queen of Scotland,
Archduchess of Austria, has praiseworthily
transferred and made from the French into
the German tongue, to please the Serene
High-born Prince and Lord, Sigmunder,
Archduke of Austria, etc., her wedded
husband."
The good people of Meran have been very
successful in making their town attractive for
a long stay. There is a Kurhaus with the
usual reading and reception-rooms; and there
are concerts, balls, and festivals.
Since 1892 a new series of attractions have
been added to Meran in the shape of popular
plays, dealing with Andreas Hofer, and other
heroes of 1809. These plays have been ar-
188
Meran
ranged by a well-known connoisseur of
Meran and its neighbourhood, Carl Wolf, and
are supported financially by the city, the
administration of the Kurhaus and the Bozen-
Meran railroad. The performances take
place in April and September, and draw large
and interested audiences.
When Meran itself grows hot in summer,
there are resorts and refuges on all the moun-
tains around about, as at Bozen. But Meran
is always endurable; the summer sun may
scorch by day, but the nights at least are cool.
In winter, the rare snow in the valleys falls
smooth, dry, and fluffy over town and country,
vineyards and walls, and clothes even the
ancient castles with the spotless mantle of
perennial freshness.
Castle Tyrol
Castle Tyrol shows brave and white against
the dark range of the Kiichelberg.
Trellis on trellis, terrace on terrace, the
vineyards mount to Castle Tyrol, but beyond
that the forests take their turn and lead up to
the final grassy slopes and rocks of the range
behind. In the early spring, when the sum-
mits are still snow-capped, and the southern
189
The Fair Land Tyrol
vegetation is bursting into life in the valleys,
Castle Tyrol stands midway between the
arctics and the tropics, arbiter of the north
and the south, symbol and emblem of a union
between the Alps and the plains.
Castle Tyrol has acted for centuries as a
hyphen between Teutonic and Romance
Tyrol. It is the historic heart of the land, and
surely the Tyrolese have a right to rejoice in
the beauty of the birthplace of their name.
The region around Meran originally
formed the family estate of the Counts of
Tyrol, the Burggrafenamt, as it was called.
The counts themselves lived up in the castle,
and Meran was their capital. There had
been a Roman fort called Terriolis on the
site of the castle, hence the name Tyrol. The
rest of what is now the province of Tyrol
was in the twelfth century still vaguely known
as " The Mountain Land." It was divided
among a multitude of nobles, who held their
fiefs of the two prince bishops of Trent and
Brixen, while the prince bishops, in their turn,
were vassals of the German Empire. The
Counts of Tyrol were particularly successful
in expanding their original estate by pur-
chase, marriage, and conquest.
The first member of the family to establish
190
CASTLE TYROL FROM THE SOUTHEAST AND WEST
Meran
an estate was a certain Adelbert, a former
henchman of the Bishop of Brixen, and the
line of the Counts of Tyrol terminated in
Margaretha Maultasch, the Purse-mouth.
This lady outlived her children, and be-
queathed the Tyrol to the Dukes of Habsburg,
who hold it to this day as Emperors of Austria.
The Peasants of Meran
It is a rare type, that of the men of Meran,
— a type sedate, silent, and almost sombre.
A city square, full of these men, gives forth
nothing but a quiet murmur of talk, whereas,
a few miles farther south, two persons in con-
versation are capable of raising an intolerable
clamour. Though the swarthy faces and
luminous black eyes show traces of Romance,
perhaps even of Etruscan ancestry, yet, for
all that, the peasants of Meran are German-
speaking and German-thinking.
They have preserved their local costume
more fully than the people of any other dis-
trict in the Tyrol.
The men wear brown hats, high in the
crown, wound with yards of thin cord, red
in the case of bachelors, green for married
men. The jacket is brown with red facings,
191
The Fair Land Tyrol
and the suspenders are wide, and green or red.
Buckskin breeches are not often seen in Meran
now, except on some very old men. While
at work the men are much given to long, white
aprons. In fact, the region around Bozen and
Meran, including lateral valleys, might be
called the apron belt, for nowhere else, either
in Romance or Teutonic Tyrol, do men so
assiduously wear this supposed badge of femi-
ninity.
As for the women, their dress is unmistak-
ably Teutonic. White, puffy sleeves stop just
above the elbow, where they are caught close
to the arm with little coloured ribbons or
elastics. No hat is worn, the hair is brushed
back plainly, and fastened in a knot with a
long silver pin. A coloured handkerchief,
passed round the neck, is folded demurely
across the bosom. There is a long, plain skirt,
and a big apron. In fact, the costume is
simple to the verge of being classic.
This whole subject of peasants' costumes
is a matter for some special thought.
In spite of all the well-meant efforts which
have been made, costumes are bound to dis-
appear. As intercommunication grows more
frequent between different parts of the great
earth, the sense of the unity of the human
192
Meran
race also leads people to wear very much the
same sort of clothes, the needs suggested by
climate and occupation being taken into ac-
count. The peasants of the Tyrol, and else-
where, as they come into contact with the
great world outside, begin to feel the very
natural desire to be like other people, and this
desire leads them by degrees to discard their
costumes for a style of clothes more commonly
worn. The process is everywhere about the
same. First the costumes are put off from
work days to Sundays, then from Sundays to
special festivals, and finally their use drops
off altogether. From being the ordinary
thing, they become the rare, and at last, the
conspicuous thing. The young begin the
change, the middle-aged continue it, and,
when the old have rejected the costumes, then
the metamorphosis may be considered to be
complete.
Those visitors who bewail the change of
dress may console themselves with the re-
flection that as a rule the peasant costumes
of to-day are not of peasant origin at all, for
as a matter of fact, they generally represent
obsolete and discarded fashions of the town.
The process by which the peasants learned
to adopt some special town fashion for their
193
The Fair Land Tyrol
own has been described by Doctor Steub
somewhat as follows :
At long intervals, some period of special
well-being, or some sudden stir among the
peasants, would induce them to spend an
unusual amount of money on themselves.
They naturally desired to have new clothes
also. They bought largely of the prevailing
fashion of the day, and withdrew into their
mountain valleys, to perpetuate that fashion
from father to son, and mother to daughter.
The fashions in the town might change, but
the peasants kept on with the old for genera-
tions, until a new era of prosperity induced
them to invest once more in a different style
of clothes.
It is doubtful, however, whether such a
process could be carried on in our day when
almost every nook and cranny of the Alps
has been placed in communication with the
wide, wide world of fashion.
The difference between the peasant cos-
tumes of various valleys, of course, is due to
the fact that such costumes have been adopted
at different times and represent different
fashions.
The jacket of the men of Meran, for ex-
ample, has been derived from the time of
194
Meran
the Thirty Years' War. At the beginning of
the last century a still more ancient costume
could be seen at Kastelruth. It consisted of
a gray, pointed cap, a large ruffle, short, red
jacket, yellow breeches, and white stockings.
This is about the costume of the modern
German Hanswurst, or clown, and was a
regular soldier's uniform, as seen in pictures,
dating from the second half of the sixteenth
century. So, too, until quite recently, the
women of the Lower Inn valley wore high
hats exactly like the silk hats of civilized man.
Defregger has painted this head-gear many
times in his pictures. The high hat among
the peasant women was merely a belated
fashion, taken from the townswomen of an
earlier date.
The culmination of costume in Meran was
reached by the Saltner, the watchman of the
vineyards, who was still to be seen some years
ago in all his glory. His name was Teuton-
ized from the Latin saltuarius, literally a
forester, but by implication, also, guardian of
any kind of field, pasture, or vineyard. He
was made to look like a bandit, and to act
as a scarecrow for birds, and especially for
boys. He was, unfortunately, also used by
mothers and nurses,, to frighten their charges
195
The Fair Land Tyrol
into obedience. He wore a leather jacket and
leather breeches, a three-cornered hat, deco-
rated with cocks' feathers, some squirrels' tails,
fox tails, and Gamsbarten. In his hand he
carried a rusty halberd.
Some of the farmhouses near Meran lack
the spick and span neatness of homes farther
north, and show some of the picturesque slap-
dash of those farther south. But it is to be
remembered that many farmhouses in this dis-
trict are actually the remnants of tumble-
down castles, or the homes of former nobility,
and such houses were not built originally to
suit modern needs.
The peasants of Meran are reported to eat
five times a day, like the peasants in Switzer-
land. Before work in the early morning, they
take a Fruhmuss, at nine o'clock a Halbmit-
tag, at eleven a regular Mittag, at three their
Marende, and in the evening, before going to
bed, a final supper. They eat a good deal of
what they call Plenten (from the Italian
polenta), either Weiss Plenten, corn meal, or
Schwarz Plenten, buckwheat.
CHAPTER XXI
ANDREAS HOFER ( 1 767 - 1 809 )
A PLAY is acted annually at Meran entitled
" Tyrol in the Year 1809." The performance
is in the open air. The scene setting repre-
sents a Tyrolese mountain village, and the
stage accommodates about four hundred per-
formers, all chosen from Meran or the imme-
diate neighbourhood, some of these people,
indeed, being descendants of the men who
fought in the national uprising of that year,
1809. The scenes are portrayed much as
Defregger has portrayed them on his masterly
canvases. In the last act the village school-
master, surrounded by young and old, tells
the story of Andreas Hofer's leadership and
martyrdom.
It is well that the struggle of this simple
peasant should be retold every year, lest at
any time his countrymen should forget the
rarest and most heroic figure in their history.
Ah, that year 1809! Napoleon had by that
197
The Fair Land Tyrol
time fastened himself upon Europe; he
Europe. When the Archdukes Charles and
John of Austria, brothers of the Austrian
emperor, in a moment of genuine courage,
summoned the great German race to take up
arms against the Napoleonic supremacy, there
was no response from the Danube to the
Rhine, save in the mountains of the Tyrol.
Of all the various branches of the German
race, the Tyrolese alone heeded the summons.
It was nobly pathetic. The nations of the
plains, grown impotent with ceaseless war,
looked on amazed, while Wordsworth sang
encouragement to the mountaineers in his
" Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty."
The call to arms of the Archdukes Charles
and John was read at all the inns and shoot-
ing-stands of the country. Knots of grim
sharpshooters gathered in the mountain forges
to discuss ways and means, and to repair their
weapons. Emissaries travelled through the
valleys, recruiting men or collecting pro-
visions and ammunition. Many devoted
patriots threw themselves unreservedly into
the struggle. There was that Capuchin
monk, Joachim Haspinger, and there was
Joseph Speckbacher, the chamois hunter.
But the foremost leader of all was Andreas
198
Andreas Hofer
Hofer, innkeeper in the Passeier valley. His
appearance is easy to reconstruct from the
few portraits which have come down to us
and from descriptions by fellow patriots.
He was a man of large build, a trifle above
middle height, with broad shoulders that were
bent forward a little from carrying heavy
loads. His face was wholesome and ruddy,
his voice gentle. But his most striking pe-
culiarity was his long, black beard, which
often grew down to his belt. The Italian
soldiers in French service nicknamed him
General Barbone on account of it. His cos-
tume was that of the Passeier valley, slightly
changed to suit his personal taste. There
was a jacket of green cloth, a red vest with
wide green suspenders, black buckskin
breeches, a wide leather belt bearing his
initials, blue woollen stockings, and a wide-
brimmed, black felt hat. To sum up, Andreas
Hofer was a real peasant, and never hoped
to be anything else, even when he became
commander of the army and regent of the
Tyrol. But he was by no means illiterate.
He knew how to read and write — not so
common an accomplishment a century ago
among mountaineers. He could also speak
Italian, besides his native German dialect
199
The Fair Land Tyrol
The Passeier valley opens northward from
Meran ; and when you have passed beyond
the village of St. Martin with its frescoed
houses, you reach a tract which the torrent of
the Passer has more than once laid waste.
Here Hofers inn stands by the roadside,
opposite a big tree. The name is the Wirth
am Sand, or the " Inn by the Gravel." Hofer
was, therefore, commonly known as the Sand-
nvirth, or the " Gravel Innkeeper," by a form
of contraction which sounds very comical to
us, but is customary in the Tyrol.
Andreas Hofer was born at the inn in 1767.
His parents died when he was twenty-two,
leaving him to carry on the business. As
time passed, Hofer added to his regular occu-
pation a commerce in grain, cattle, horses,
wine, and brandy; he transported freight
over the Jaufen Pass at the head of the valley,
keeping as many as sixteen horses for the
purpose. In this manner he became known
all over the Tyrol; his honesty, good nature,
and homely wit made him a universal favour-
ite; so that when the revolt took place, he
was one of the men to whom the peasants
naturally looked as a leader.
At the first sound of war, on the eleventh
of April, 1809, Andreas Hofer crossed the
200
IN THE PASSEIER VALLEY
Andreas Hofer
Jaufen Pass with his brave comrades of the
Passeier valley, and fell upon the town of
Sterzing, forcing the garrison to flee. The
French had not entered the field yet, and the
place was held by Bavarian troops. Sterzing
was extremely valuable to the Tyrolese, but
was by no means easy to maintain. Bavarian
reinforcements came up, and a struggle took
place out on the plain of the Sterzingermoos,
as it is called. At first the Tyrolese could
make no headway against the Bavarian artil-
lery. It was absolutely necessary to dislodge
their cannon. Hofer, therefore, had three
loaded hay-wagons driven forward, behind
which his best sharpshooters could hide and
pick off the Bavarian artillerymen. It is said
that two fearless girls actually drove up the
first two wagons. When a nation fights like
that, it becomes irresistible!
United with the Austrian troops which
had entered the country in the meantime, the
Tyrolese marched upon Innsbruck, driving
the enemy before them, taking prisoners, and
collecting booty of war. A triumphal entry
into Innsbruck followed, to the indescribable
joy of the whole population of the Tyrol. In
a few days the peasants had captured two
generals, 130 officers, almost six thousand
201
The Fair Land Tyrol
men, seven cannon, and eight hundred horses,
— in truth, a remarkable result for so short a
campaign. There was not a hostile soldier
to be found in the land nearer than Kufstein.
In that fortress, however, the enemy still
maintained themselves. And all this had been
accomplished by the peasants alone, practi-
cally unaided, — for the Austrian troops had
been of little use, except to swell the numbers.
So, when the bands of victors marched home
again, what a jubilation there was in their
native hamlets!
But the fate of the Tyrol was inevitably
linked to that of Europe in general. Napo-
leon was all-powerful. A second time he
took Vienna, and the Austrians were obliged
to withdraw their troops from the Tyrol.
Seeing the country open, a Bavarian army
under General Wrede, and a French one
under Marshal Lefebre, rapidly approached,
and before the peasants could organize a
proper defence, were once more in possession
of Innsbruck.
That was on the nineteenth of May, 1809.
On the twenty-fifth, Andreas Hofer, having
gathered an army of 6,800 men and six can-
non, took up a position on Berg Isel overlook-
ing Innsbruck. The first day of the battle was
202
MAN OF KUFSTEIN
Andreas Hofer
indecisive. Both sides maintained their posi-
tions for several days. On the twenty-ninth
the battle was renewed by Hofer. For ten
hours both sides fought with alternate gains
and losses until nightfall. But during the
night the enemy wrapped the wheels of their
cannon and their horses' hoofs in rags, left
their camp-fires burning, and stole quietly
away, out of the country.
Next morning the Tyrolese held their
second triumphal entry into the capital of
their beloved land. For the time being, even
the news from the general European seat of
war seemed favourable. Archduke Charles
of Austria actually defeated Napoleon in the
battle of Aspern. But shortly after came
tidings of the murderous battle of Wagram,
in which the tables were turned again. A
humiliating truce was signed by Austria,
which left the Tyrol exposed as before to
foreign invasion. Marshal Lefebre promptly
reoccupied Innsbruck. The country seemed
indeed lost at last. Napoleon ordered Lefe-
bre to disarm everybody. Archduke John
wrote advising the peasants to submit, saying
that a definite peace would soon be concluded
between Austria and France, in which the
interests of the Tyrol would be guarded as
203
The Fair Land Tyrol
carefully as possible. It seemed a grim joke
to the mountaineers, to ask them to let in the
invaders without a struggle. They refused to
believe that the Austrian emperor could
counsel such cowardice. Andreas Hofer
issued a proclamation in which he described
this news of a truce as a piece of " devilish
deceit." He called upon all patriots, old and
young, to arm once more and fight for home
and honour. Then the last band, the old fel-
lows who had thought themselves of little use,
came out to die for their country. They
marched forth with ancient mediaeval weap-
ons on their shoulders, long disused halberds,
spiked clubs, or antiquated spears. They
took leave of their old wives, as the younger
men had parted from their sweethearts
months before. Only the women and chil-
dren and the wounded were left to look after
their homes. Hofer called Speckbacher, the
brave leader of the sharpshooters, and Has-
pinger, the undaunted Capuchin monk, to his
side. The three giants of the Tyrolese revo-
lution stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder.
Marshal Lefebre advanced from Innsbruck
to overrun the country. For want of artillery,
the Tyrolese erected what they called stone
batteries, that is, above the roads they heaped
204
Andreas Hofer
stones upon platforms which were supported
only by one or two pieces of timber. When
the right moment came, they knocked away
the supports, and the whole mass came crash-
ing down upon the helpless foe below. Lefe-
bre, now known as the Duke of Danzig, had
already had so much experience with the
Tyrolese, that he preferred to send on his
allies ahead, to reconnoitre. In this way it
came about that a detachment of Saxons were
the first to suffer from the fury of the peas-
ants. Over two thousand Saxons were caught
in a defile near Mittewald, and almost anni-
hilated by the stone batteries and the re-
nowned Tyrolese sharpshooters. Then
Lefebre came up and received his beating.
For three days he attempted in vain to dis-
lodge the defenders. At one time the latter
seemed to be getting the worst of it; but they
recovered, and on the fourth day the newly
created Duke of Danzig retired under a
terrific fire upon Innsbruck. Hofer had
posted detachments of sharpshooters in hiding
all along the route, who thinned the ranks of
the fugitives as they went. Lefebre himself
would have been picked out by them, had he
not disguised himself as a common soldier
205
The Fair Land Tyrol
and walked on foot, sheltered between two
mounted dragoons.
On the thirteenth of August, 1809, Hofer
and his army stood once more on Berg Isel
to attack Innsbruck. It was Sunday. Early
in the morning Hofer made a characteristic
speech. The men cheered, and, as in the
previous battles, the first day was undecisive.
The two sides were more equally matched
than usual, the enemy having only a slight
preponderance numerically, but being, of
course, far superior in artillery and cavalry.
No action took place on the second day, and
on the third the French, as once before, with-
drew quietly with their allies.
For the third time Hofer entered Inns-
bruck. He was the hero of the hour. When
delegations of students came to greet him with
music and banners, the pious peasant reproved
them in his rude dialect: " Now pray don't
shout and make music; not I, not you, He
above has done this." An irresistible popular
demand soon showed itself to make him regent
of the Tyrol, since Austria was unable to
defend the country. At last Hofer yielded,
addressing the multitude in the following
speech : " Well, I greet you, my dear people
of Innsbruck. As you insist upon my being
206
Andreas Hofer
governor, here I am. But there are many by
me who are not from Innsbruck. All who
want to be my brothers in arms must fight for
God, emperor, and country, as brave, good,
and honest Tyrolese. Those who don't care
to do that had better go home. My com-
rades in arms won't leave me. Nor will I
leave you, as true as my name is Andreas
Hofer. Now I've said it, you've seen me, and
so God bless you."
Hofer, with considerable regret, took up
his residence in the Castle of Innsbruck as
regent of the Tyrol. They told him it would
never do to have the head of the state living
in an inn. His sovereign, the Emperor of
Austria, now sent him the golden locket and
chain, which is seen around his neck in his
portrait. For six weeks he administered the
affairs of the country with great simplicity
and shrewdness, spending next to nothing
upon himself. When he drove, however, he
used a four-horse carriage, captured from a
French general. Morning and evening he
went to church. Priests and peasants always
had free approach to him, but other persons
had to be announced. His greatest difficulty
was in raising money for the current expenses
of the country, since it was practically ex-
207
The Fair Land Tyrol
hausted from continual war. He had silver
and copper currency coined, which had on
one side the Tyrolese eagle and on the reverse
the Madonna. So little of this money was
coined, however, and of that little so much
was later melted back into Austrian money,
that the few pieces in existence are excessively
rare.
On the fourteenth of October, 1809, Austria
finally concluded the Peace of Vienna, which
definitely sacrificed the Tyrol to Bavaria. It
was the culminating humiliation which Na-
poleon inflicted upon Austria, forcing her to
sacrifice a full third of her territory.
In those days news travelled slowly and un-
certainly. Hofer and his followers refused
to believe the first reports of this abandon-
ment, and when the Bavarians and French
crossed the frontier to take possession,
promptly engaged them. It took an auto-
graph letter from Archduke John to make
them pause. The moment was decisive in
Hofer's career. Should he obey the imperial
mandate, or carry out the task to which he
had vowed himself? In this predicament,
Hofer, for the first and last time, lost his head.
Fine distinctions between duty and honour
were too much for him. The carriage was
208 *
Andreas Hofer
ready which was to take him to surrender,
when Haspinger, the Capuchin monk, rushed
up and told him that the news about the
humiliating Peace of Vienna was a lie, that
Archduke John would soon come to their
help. To add to the impression created by
these words, the messenger who brought the
autograph letter fell in a fit, as if under pun-
ishment for telling a lie. Instead of surren-
dering, Hofer called the country to arms.
But a few days later, finding that the news of
the peace was correct, he issued a proclama-
tion of surrender. In this manner he wavered
several times, torn hither and thither by con-
flicting reports. Finally he withdrew into
his native valley to fight it out to the death.
He crossed for the last time over the Jaufen
Pass, where he had travelled many a time as
boy and man with his wares. To show the
pressure to fight which was brought to bear
upon him, it should be related how, in his
native valley, a man came to him with loaded
rifle, and said : " Andreas, now say, will you
or will you not? You began it, you must carry
it out. This rifle is as good for you as for any
Frenchman."
In the neighbourhood of Meran the Tyro-
lese won their last stubborn victories over the
209
The Fair Land Tyrol
French, displaying a power of resistance
which astounded all Europe, crushed as it
was under the heel of Napoleon. It caused
Wordsworth to exclaim:
" A few strong instincts and a few plain rules
Among the herdsmen of the Alps have wrought
More for mankind at this unhappy day,
Than all the pride of intellect and thought."
One of these victories was won near Castle
Tyrol, as if by poetic justice, in the very heart
of the country's history, at the meeting-place
of its races. The French were driven from
the Kiichelberg, and finally surrounded. In
one place a detachment of French soldiers
was entrapped between the peasants and a
precipice. Rather than face their infuriated
foe, these prisoners stepped to the edge of the
precipice, and, horrible to relate, actually
jumped, one by one, to a certain death below.
In the end the surviving French army was
obliged to evacuate Meran, with a loss of
1,200 men.
But that was not all. Another victory was
in store for the Tyrolese before the end of the
war. In the same night in which the French
evacuated Meran, a French company, know-
210
Andreas Hofer
ing nothing of the defeat of their comrades,
crossed the Jaufen Pass, and stopped at the
village of St. Leonhard. Here they were
hemmed in, four hundred of them were cut
down, and the rest made prisoners.
With this the end of the war had come.
From all sides the French poured into the
country with reinforcements. The Tyrolese,
overpowered by superior numbers, withdrew
to the mountains. Every night their watch-
fires were seen to climb higher and higher
up the slopes, until they glowed from the
summits themselves. On the noble peaks near
Meran were kindled some of the last signals
of revolt; in the woods were gathered some
of the last knots of undaunted patriots, who
did not know what it was to surrender. They
preferred to starve or to be sought out, so
that they could sell their lives dearly. The
new French commander, Baron d'Hilliers, a
humane man, who had conceived a strong
admiration for Hofer, tried hard to save the
national hero. He sent word to him that he
would beg for his pardon at headquarters, if
Hofer would only persuade the people of his
valley to surrender. But Hofer paid no at-
tention to these overtures. His soul was filled
with a nameless sadness. On the second of
211
The Fair Land Tyrol
December he climbed to the highest pasture
on the mountain opposite his home, and hid
there in a barn with his faithful clerk Sweth.
Baron d'Hilliers issued a proclamation,
saying:
" Men of the Tyrol, spare me the sorrow of
punishing you. ... I ask nothing of you, but
that you remain quietly in your houses. Your
property, your persons, your religion, laws,
customs, all your privileges shall be respected;
but those who break their word to me shall
be destroyed."
Andreas Hofer, however, remained in hid-
ing in his lofty retreat; and a price of 1,500
florins was placed upon his head. A com-
memoration tablet now marks the hut, sacred
to all Tyrolese patriots, where the defeated
peasant commander spent almost two months
during the winter of 1809-10. Here
his wife and son joined him, having been
obliged to flee from their hiding-place. Here,
too, at last, the whole party was betrayed and
captured. Hofer was to become not only
a patriot, but a martyr. Some man of the
Passeier valley was tempted by the blood-
money to tell the French commander at
Meran of Hofer's hiding-place. And so it
was that, at four o'clock in the morning of
212
INNS IN THE PASSEIER VALLEV
Andreas- Hofer
the twenty-eighth of January, 1810, six hun-
dred Italian soldiers in the French service
surrounded this hut and surprised its occu-
pants. The snow was deep at that altitude.
The soldiers dragged forth Hofer, his wife,
his boy, and the clerk, bound them and took
them down into the valley.
The brutal soldiery could now vent their
hatred upon the defenceless hero. They
pulled out great handfuls from his beard, so
that his face was bleeding and his hair frozen
into a bloody mass. But no word of pain
escaped from Hofer's lips. He merely com-
forted his dear ones. " Be brave and be pa-
tient," he said to them; " in this way you can
absolve yourselves from some of your sins."
On the way the sad party passed their old
home, the Gravel Inn, which was plundered.
In Meran the people wept loudly as their
hero passed. He was given a hearing before
the commander Huard. To the latter he said
simply that he was indeed the author of the
Tyrolese revolt; that he had been called to
do this by his Majesty, the Emperor of Aus-
tria; that he would have surrendered after
the Peace of Vienna had not his followers
threatened him with death if he did not con-
tinue the struggle.
213
The Fair Land Tyrol
Next day the prisoners were transported
to Bozen, where D'Hilliers ordered Hofer's
wife and boy to be liberated at once, and the
prisoner to be treated with greater care. On
the fifth of February, Hofer and his clerk
arrived at the fortified city of Mantua in
Northern Italy, having received endless tes-
timonies of love and respect from the peo-
ple on the way. Bisson, commander of the
fortress, offered him freedom if he would
enter the French army; but Hofer only an-
swered : " I was, I am, and always shall be
true to the house of Austria and to my em-
peror." A few days later Hofer was tried
by court martial. No decisive verdict could
at first be obtained. Word was sent to Napo-
leon, at that time stationed in Milan; and
immediately there came from him the reply:
" Andreas Hofer must be shot within twenty-
four hours."
Napoleon probably feared that the Em-
peror Francis might request clemency, and
it would have been embarrassing to refuse
such a favour from a brother emperor. Ho-
fer received his death-sentence calmly, and
when the time came strode firmly to his mar-
tyrdom. His fellow prisoners and wounded
comrades clung to him as he passed. He
214
Andreas Hofer
begged their forgiveness if he had been the
cause of their misery.
At eleven o'clock on the morning of Feb-
ruary the twentieth, 1810, the drums beat on
the bastion of Mantua. Hofer stood in the
centre of a square of soldiers. He prayed a
few moments with the attendant priest, then
stood up and faced his executioners. They
offered him a handkerchief to bind over his
eyes. He refused it. They ordered him to
kneel, but he said : " I am going to give my
soul to God standing." He is said to have
cried, " Long live Emperor Francis," and
then himself gave the word of command,
"Fire!" Six bullets entered his body; but
he only sank to his knees, — they did not kill
him. Six more bullets failed to put an end
to his life. Then a soldier stepped forward
and, placing the barrel of his musket close to
Hofer's head, gave him a final thirteenth bul-
let. Little further remains to be said of the
hero. Like a real peasant and innkeeper,
his last words to the world are contained in
a letter giving orders for a memorial service
and wake, to be held in his native village of
St. Martin at the Inn of the Unterwirth. The
letter was written at five o'clock in the morn-
ing before his execution. In it he comforts
215
The Fair Land Tyrol
his wife, and begs all his friends for their
prayers; then he specifies that each mourner
at the inn shall be served with soup, meat,
and a half-measure of wine. Below are added
the following words, which deserve to be-
come classic: "Farewell, base world; it is
so easy for me to die that not even a tear
comes to my eyes."
The good-natured innkeeper and the obsti-
nate fighter died for his country in a manner
so dramatic that the world is destined to re-
member him only as a glorified personifica-
tion of patriotism, as the great national hero
of the Tyrol.
216
CHAPTER XXII
THE VINTSGAU
SOME morning start out of Meran in the
early dawn for the long journey up the Vints-
gau.
A turn of the road gives us our last glimpse
of the exquisite region in which the city lies,
surrounded by its orchards, vineyards, and
groves of great trees. Castle Tyrol disap-
pears and a new world opens westward, a
world of contrasts. Dreary wastes alternate
with fertile gardens; swamps with peaks of
pure white; and hovels of poverty with cas-
tles of luxury; modern industries are found
side by side with historic ruins ; on this side
are rocks scorched bare by the sun, and on
that upland pastures, kept ever green by the
melting snow, — such is the impression the
Vintsgau produces on the visitor.
The name of Vintsgau itself is full of his-
toric meaning. It recalls a Raetian tribe of
the name of Venosti; and the latter part, the
217
The Fair Land Tyrol
word " gau," is a reminder of Charlemagne's
scheme of imperial organization into Gaue
or counties. The Vintsgau was a county of
the great German Empire. Many of the
Vintsgau's names of places show a Raeto-
Roman origin, but its civilization has been
Teutonic for many centuries.
The Etsch has given trouble by reason of
its propensity for breaking bounds, for the
torrents from the lateral valleys quickly swell
it to a dangerous stream. But the houses that
are swept away one year are rebuilt the next,
and new crops are grown on the old sites.
The village of Naturns lies near the en-
trance of the narrow lateral Schnalserthal.
High above Staben the superb castle of Juval
rears a defiant front. Then comes the ruined
chateau of Castelbell on the level of the high-
way. Crossing the Etsch, we reach the vil-
lage of Latsch, and presently the Martellthal
opens on the south. At the mouth of that
valley stand the castles of Unter- and Ober-
Montan.
It was at Montan that Beda Weber, the
Tyrolese antiquarian, is reported to have
found the so-called Berlin manuscript of the
Nibelungenlied. He bought it for ten
gulden, including under that price a num-
218
The Vintsgau
her of other early manuscripts and precious
books. Beda Weber sold his Nibelungenlied
to a book dealer, named Asher, for about three
hundred gulden. Asher resold it in England
for two thousand thalers, and last of all it
was bought back in Berlin for a very large
sum, said to have been £2,000. It is a very
beautiful version on parchment, dating from
1323-
Schlanders rejoices in opulent chestnut
and walnut trees. It is the centre of quite
an export trade in fruit, notably in peaches
and apricots. The pointed church steeple
rises far above the low roofs of the cottages;
sheaves of wheat stand in the fields by the
roadside ; the farther mountains beckon ; and
a touch of their exhilaration reaches us even
in the sun-baked Vintsgau.
Near Laas are extensive marble quarries.
They appear on the side of the Laaserthal.
The highway for many miles toward Meran
is white with dust, like powdered sugar,
which comes from the droppings of this
Laaser marble as it is carted over the road.
As building material it is gaining constantly
in favour. It is being extensively used in
Munich and Vienna. It has given statues to
Stuttgart and Diisseldorf, and has gone as
219
The Fair Land Tyrol
far as London and the United States. It is
beginning to compete successfully even with
Carrara marble itself, although the expense
of transportation is very great.
As we journey along the Vintsgau we find
ourselves constantly passing or meeting can-
vas-covered carts, pulled sometimes by men
and women, but occasionally by a donkey or
a superannuated horse.
These are the carts of the Dorcher, or Tyro-
lese peddlers. They are found principally in
the Upper Inn valley and the Vintsgau. The
Dorcher peddle fruit, hardware, brooms, and
wooden household implements. The carts are
their homes. Frequently a man and wife pull
together in the traces, the older children push
behind, the babies rock under the canvas cov-
ers, and the cooking utensils dangle beneath.
At Neu-Sponding the road to the Stelvio
Pass and the glories of the Order branches
off toward the south. For the present our
way lies northward into the Upper Vintsgau,
a region which has a certain sombre fascina-
tion of its own, with its great stretches of pas-
ture-land and its solemn historic recollections.
The village of Schluderns has the castle of
Churburg above it, which has been in the
possession of the Counts Trapp since 1440.
220
A COURTYARD IN THE CHURBURG
Vintsgau
Across the valley from Schluderns is seen the
great castle ruin of Lichtenberg, which con-
tains frescoes of the fourteenth century.
Off there in the plain gleams little Glurns,
fit for a mediaeval medallion. Imagine, in
this day of sprawling villages, a tiny town of
nine hundred inhabitants, completely enclosed
by wall and towers, a feudal plaything set
down on the green, and three thousand feet
above the level of the sea. Inside there is
little of interest, except the construction of
the town itself. It was pretty thoroughly
burned out and plundered in 1499 by the men
of Graubiinden, and in 1799 by the French.
A hill near Tartsch has yielded a good har-
vest of bronze objects. A little church stands
on the top now, but antiquarians believe that
the hill was once the site of a Raeto-Roman
fortified camp, and perhaps of a temple as
well. In our day the largest horse and cattle
market of the Vintsgau is held there annually,
on the i ^th of June.
Mais is a sort of a wonder village with
towers. Beyond it stretches the great upland,
called the Malserheide, with its three lakes,
which together form the source of the Etsch.
After St. Valentine auf der Heide, the road
reaches its culmination at Reschen Scheideck,
221
The Fair Land Tyrol
the watershed between the Black Sea and the
Adriatic, or more immediately between the
valleys of the Inn and the Etsch (Italian
Adige).
On the other side of the watershed, Nau-
ders is the point where the much-travelled
road to the Engadine, via Martinsbriick,
branches off.
A few more miles, and we find ourselves
engrossed iri the attractions of the Finster-
miinz Pass, to which allusion has already been
made.
222
CHAPTER XXIII
ABOVE THE SNOW LINE
THE extraordinary amount of touring and
climbing which the German-Austrian Alpine
Club, the all-pervading D. O. A. V., has made
possible has resulted in dividing the tourists
into classes and sub-classes, with a nomencla-
ture to fit the case.
There are the mere Sommerfrischler, the
summer boarders, who merely take walks.
Then come the class of Passebummler, pass
loafers, sometimes also called Jochfinken,
saddle-birds, who travel over the passes. The
next class are the Hochtouristen, the high
tourists, who travel over the peaks, and are
also called Bergkraxler, or mountain-scram-
blers.
The German-Austrian Alpine Club has
marked the principal paths in the Tyrol, so
that the novice may find the way by follow-
ing the signs of paint on the trees and rocks.
Imagine the usefulness of a club which is
223
The Fair Land Tyrol
continually opening up new paths, setting up
numerous directions and finger-posts, secur-
ing reduced railroad rates for its members,
holding examinations for guides, helping to
support them if they become invalided, and
pensioning their widows if they die, spend-
ing large sums in glacial, geological, and
meteorological observations, encouraging re-
searches into local dialects and into the names
of places, establishing gardens of Alpine
plants, erecting towers, issuing superior maps,
and publishing annually a literature of its
own.
The club is really a vast cooperative asso-
ciation. Its aim is touring made easy.
The shelter-huts, for example, illustrate this
feature. They are owned by the various sec-
tions of the club, and are generally named
after these sections, or after some noted Al-
pine climber.
Those of the first order are really hotels.
They have resident attendants who do the
cooking and serving, and supply the guests
with every reasonable luxury. Members of
the D. O. A. V. get reduced rates, while the
guides do not pay for their lodging, and can
buy provisions at cheap prices.
The huts of the second order have no resi-
224
A SHELTER - HUT OF THE GERMAN - AUSTRIAN ALPINE
CLUB
Above the Snow Line
dent attendants, but are kept stocked with
supplies. The prices of the different articles
are posted on the wall. The tourist makes
out his own bill, enters it into a book, and puts
the money into a special money-box.
There are huts of the third order, which are
mere shelters without supplies.
In point of fact, the enormous influence of
the German-Austrian Alpine Club in foster-
ing the spirit of brotherhood, and creating a
better understanding between the different
branches of the great German family, de-
serves to be carefully noted by every student
of modern politics. It is really helping to
bind the Germans of the two empires more
closely together, by giving them a common
subject for enthusiasm outside of politics.
Every full-fledged guide carries a book,
containing a personal description of himself,
a set of rules, and a list of tours with the reg-
ular tariff.
The climbing fashion lends itself easily to
irony. But even its most extravagant phases
proceed from the natural desire of man to
conquer and to overcome obstacles. The Eerg-
kraxler, the mountain-scrambler, may be de-
scribed as a man who is looking for trouble.
If a mountain is too easy as it stands, it must
225
The Fair Land Tyrol
be made difficult. He avoids the natural ap-
proach. He looks for an exposed ridge, a
crumbling ice-crust, or a couloir, where stones
may be expected to fall. When he has dis-
covered a new and perilous ascent, the next
thing is to turn it into a descent. It is the
fashion now to see how many peaks can be
ascended in a given time. Regular records
are kept and entered into the Alpine journals.
There are records also for the longest stay
above the snow line, for the greatest number
of peaks, passes, and ridges conquered in one
combination, for work performed at night
and even in winter. The new school of climb-
ers expects its members to wander about
among the heights, performing prodigies of
agility and endurance. Women, too, are en-
tering into the contest.
The culmination sought by the expert rec-
ord-maker is to effect a combination of every
possible form of conquest in one tour. He
tries to ascend the greatest number of the most
difficult peaks by the most difficult routes;
and to string them together by the most dan-
gerous ridges, — all this in one day, and, if
possible, without a guide.
226
CHAPTER XXIV
THE ORTLER: THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN
THE TYROL
THE Ortler was first ascended on the 27th
of September, 1804, by a chamois hunter,
Joseph Pichler, from the Passeierthal. In
1805, 1826, and 1834 further ascents took
place; then, after a long interval, during
which a number of unsuccessful attempts were
made, the English climbers, F. F. Tuckett and
H. E. Buxton, reached the top in 1864. It is
pleasant to know that one of the peaks in the
Ortler group is called the Tuckettspitze. In
1865 Edmund von Mojsisovics made the as-
cent, and later in the same year Julius von
Payer, an Austrian officer of engineers, who
was better known later as an Arctic explorer.
Finally, in 1867, the ascent was made by an
Englishwoman, a Miss Hitt. Since then the
number of climbers has increased year by
year. At least ten routes to the top are now
known, and all the other peaks of the group
227
The Fair Land Tyrol
have been ascended, chief among them being
the Konigspitze and the Zebru. There are
said to be six routes up the Konigspitze alone.
The Ortler, the Konigspitze, and the Zebru
have been traversed in one day by a party
without guides. Another party has done thir-
teen peaks of the first class in this group in
one day, also without guides. New records
are being constantly established.
The Ortler group owes its present popular-
ity to the three pioneer climbers already men-
tioned, to Payer, Tuckett, and the geologist,
Edmund von Mojsisovics. Their maps and
published accounts spread the fame of the
Ortler to the eager members of the climbing
fraternity.
The usual route up the Ortler, which is
reckoned as " easy " by the high tourists, is
from Trafoi to the Payerhutte, which is
perched on the edge of the snow and ice.
Thence to the top and back to the hut, and
down on the other side to Sulden, by way of
the Tabarettawande. Of course this route is
as often also taken in the reverse direction,
from Sulden to Trafoi.
In driving from Prad in the Vintsgau by
Gomagoi to Trafoi, it is interesting to notice
in passing that the origin of these names is
228
THE KONIGSPITZE AND
THE PAYERItUTTE
The valleys were disappearing in a
tender blue dusk, and the snow
above was glowing with the setting
sun:''
The Ortler
Latin. Prad is short for pradum, a field or
plain. Gomagoi is from gemincK aqua, the
twin waters, since the torrents from Sulden
and Trafoi unite there. Trafoi itself is an
evident contraction for tres f antes, three foun-
tains.
The three fountains of Trafoi lie less than
an hour's walk from the village, where a little
chapel was built in 1643.
My guide and I entered the Payerhiitte in
the evening, just as the valleys were disap-
pearing in a tender blue dusk, and the snow
above was glowing with the setting sun.. The
Payerhiitte is a characteristic German and
Austrian Alpine Club hut of the first class.
It was built by the Section Prague in 1875,
and named in honour of Julius von Payer.
So great is its popularity that it has been re-
peatedly enlarged to accommodate the grow-
ing number of enthusiastic visitors who seek
its welcome shelter during the climbing sea-
son.
Outside the air was keen and Alpine, but
inside a warm and comfortable atmosphere
made us quickly feel at home.
In the early dawn we crept out upon the
path that leads to the ice and snow of the
summit.
229
The Fair Land Tyrol
The weather had been unusually dry, so
that there was actually a drought in the val-
leys below. No rain had fallen in them for
many weeks, and no snow upon the peaks.
The slopes of everlasting snow, by daily thaw-
ing and nightly freezing, had turned icy, and
we found it necessary to put on cramp-irons,
or spikes, to keep from slipping.
The view from the top consisted of a white
effulgence toward the north, and a black va-
pour toward the plain of Lombardy. The
Alps stood up to be counted, from the Gross-
glockner to Monte Rosa. A solemn radiance
enveloped the farther peaks on the sky-line,
the nearer ones glistened with their crusted
sides. The Order group itself broke all
around into fantastic forms, blue gulfs and
staring pinnacles. And below, the world of
the Vintsgau, of Trafoi and Sulden, of the
zigzagging Stelvio road, and of the profound
Italian valleys, was yawning, stretching, and
getting ready for another day's work. Here
the Teuton, there the Latin. Here the pine,
there the olive. Two races meeting along a
wavering mountain line, and learning to live
together in a mutually helpful and beneficial
relationship of true brotherhood.
The return to the Payerhutte was a hop,
230 •
The Ortler
skip, and a jump over the snow, and a careful
picking of steps down the icy crust. Then
came the path down to Sulden over the once
dreaded Tabarettawande. This path has been
much improved by the Prague Section of
the German-Austrian Alpine Club, so as
to render it safe and practicable for the aver-
age visitor.
By noon I was down in Sulden, and had
paid off my guide, but so great was the rush
of visitors during this heated term that, when
I asked for a room at the hotel, I was in-
formed that I might put my name down for
a mattress in the dining-room; perhaps there
would be a vacancy there before night, but
a private room, a separate room, was unfor-
tunately out of the question.
Sulden is a comparative newcomer among
tourist resorts. A few decades ago some herd-
ers lived there, clustered around a little chapel
dedicated to St. Gertrude, and served by a
priest, Curat Eller. The glacier which came
down into the head of the valley was known
vaguely as " At the End of the World." An
occasional scientist, an officer on survey, or
a cattle dealer, might penetrate there from
time to time, but no tourist in the modern
sense of the name.
231
The Fair Land Tyrol
Curat Eller and his two sisters, from small
beginnings, in giving shelter to rare travellers,
found it necessary to go into the hotel business
itself. Then other hotels were built. Some
of the herders of Sulcfen have been gradually
transformed into guides, porters, and drivers.
Walks have been laid through the larch and
pine forests, across the summer pastures, and
up the steep rocks to the ice-fields, and the
German-Austrian Alpine Club has built its
invaluable huts in the heights.
The Konigspitze is immensely impressive
from Sulden. It looks like a monster pyra-
mid, and its summit is only a few feet below
that of the Order. It was first ascended by
the indefatigable Messrs. Tuckett and Buxton
from the Italian side, but is now generally
ascended from Sulden by the Schaubachhutte.
It has even been ascended by the tremendous
snowy precipice which faces you, as you sit
looking up comfortably from your hotel ve-
randa. Human beings have actually climbed
obliquely across that side of the pyramid to
the top, and returned to tell of their audacity.
In the afternoon I decided to walk quietly
down to Gomagoi, and spend the night there.
The dusk was just descending when I reached
that place. The good kind lady stood on the
232
The Ortler
door-step. There was an inviting smell from
the kitchen. I took off my Rucksack. " I
shall want to go to my room at once," I said
to her. " I have come down from the Ortler
to-day." The landlady looked pained: she
had not a single room vacant, not even a bed
anywhere. I would gladly have slept in the
garret, or the laundry, or in a bath-tub, if
there had been any unoccupied.
It was nine o'clock that night when I
reached Prad, having walked down from the
top of the Ortler to the floor of the Vintsgau
in one day, a difference of about ten thousand
feet.
The Stelvio Pass
From the top of the Ortler the windings
of a white road are visible reaching up from
the Vintsgau over a great mountain saddle
into Italy. This road from Prad over the
Stelvio Pass to Bormio was not built for tour-
ists. It dates from a time when travellers of
this sort were neither numerous nor highly
considered. The road was constructed by
Emperor Francis I. for military purposes, as
forming the shortest connection between the
Tyrol and Milan, and was finished in the win-
ter of 1824 " 25-
233
The Fair Land Tyrol
The Stelvio road (German Stilfserstrasse)
has the reputation of being the highest car-
riage pass in Europe, the top being 9,055 feet
above the level of the sea. There was some
fighting over the pass in 1848 between the
Tyrolese and the Italian volunteers, and again
in the years of 1859 an<i I&66. The road is
open generally from the middle of June to
the middle of October.
The pass is named after a village which
does not lie directly on the road, but on the
mountainside near Prad, the village of Stilfs
(Italian Stelvio).
One of the noblest points of view is beyond
Trafoi, at the Weisse Knott, where an obelisk
was erected, in 1884, to Joseph Pichler, com-
monly called Passeirer Josl, who made the
first ascent of the Ortler in 1804.
The station of Franzenshohe, above the
timber-line, is protected from avalanches by
a veritable forest of wooden stakes. The peo-
ple of Glurns in the Vintsgau send their cattle
here in summer, and keep a dairy next to the
post building. Snow hens and marmots may
be seen in the neighbourhood, but rarely
during the tourist season. Both Trafoi and
Franzenshohe are said to be veritable happy
hunting-grounds for collectors of rare insects.
234
The Ortler
A walk of ten or fifteen minutes from the
top of the pass brings you to the hill known
as the Dreisprachenspitze, the meeting-place
of three languages, of German-speaking
Tyrol, of the Romansch-speaking canton of
Graubunden in Switzerland, and of the Ital-
ian-speaking Val Tellina.
Down on the other side lies Bormio, which
the Germans call Worms, but that lies beyond
the boundaries of the land of Tyrol.
235
ITALIAN TYROL
CHAPTER XXV
TRENT
TRENT is of the same gray colour as the
rocky soil from which it springs. It forms
part and parcel of the mountains of limestone
which look down upon it.
After this first impression of colour in mon-
otone comes one of form. The two domes of
the cathedral, the campanile of Santa Maria
Maggiore, the old episcopal Castello del Buon
Consiglio, and some strong towers detach
themselves and rise above the housetops to
give the city outline and character.
Trent, though in Austria, is Italian in
speech and custom, and in the style of its
architecture. It is scrupulously clean and
orderly, and characterized by a certain pro-
vincial repose and solidity.
As we enter the city some leisurely bullock-
wagons creep in and out, laden with casks of
wine, or with cylindrical baskets full of
239
The Fair Land Tyrol
salmon-coloured silk cocoons, or with blocks
of marble from the quarries in the suburbs.
There are over twenty-five thousand inhab-
itants. The city is the political, military, and
judiciary centre of the Trentino, and was once
the wealthiest city in Tyrol.
The square near the station is adorned with
a notable statue of Dante, erected in 1896.
The cathedral of Trent is a Romanesque
basilica with two unequal domes. Four peri-
ods of construction are known, included be-
tween the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. A
last restoration took place between the years
1882 and 1889. The whole is considered by
architects an interesting example of Lombard
style, as affected by German influences. The
interior is in the shape of a Latin cross.
Among the monuments is a tombstone of the
Venetian general, Roberto da Sanseverino,
who was defeated at Galliano, in 1487, by the
Tyrolese troops of Archduke Sigmund, Count
of Tyrol.
United to the cathedral is the old Palazzo
Pretorio, now used for military offices. At
the end of that rises the Torre Grande, which
carries a famous old bell.
In the cathedral piazza stands an elaborate
fountain of Neptune, erected in 1769.
240
Trent
In the Palazzo Municipale are gathered all
the municipal offices, besides the library and
museum. The library is rich in manuscripts
and rare editions. Among other treasures it
is said to preserve a Virgil of the eleventh
century, the codex which goes by the name of
Glagolita Clozianus. Unfortunately the li-
brary is closed during the months of August
and September, when travellers pass through
Trent in greatest numbers. The museum,
however, may always be visited. The latter
has large collections of coins, medals, and
seals, of special interest to students of local
history, as well as cabinets displaying the
fauna and flora and the mineral resources of
the Trentino. The principal curiosities are
an Etruscan inscription, a Roman tablet con-
taining an edict of Claudius, described by
Mommsen, and a number of valuable bronzes.
Among the palazzi which have historic or
artistic interest may be mentioned:
The Casa Geremia (now Podetti), where
Maximilian I. lodged in 1508, and the Cardi-
nal Gonzaga during the third period of the
Council of Trent.
The Palazzo Galasso (now Zambelli) has
been turned into a savings-bank. It is one
of the handsomest houses in Trent, and was
241
The Fair Land Tyrol
built in 1581 by Georg Fugger, one of the rich
Augsburg family of merchant princes.
Palazzo Tabarelli is in Tuscan style. The
designs are said to have been furnished by
Bramante da Urbino.
The Castello del Buon Consiglio was for-
merly the residence of the prince bishops of
Trent from the thirteenth to the nineteenth
centuries. It is now used as barracks. The
circular tower at the northern end is of
Roman origin though restored in 1809. Dur-
ing the military occupation of 1797 the castle
was plundered by the soldiery quartered there.
In 1811 its vast frescoed halls were turned
into dormitories and all that remained of the
furnishings were sold at auction. The work
of destruction and disintegration has long
since been stopped and the interior is well
worthy of a visit. Permission can be obtained
of the officer in charge.
The tower of the Castello del Buon Con-
siglio offers an excellent view of Trent; so
does the Doss Trento, a solitary hill on the
right bank of the Adige. Permission from
the military authorities, however, is necessary
for this latter visit.
Among the towers of Trent are also the
Torre Verde, a round tower covered with a
242
Trent
roof of green and yellow glazed tiles, and the
Torre Vanga, a square tower built by a
Bishop Vanga (1207-18). These doubtless
formed part of the fortifications of the ancient
city.
A brand-new Palazzo della Giustizia gives
shelter to law offices, public departments, and
prison cells, and the great Caserne (barracks)
Madruzze have accommodations for a whole
regiment with all its belongings, while from
the enormous Piazza d'Armi, the drill-
ground, the blare of military trumpets fre-
quently resounds into the surrounding homes
and vineyards.
The Council
Why should a small provincial city in the
Southern Tyrol have been selected as the meet-
ing-place for a Church council, which was
originally intended to regulate the ecclesi-
astical affairs of the whole of Christendom?
For the simple reason that in the sixteenth
century Trent lay, as it lies to-day, in the
borderland between German and Italian in-
fluences; on Austrian soil, but containing an
Italian-speaking population.
It was reasonable to suppose that, in such
243
The Fair Land Tyrol
a place, adherents of all parties could be
brought together to discuss a modus vivendi.
In 1545, the year during which the council
really began its sittings, Charles V. was on
the throne of Germany, seeking to restore the
unity of the Church. Shortly before, he had
met the Pope at Lucca in Italy to discuss the
scope of the council, as well as the where and
when of its convening. Trent was selected
for the meeting-place as the result of a com-
promise. In fact, apart from the scarcity of
good lodgings, Trent proved well fitted for
its historic function, being situated on the
route from Innsbruck to Verona.
As early as August of 1542, a few ecclesi-
astics and their retinues arrived at Trent, but
it was not until the following January that a
beginning was made of opening the council
with a scanty gathering of Italian prelates.
The Spaniards and Germans were delayed by
wars and rumours of wars. The council was
soon prorogued so that it did not meet again
until 1545. In fact, it is customary to date
the opening of the council from that year.
In 1552, Maurice of Saxony, having quar-
relled with Emperor Charles, invaded the
Tyrol. Panic seized the council; and most
244
SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE IN TRENT, WHERE THE COUNCIL
WAS HELD
Trent
of its members fled, after reaffirming the de-
crees previously passed.
Ten years later, what was virtually another
council met in Trent to initiate the so-called
Counter-Reformation.
According to all accounts, the sittings of the
council were held, not in the cathedral, but
in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, a
handsome structure built of rust-red marble,
with the ornamentation in the white marble
of Trent. There is a mixture of styles, the
Renaissance predominating. The fine cam-
panile is Lombard. As it stands, the building
dates from the years 1514 to 1539, just before
the assembling of the council. The interior,
in contrast to the rather severe exterior, is dis-
tinctly ornate. There is an organ-loft of ex-
ceptional beauty, the work of one Vincenzo
Vicentin, done in 1534. Its white marble
balustrade and the supports are thickly cov-
ered with decorative designs and bas-reliefs
and statuettes of fine workmanship. Santa
Maria Maggiore also contains several pic-
tures, among others a reputed Tintoretto.
A picture which makes no pretence of ar-
tistic worth sets forth the members of the
council in the order in which they sat: seven
cardinals, three patriarchs, thirty-three arch-
245
The Fair Land Tyrol
bishops, and 235 bishops. Their names are
recorded below.
On the south side of the church stands a
column, erected in 1845 to commemorate the
third centenary of the opening of the council.
246
STATUE OF DANTE IN TRENT
CHAPTER XXVI
DANTE IN THE TRENTINO
THE statue of Dante in the square near the
station of Trent suggests the question: Was
Dante ever in the Trentino?
Dante's wanderings during his years of ex-
ile have always formed a fascinating study for
speculative scholars. Italian cities have com-
peted with each other for the honour of hav-
ing harboured him, as the Greek cities did for
the honour of having given birth to Homer,
and as American houses pride themselves on
having sheltered Washington. The descrip-
tion of a glacier in the Inferno, XXXII. ,
70-71, has even given rise to the supposition
that Dante may have visited Switzerland.
However that may be, there is considerable
likelihood that Dante did set foot in the Tren-
tino at least.
This belief arises from certain references to
the Trentino in the " Divina Commedia,"
such references as it would seem only an eye-
247
The Fair Land Tyrol
witness could have made; likewise from
Dante's intimate analysis of the Trentino dia-
lect in one of his minor treatises, " De Vulgari
Eloquentia."
An Englishman, Henry Clark Barlow,
seems to have been the first foreign scholar
to discuss Dante's sojourn in the Trentino.
In 1864 he published an article in the Athe-
naum on " Dante at Verona and at the Val
Lagarina " (the Val Lagarina being the name
given to the Lower Adige valley).
Since that date other scholars have debated
this same question. Some of their conclusions
are set forth in a pamphlet entitled " Dante
nel Trentino," by Eugenio Zaniboni, pub-
lished at Trent in 1896.
Zaniboni connects Dante's voyage in the
Trentino with his first visit to Verona, soon
after his expulsion from Florence. He places
Dante's arrival in Verona sometime during
the winter of 1302-03, and his visit to the
Trentino between the end of March, 1304,
and the middle of May.
Verona at that time was under the rule of
Bartolomeo Scaliger and one of the latter's
special friends was Guglielmo di Castelbarco,
whose possessions lay in the Trentino. Tradi-
tion has fixed upon the castle of Lizzana, one
248
Dante in the Trentino
of the Castelbarco properties, as Dante's place
of abode in the Trentino. This castle, now
in ruins, is situated on the east bank of the
Adige, between Rovereto and Ala.
Among Dante's references to the Trentino,
the most striking is the following:
" Qual e quella ruina, che nel fianco
Di qua da Trento 1' Adige percosse
O per tremoto, o per sostegno manco ;
Che da cima del monte, onde si mosse,
Al piano, e si la roccia discoscesa,
Ch' alcuna via darebbe a chi su fosse."
— Inferno, XIL
The ruina here mentioned is close to Liz-
zana. It is the " Rovina di Marco," popularly
called the " Slavini or Lavini di Marco." In-
vestigators have not yet agreed among them-
selves whether these Slavini are really the
result of a landslide, which is said to have
taken place here in 833, or whether they are
only a moraine left by some prehistoric glacier
in the valley of the Adige. The hamlet of
San Marco is situated in the midst of this
mountain debris. Little oases have been res-
cued from the rocky desolation and planted
with vineyards. Dante's description is so ac-
249
The Fair Land Tyrol
curate that one presumes that he must have
seen the ruina with his own eyes.
Elsewhere Dante shows considerable knowl-
edge of the topography of the Trentino.
" In quella parte della terra prava
Italica, che siede tra Rialto
E le fontane di Brenta e di Piava."
— Paradiso, IX. (25).
The reference here is to two streams of
Southern Tyrol: to the Brenta, which flows
from the lake of Caldonazzo through the
Valsugana into the Adriatic; and to the Piave,
which rises in the Dolomites and, passing
Pieve di Cadore, likewise empties itself into
the Adriatic.
A more obscure reference is the following:
u Anzi che Chiarentana il caldo santa."
— Inferno, X7. (p).
Chiarentana has been identified by some
commentators as the modern Canzana or Ca-
renzana, a mountain which rises above the
lake of Levico and stretches along the left
bank of the Brenta. This identification, how-
ever, is in no sense complete, and many com-
mentators find it unsatisfactory.
250
Dante in the Trent ino
While these references therefore are un-
doubtedly significant, they cannot be said to
furnish proof positive that Dante set foot in
the Trentino. At most, they establish a like-
lihood of his having done so.
There is also great probability that Dante
knew Lake Garda. At least it is hardly cred-
ible that any one who had not seen it could
have written those great lines, beginning:
" Suso in Italia bella giace un laco."
— Inferno, XX. (<5/).
If Dante visited the Lower Adige valley
and also Lake Garda it is reasonable to sup-
pose that he must have crossed over the moun-
tains which separate the one from the other.
The common route from the Adige valley to
Lake Garda is by way of the village of Mori,
which is near the Castle of Lizzana, where
Dante is reputed to have stayed. The route
rises thence over the pass of Loppio, the prop-
erty of the modern Counts of Castelbarco of
Milan, to Nago, and thus to Torbole or Arco.
This is the route which Goethe took more
than four hundred years after Dante's sup-
posed visit, and this is the same route which
251
The Fair Land Tyrol
is followed by the modern railroad and the
modern tourists.
Now Zaniboni thinks that the Inferno had
not yet been written when Dante made his visit
to the Trentino, but that he went to work upon
it soon after his return to Italy. Zaniboni
believes that Dante took the notes on which
the Inferno is based during this voyage. Cer-
tainly the Inferno is full of descriptions of
Alpine scenery, which read as though they
must have been written from impressions or
notes taken on the spot.
Admitting, then, that Dante visited the
Trentino and Lake Garda, and that he wrote
the Inferno soon after his return to Italy, it
is fair to suppose that the scenery of the moun-
tains of the Trentino and of those surrounding
Lake Garda must have influenced his descrip-
tion of the Inferno.
Most of the lower valley of the Adige is
intensely impressive. Every object is on a
vast scale, touched out in tragic whites and
grays. The bare mountains, the glaring cliffs,
the gravelly deserts, and the tracks of devas-
tation are full of portent.
Such scenery could not fail to have had its
influence upon Dante, coming from the gentle
252
Dante in the Trentino
and sweet hill country of Florence, and from
the vast green plains around Verona.
The pass of Loppio to Lake Garda is also
immensely impressive, especially that view
from Nago, where the whole of Lake Garda
suddenly bursts into sight shimmering like the
sea, and blue as a gentian.
But there is another route from the Adige
valley to Lake Garda, which must not be
overlooked in this connection. That is the
route from Trent, through the Buco di Vela,
to Alle Sarche, and down by the Val Sarca to
Lake Garda. The scenery from Alle Sarche
to within sight of Arco is the dreariest, wild-
est, and most piteous imaginable. Similar
tracts of desolation are occasionally encoun-
tered in the upper Alpine solitudes on the
snow line, where neither tree nor blade of
grass will, grow, but nowhere else can I re-
member finding such an effect down in a val-
ley which is only a few feet above the level
of the sea.
At one point, near a hamlet called Pietra
Murata, the Val Sarca becomes a veritable
horror. The valley is full of mountain debris.
A prehistoric glacier seems to have left mo-
raines in its track. The mountains look as
if they had stripped themselves of their super-
253
The Fair Land Tyrol
fluous blocks and hurled them into the gray
chasm. The ground is sterile and blighted.
The heat is suffocating between the shadeless
cliffs, which have split open here and there
into ghastly gorges. Even when snow flies
here in winter, it melts before it reaches the
ground. Far up on a crag a castle stands
against the sombre precipices, superb and de-
fiant in its decay.
It is not till Dro is reached that the tension
is relieved. There a few mulberry-trees grow
by the roadside, and vines and patches of corn
thrive among the waste places. Then come
some olive-trees shading the cliffs. The
unique rock fortress of Arco looms up. The
floor of the valley becomes smooth and as
closely cultivated as a garden. We pass from
the desert into a land of plenty, from the In-
ferno into the Paradiso. Finally, the south
wind, the thrice-blessed ora, meets us from
Lake Garda, and we feel that we have been
rescued indeed from a valley of desolation.
Is it not possible that Dante saw the Val
Sarca? Perhaps, instead of taking the cus-
tomary route from Mori over Loppio to Tor-
bole, he in reality passed from Trent by the
Val Sarca to Torbole; or, perhaps again, he
254
Dante in the Trentino
visited the Val Sarca from Torbole itself in
an excursion to the north.
Whatever may be the truth about " Dante
in the Trentino," it would seem that the Val
Sarca corresponds probably more closely to
Dante's description of the Inferno, and to
Dore's illustrations of Dante's work, than any
stretch of Alpine ground from end to end of
the great chain.
255
CHAPTER XXVII
VALSUGANA
THE Valsugana is no longer an unfre-
quented valley. The railroad from Trent to
Tezze has revived a once much travelled
route, which brings Venice perceptibly nearer
to Germany.
The Valsugana has an agitated history, as
befits a valley situated between two races
struggling for the mastery. It was known
to the Romans, of course. A place called
Ausuganea is marked on the Itinerary of An-
tonine, where the village of Borgo now stands.
Out of this Vallis Ausuganea finally came the
contraction of Valsugana.
During successive invasions by Goths, Lon-
gobards, and Franks, the valley shared the
fortunes of Trent. In 1027 Emperor Conrad
II. (the Salian) divided the valley between
the bishops of Trent and Feltre. There en-
256
Valsugana
sued a kaleidoscopic struggle for supremacy
lasting many centuries, in which these bishops,
the Republic of Venice, the rulers of Verona
and Milan, the Counts of Tyrol, and various
local lords were involved. Out of this confu-
sion the Counts of Tyrol slowly disengaged
themselves as masters during the fourteenth
century, and were followed by the Archdukes
of Austria, who had inherited their posses-
sions. In modern times also the Valsugana
has seen much war. From 1796 to 1813 it
suffered at the hands of the French, and in
1848 and 1866 at the hands of the Italians.
The train mounts from Trent first with a
big sweep and over a viaduct, as though to get
its bearings, then up the rocky defile, at the
bottom of which the Fersina runs swiftly.
Looking back, Trent is seen lying in the plain.
The vines grow luxuriantly on the lower
flanks of the mountains, but in this southern
land there are neither forests nor verdure to
soften the harsh rocks above. There is a mo-
mentary glimpse of snow on the Adamello
to the west, and then the train puffs through a
tunnel.
Across the chasm of the Fersina lies the
large fort of Civezzano.
257
The Fair Land Tyrol
Per gin e
The railroad comes out upon a great up-
land valley at Pergine, a valley where the
distinctly southern, almost Oriental, aspect of
the plain of the Adige merges itself into sce-
nery of semi-Alpine character. The result is
a new kind of landscape, peculiar to the Val-
sugana, partaking of the north and the south,
of the vine, the mulberry-tree, the chestnut-
tree, and the waving corn, but, at the same
time, of the pine forests and the green fields.
A fine old castle looks down on Pergine.
The place is busy with some silk-spinning fac-
tories and other industries. It has a monthly
cattle market, and at the station there is con-
siderable local movement.
At one time there was much mineral wealth
in the neighbouring mountains, principally in
copper, lead, silver, and iron. Many experi-
enced German miners were imported by the
resident lords. There was a guild of these
Knappen. The Italians called them Canopi,
and the mines Canope. Little by little, how-
ever, the mines were abandoned. Some were
exhausted, others, as they approached the
point of exhaustion, could not be made to
pay, partly from lack of transportation facil-
258
Valsugana
ities, partly on account of the scarcity of fuel
wherewith to reduce the ore. All available
forests had been recklessly cut down. A guild
of miners in Pergine lasted until this century,
but now a birrarla with the sign u Ai Canopi "
alone recalls those old mining days.
The Canopi shed an interesting light upon
the existence of certain German-speaking
communities in the Val Pine and Val Fie-
rozzo or Val dei Mocheni, which runs north-
ward from Valsugana.
Here and there in these valleys traces of
abandoned mines are to be found. For in-
stance, the name of a place, Fornace, in Val
Pine, speaks for itself. It was evidently the
site of smelting-furnaces.
In studying the origin of the German dia-
lects in this Italian environment, the history
of these German-speaking Knappen, or mi-
ners, employed in the mines, must be taken
into account. It is certain that they helped
to keep alive the dialects, even if they did not
actually introduce them into Val Pine and the
Val dei Mocheni.
The name Val Pine has been derived from
Val Pineta, the pine valley. In former times
its sides were covered with pines, but the large
trees were cut down for fuel in the smelting
259
The Fair Land Tyrol
works, and the small ones for sticks in the
vineyards, and so the forests disappeared.
The men now emigrate annually to find work
in France, Germany, and even America, leav-
ing the women at home to till the fields, a
common practice throughout the Italian-
speaking Alps.
The Val Fierozzo or Val dei Mocheni
branches off from the Valsugana at Pergine,
and follows the Fersina to its source. These
Mocheni speak a dialect which is a mixture
of Old German and Italian. In order to help
themselves out with their verbs, they con-
stantly use as an adjunct machen, or mochen,
as they pronounce it. Hence their nickname.
They now all know Italian, the dialect being
reserved for the family circle.
Fierozzo, which has given its name to the
valley, is claimed to be a corruption of the
German Vier Hofen, four farms.
Between Pergine and the lake of Caldo-
nazzo lies a fertile stretch of cultivated land
which was once a swamp, where reeds alone
would grow. This was reclaimed by a cer-
tain Tommaso Maier, whose name sufficiently
indicates his Teutonic origin.
The reclaimed lands were divided between
Pergine itself and the adjacent villages of
260
l^alsugana
Vignola, Ischia, and Susa, every family re-
ceiving a share.
Levico
Taken all in all, Levico is a rich commu-
nity. Besides certain mineral springs, it owns
superb forests and juicy pasture-lands on the
Dodici range opposite, doubly valuable in this
denuded and barren part of the Alps.
To-day Levico reaps the benefit of having
strictly guarded its community rights during
the past centuries. A torrent, known as the
Rio, flows down through the town, gives life
to a few mills, helps to clean the streets, and
finally runs down between two rows of pop-
lars to irrigate the fields in the plain below.
The situation of Levico is full of natural
beauties. Imagine a line of white houses
against a southern slope. The little lake of
Levico slumbers off to the west. A range of
grim gray cliffs frowns from across the valley.
The Valsugana bears off toward the east with
its streaks of cultivated land, its vines clam-
bering up to the edge of the larch-trees, its
ruined castles perched on projecting spurs.
At noon the haymakers rest in the shade of
the trees. A man in a donkey-cart drives
along the sunny white road holding a great
261
The Fair Land Tyrol
red parasol over his head. Yes, here we have
an Italian environment, but with an Alpine
touch !
The Valsugana is getting to be a land of
stabilmentl. There is another one at Ron-
cegno, which looks most imposing from the
train, and has a fine garden.
Borgo is the capital of the Valsugana. It is
so perfectly picturesque that it looks as though
it had been made to order for a drop-curtain
of the Italian scene description.
There is a gathering of white houses and
flat roofs on the level of the plain, and just
behind them, about in the middle, a peaked
hill rises by terraced vineyards to the gleam-
ing white castle of Telvana. But one castle
is not enough for Borgo, and so the very sum-
mit of the hill is crowned by another tower,
the ruins of Castle S. Pietro.
As for the rest, Borgo makes no pretence
of being a tourist resort. It leaves that task
to the places which have regular stabilmentl.
In the Valsugana the extremes which the tour-
ists bring are quite apparent. The stabil-
mentl of the cure resorts offer everything
which the most fastidious may require, but
Borgo, the capital of the valley, though it
262
Valsugana
gives the best it can afford, is primitive in
comparison.
The Val Tesino opens northward from the
station of Strigno, a valley noted for the
curious costume of its women and the migra-
tory habits of the men. The main village is
called Castel Tesino.
The men of Tesino go out into the world as
peddlers of chromos, religious books, and op-
tical instruments. Exactly why they should
choose these particular wares, it is hard to
say. Some of these peddlers penetrate to dis-
tant parts of the world. They pick up many
languages, and they open stores of their own
in Paris, London, and other world centres.
The majority, however, especially those who
own land at home, do not go so far afield, but
return every autumn to spend the winter
months, leaving the women, as elsewhere, to
do the hard manual labour in the valleys and
on the mountain flanks.
Tezze is the last Austrian village. Be-
yond that place stand the Italian custom-
house and the fortifications of Italian Primo-
lano.
263
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SETTE COMUNI : A TEUTONIC SURVIVAL ON
ITALIAN SOIL
THE highland district of the Sette Comuni,
or the Seven Communities, forms part of what
is virtually a spur of the Dolomite Alps,
stretching southward into the great Italian
plain, almost as far as Vicenza. Here a Ger-
man dialect and Teutonic institutions survive,
although on Italian soil and completely sur-
rounded by Italian influences.
Similar conditions prevailed until very re-
cently among the Tredici Comuni, or Thir-
teen Communities, which reach to the very
gates of Verona; but the latter, according to
last accounts, may now be described as entirely
Italianized.
As neither district has ever stood in the
direct track of commerce or of tourist travel,
visitors from the outside world have always
been exceedingly rare, in spite of the fact that
the great route from Verona to Innsbruck,
264
The Sette Comuni
over the Brenner^ runs close under the preci-
pices to the west, and in the east, that favourite
road into the* Dolomites, the one from Bassano
to Belluno and Cortina.
Choosing a rough mountain track, the Me-
nador di Levico, the writer started from the
Valsugana, on Austrian soil, one early morn-
ing in July, to mount to the table-land which
promised so much from an historical and lin-
guistic standpoint.
Two hours and more of zigzagging up the
shadeless and stifling cliffs of the Dodici
range brings one suddenly, as by enchantment,
into the fresh forests and parklike pastures
of Vezzena, famous far and wide for a par-
ticularly fine sort of cheese. German philolo-
gists, with some show of reason, like to say
that Vezzena is an Italian corruption of their
own Wiesen, or fields. However that may be,
I had no sooner crossed over the frontier into
Italy, and entered the bleak Val d'Assa, than
I came upon an unmistakable German name,
an inn called the Ghertele. Not only was this
German in general, but Schwabisch in partic-
ular; for did not Gartele mean a " little gar-
den," as any peasant in Wurtemberg, Baden,
or German Switzerland would have told you
at once? And, sure enough, the innkeeper's
265
The Fair Land Tyrol
wife was hoeing in a potato patch, the only
cultivated land' for miles in any direction.
Moreover, as I sat for awhile in the inn, the
people of the house discussed me in a dialect
which they knew as Cimbro, but which cer-
tainly contained a great deal of Schwabisch.
From the narrow defile of the Val d'Assa,
after a walk of between eight or nine hours
from Levico, I emerged in the early afternoon
upon a vast table-land of grass, fringed by for-
ests, — a plateau some three thousand feet
above the level of the sea, which, as far as my
experience goes in the Alps, is absolutely
unique. The famous Seiser Alp, farther
north in the Dolomites, is the only mountain
pasture which can be named in the same
breath; but that is more Alpine, and is not
inhabited except during the haying season.
In the land of the Sette Comuni the eye
roams for many miles east and west over a
rolling highland, green and joyous as of the
north, spanned by a southern sky. Here and
there clusters of houses appear on smooth
knolls of ground ; men are seen mowing, and
rows of women keep time with a rhythm of
rakes; herds of cattle graze near and far, -
the whole forming an idyllic dairy district,
surrounded by a woodman's paradise. Sounds
266
The Sette Comuni
carry a great distance over the plain, as over
water, whether it be the lowing of cattle, the
tolling of church-bells, or the singing of larks
that soar exuberantly in the Italian sky above
this bit of semi-Teutonic land. With the
breath of the mountains in one's nostrils, it
is hard to believe that, off there, to the south,
only a few miles over the edge of this pasture,
lie Verona and Vicenza, and all the other
stuffy cities of the plain, sweltering in their
glaring streets in the midst of vine-bearing
and highly coloured Italy!
The houses of the villages and hamlets in
the Sette Comuni are distinctly un-Italian in
appearance. For the most part they are
thatched or shingled and peak-roofed in order
to shed the snow in winter, betraying almost
a Gothic tendency. There are no chimneys,
so that the smoke from the hearth issues at
some convenient window, and leaves a black
trail up the side of the house. Moreover,
these mountaineers do not seem to have that
irresistible desire to paint their walls all col-
ours of the rainbow, which somehow goes
with the Italian temperament. On the con-
trary, they are content to let the rough mortar
of their houses weather into various natural
shades of gray and drab. In truth, the farm-
267
The Fair Land Tyrol
houses might belong equally well to Swabia,
or to any region where thatched roofs and
shingles still survive; certainly least of all
to Italy, where such materials for building
purposes are almost unknown.
There are said to be about five months of
snow on the level of the plateau in winter,
but little wind and much sun, as in the resorts
of the Engadine. The snow on the surround-
ing heights, however, does not disappear en-
tirely before the height of the summer. On
the day of my arrival a destructive hail-storm
broke over the district, and the slopes were
white with hailstones until noon of the next
day, which was the fourth of July. Curiously
enough, too, when the weather breaks and the
air darkens, a soft gray light sweeps over the
level, as of England or the coast of Normandy.
The smooth grass-lands become downs or
dunes; one looks for the sea on the horizon,
or windmills on the round hillocks. Take it
all in all, therefore, the plateau of the Sette
Comuni does not recall so much the Alpine
life of Switzerland and the Tyrol, with its
chalets and snow peaks, as some vast clearing
in the Black Forest, into which the spirit of
the English downs creeps when the weather
is bad. Why the region has not long ago be-
9.68
The Sette Comuni
come a grand summer resort for the cities of
the Italian plain seems incomprehensible, —
made to hand as it is!
The names of the villages comprising the
Sette Comuni are as follows : Rotzo, Roana,
Asiago, Gallic, Foza, Enego, and San Gia-
como di Lusiana, — all of Latin derivation.
United to them were once nine villages, which
went by the designation of Contrade Annesse,
or annexed districts: Campese, Campolongo,
Oliero, Valstagna, Valrovina, Vallonara, Cro-
sara, San Luca, Conco, and Dossanti. Until
recently the latter appear to have stood to the
Seven Communities in much the same relation
as the allied and subject lands of the Swiss
Confederation once stood to the Thirteen
original States.
Of the total population, numbering over
thirty thousand, the greater number are
engaged in cattle-breeding, cutting lumber,
charcoal-burning and straw-plaiting. Many
of the men, also, as elsewhere in the Italian-
speaking Alps, go out into the world as ped-
dlers, leaving the women at home to do the
field work. It has been found that a knowl-
edge of Cimbro is of real service to these
peddlers in making all other German dialects
they may encounter in their wanderings easy
269
The Fair Land Tyrol
to learn. As for the rest, one cannot say that
the type of the people is in the least German;
on the contrary, it is to all appearances as
Italian as possible, and often very handsome.
The principal historical function, per-
formed by these homines teutonic* in the past,
was to act as an advance-guard of the Venetian
Republic against encroachments from the
north; while to-day the Italian kingdom val-
ues the district mainly for its strategic posi-
tion on the frontier of the Austrian Empire.
Most of the documents relating to the
period from the tenth to the fifteenth century
were lost in a fire of Asiago. Since the fall
of the Venetian Republic the remaining ar-
chives have for the most part been scattered
to the winds ; stolen when they seemed to pos-
sess value; burned in bonfires on holiday
nights; or worse than all, sold for a song, to
be used as wrapping-paper in meat and sau-
sage shops! I myself can testify to the care-
lessness displayed in this regard, for in a room
which once formed part of the large hall of
the government, and is now used for a little
museum, I saw drawers full of parchments,
thrown in pell-mell, some bearing the seals
and signatures of the Doges of Venice.
For some years past all the inhabitants of
270
The Sette Comuni
the district have learned Italian as well as
Gimbro, so that at the present time the Ger-
man dialect is in a sense a special accomplish-
ment. It is to be found only in four of the
seven communities: in Asiago, Foza, Roana,
and Rotzo; and then is used mostly in the
family circle and by old people.
Italian scholars of the seventeenth century,
and even later, generally accepted the theory
of a Cimbrian origin.
An amusing story is told of Frederick IV.,
King of Denmark and Norway, who paid
a visit to Asiago in 1709. It appears that,
while travelling incognito in Italy, as Count
of Oldenburg, and accompanied by a suite
of fifty-four courtiers, he made a stay of a
week at Vicenza. On one occasion, his court-
iers, strolling about the town, were surprised
to come upon some men speaking a German
dialect. Upon inquiry, the peasants explained
that they were from the Sette Comuni, and
were speaking Cimbro. That evening, at din-
ner, the curious meeting was mentioned in
conversation, and next day Frederick, as king
of the land which was supposed to be the orig-
inal seat of the Cimbri, decided to pay a visit
to the interesting upland. His cavalcade of
Danish and Italian noblemen were received
271
The Fair Land Tyrol
with acclamation by the peasants of Asiago,
cries of Viva il re del Cimbri! resounded on
all sides, and local hospitality put its very best
foot forward. Bonato, the historian of the
Sette Comuni, declares that Frederick entered
into conversation with many of the people,
but that he came to the conclusion that their
dialect had no relation to Danish whatever;
that, on the contrary, it was unquestionably
High German; and probably derived from
Teutonic races much nearer to them than
Denmark. In order not to disturb the fes-
tivities, adds Bonato, Frederick took care not
to express his opinion during his visit.
Whatever may have been the first cause, the
fact is established that, until the seventeenth
century, German-speaking colonies were scat-
tered far and wide over this Alpine district.
Then the Italian language gradually turned
the tables upon its rival.
The peculiarities of this dialect are by no
means insurmountable. Many Italian roots
are taken and German endings added, as, for
example, pensare, to think, becomes pensarn,
much in the same way as the Pennsylvania
Germans say steamboaten, to travel by steam-
boat. A very striking peculiarity is the con-
stant change of v sounds into b.
272
The Sette Comuni
" Wir sind " becomes " bir sain."
An old man said to me at Asiago : " Do you
know what we call ' Verona ' here? We call
it ' Bern.' "
Then I remembered that Theodoric the
Great, because he sometimes resided at Ve-
rona, was known in the German hero ro-
mances as Dietrich von Bern. I also called to
mind the name of Bern, the capital of Swit-
zerland, which has long been a subject of
contention among historians. The old chron-
iclers used to say that the name was derived
from the bear, which is the heraldic animal
of the city, but now we know that the Dukes
of Zaeringen, founders of Bern, had once pos-
sessed the Margraviate of Verona, so that they
must have named their new city in memory of
the old.
As a further example of this change of v
sounds into b, let me quote the delightful in-
scription painted beneath the big sun-dial on
the wall of the great parish church of Asiago.
The North German of this would be : " Ich
Schweige, Wenn Das Licht Mir Fehlt, Und
Selten Rede, Aber Wahr."
In local dialect it reads: "Ich Schbaige,
Benne De Lichte Vehlmar, Un Selten Rede,
Aber Bahr."
273
The Fair Land Tyrol
" I am silent when the light fails me, and
seldom speak, but true."
Underneath this inscription we have the
following characteristic local names of the
painters, marvellous mixtures of Italian and
German :
Redeghiero Christan Giokel
un Costa Hans Pruk
Michen 'Z Jhar 1890
Practically all the words of the dialect, re-
ferring to objects of general household use, are
German, but sometimes Old German mean-
ings have been retained. For example, when
these mountaineers speak of Hose, they do
not mean trousers, as the modern Germans
do, but stockings, like our English hose.
Sprechen, to speak, becomes prechten; Schd-
fer, shepherd, Schafar.
In a room which once formed part of the
hall of the government, I found an old ward-
robe, newly painted. At the top were these
words in quaint characters: " Hia saint de
Brife von Sieben Kamoun." " Here are the
charters, or briefs, of the Seven Communi-
ties." But the wardrobe was empty. All the
parchments it had once contained were scat-
tered or destroyed. The institutions which
274
The Sette Comuni
gave the Sette Comuni a place in history, how-
ever humble it may have been, have almost
vanished. Only in certain regulations con-
cerning the ownership and use of fields and
forests can the traces of independence still be
discerned.
Historians have more than once remarked
upon the sincere attachment which the Alpine
races, subject to Venice, displayed toward the
rule of that republic. The Doges of Venice
generally wrote in their documents: I nostri
fedelissimi e poverissimi Sette Comuni. It
seems as though the rich republic of the sea
and the sturdy little republic of the mountains
must have understood each other most thor-
oughly, nor presumed too much upon each
other's good nature. As with Cadore, so with
the Sette Comuni, tact and mutual respect
were found to be successful where armed in-
tervention might have proved disastrous; to
this day, therefore, the lion of St. Mark still
adorns many a public building in the Dolo-
mites. Peasant women still go to the village
fountain or the mountain stream, carrying
copper buckets, slung from a wooden yoke,
as do their city sisters in the little squares of
Venice.
Under Venetian rule the government of the
275
The Fair Land Tyrol
Sette Comuni consisted of local councils for
the several communities, and a central council
for the seven, called the Spettabile Reggenza,
representing the sovereign power, and meet-
ing annually at Asiago, where also resided a
chancellor of the Reggenza. A proof of the
surprising independence of the Sette Comuni
is afforded by their so-called Nunzi, officials
maintained by them in the principal cities of
the Venetian Republic to watch over their
interests, after the manner of modern consuls.
They elected their own judges, and their only
obligation was to defend their mountain passes
against the foreign foes of Venice. The men
could not be drafted for foreign military serv-
ice. In fact, during the war of the Spanish
Succession, when Venice, being hard pressed,
attempted to force the Sette Comuni to send
a small contingent, the Reggenza flatly re-
fused. At the same time, many men enlisted
as volunteers to help Venice in her struggle
against the Turks, or even sent money and
provisions at critical moments.
But even if every word of the German dia-
lect should be forgotten, every document lost,
and the last inscription effaced, one could still
feel sure that strong Teutonic influences had
been at work in the Sette Comuni, by reason
276
The Sette Comuni
of the system of common ownership of field
and forest, which still maintains itself there.
Here is a sign and symbol which no student
can mistake.
By far the greater part of the territory is
property of the Sette Comuni as a whole, — a
large zone, consisting of forests and pastures,
stretching along the borders of the Tyrol.
Here we have what is virtually an old-fash-
ioned Teutonic Mark in which every house-
holder has an equal right. It is administered
by the Spettabile Consorzio dei Sette Comuni,
composed of seven members, — a body which
is the lineal descendant of the Reggenza of
Venetian days.
This Consorzio administers the common
fields and forests, leases them to users, and
distributes an annual dividend to each of the
Seven Communities, according to a ratio of
long standing. The dividend has amounted
to about fifty thousand lire, and represents a
very handsome revenue for the little villages.
277
CHAPTER XXIX
THE DOLOMITES
THE Dolomites are the transcendentalists
among the mountains — they are the peaks
which have become ethereal through high
thinking. Among the Alps they stand for
refinement and good manners. Though they
are for the most part immensely difficult to
climb, precipitous and rigid, and hold them-
selves aloof, yet, having once admitted you
to their friendship, their attitude becomes one
of kindliness and courtesy. If they have a
lofty regard, and seem to keep the inquisitive
at arm's length, it is because they choose to
separate themselves from all that is glib and
rampant. There is an exquisite reserve about
them which is wholly theirs, a gentle pride, a
quality of purity which serves to eliminate
their material dross, and to transform them,
century by century, into great abstractions
pointing to the sky.
The Dolomites owe much to their delicate
278
THE J'AJOLETT. THURME
6 The Dolomites ar€^ the transcenden-
talists among the mountains"
The Dolomites
colouring. They are the pale faces among
the peaks, and their pallor is largely a matter
of contrast, for their limestone sides often rise
abruptly from the darkest and most vivid for-
ests imaginable, with no transition nor inter-
mediate colours to prepare the eye; the gray
close upon the green, the dazzling white
against the black. Looking back upon our
Dolomite days, this contrast always comes first
to our recollection; the rich, sombre pines
that seem to yield a little of their stiffness in
the mellow light, and almost take on curves
and flowing lines out of sheer luxuriance, and
then the sudden uncompromising shafts that
spring from them, serene, majestic, and im-
memorial.
Look for almost any colour in the Dolo-
mites, and you will find it. The violet-grays
and the red and yellow shades acquire a new
tenderness there, an unlooked-for sentiment.
Peace dwells in the quiet shadows. The
mountains themselves seem to be covered with
some soft substance as though nature had
powdered them with the bloom of plums or
peaches, for their magnesian-limestone rocks
readily disintegrate under the influence of the
atmosphere.
The Dolomites are said to be the remains of
279
The Fair Land Jyrol
coral reefs, now stranded high and dry. As
far as a mere layman can judge of things in
natural science, this theory, originally ad-
vanced by Richthofen and amplified by Moj-
sisovics, still satisfies the conditions of the
geological problem. Richthofen based his
theory upon the structure and composition of
the Dolomites. Coral reefs are described as
being built up by insect life, with a perpen-
dicular side, like a wall, turned toward the
tide, while the reefs are supported on the other
side by sloping buttresses. In spite of ages of
exposure and disintegration, almost all the
Dolomites still show traces of this structure.
Again, marine deposits are found in the rock
of the Dolomites, occupying the same relative
positions as in the coral reefs now in process
of formation in other parts of the world.
The imagination is at once caught by this
coral reef theory. It explains much of what
we see, and implies the rest. These stupen-
dous formations, so unlike all others in the
Alps, not as high perhaps as the highest, but
often steeper, and generally less accessible,
standing alone and self-sufficient, are thus
seen to be silent symbols of the sea, the re-
mains of activity carried on through aeons of
time.
280
The Dolomites
The name of Dolomites is popularly given
to that whole group of mountains which lie
in the southeastern corner of the Tyrol,
bounded by the Pusterthal on the north, the
Etschthal on the west, and extending east and
south into Carinthia and Italy. To enclose
the Dolomites, draw a line from Brixen to
Lienz, thence to Belluno, Trent, and back to
Brixen. This delineation is not strictly cor-
rect, for black and red porphyry, sandstone,
mica shist, and granite are found within this
area, but the delineation is excusable, because
the most remarkable peaks of this district are
really composed of Dolomite. Here it is that
we have among others the Rosengarten group,
the mountains of Groden, the Marmolata, the
Primiero peaks, those of Ampezzo and of
Sexten, and the spurs that run down toward
the great Italian plain.
Tourists may be trusted to suit their own
convenience in making a choice among these
groups. Let it merely be mentioned here that
a main road leads directly through from To-
blach to Pieve di Cadore, and thus to Venice.
Then Bruneck and Innichen, Waidbruck,
Altzwang, Bozen, Neumarkt, Lavis, and even
Trent, all stand at convenient openings into
the Dolomites. On the Italian side there are
281
The Fair Land Tyrol
various approaches over Bassano, Feltre, Bel-
luno, etc.
The Dolomites derive their name from a
French scientist, Dolomieu, who travelled in
the Southern Tyrol during 1789 or 1790, and
first called attention to the peculiar magnesian
limestone of which they are composed. He
died in 1802. Thereafter, an occasional sa-
vant, like Alexander von Humboldt, pene-
trated to the region of Predazzo, known as a
geologists' paradise, or an enthusiastic artist
to Pieve di Cadore, the birthplace of Titian.
But it was reserved for the English to lead the
way for the modern tourist contingent. In
1864 appeared "The Dolomite Mountains,"
by Messrs. Gilbert and Churchill, and in 1868
Ball's " Guide to the Eastern Alps." These
books stimulated investigation, and " Untrod-
den Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys," by
Amelia B. Edwards, issued in 1873, and dedi-
cated to American friends, described the
charms of the district for a large public.
Since then a little more has been written about
the Dolomites in many tongues, from the
standpoint of the geologist, the botanist, the
climber, or the mere sightseer.
In fact, a band of veritable Dolomite dev-
otees has arisen. There are painters who
282
The Dolomites
think no other district is quite as beautiful.
There are natural scientists who make their
careers by the study of its fissures and strata,
and climbers who devote all their vacations
to the precipices and pinnacles. The latter
are essentially rock-climbers. They wear
climbing shoes peculiar to themselves. They
have a technical vocabulary of their own, in
order that they may the better describe the
characteristic features of their bold work. It
is a pleasure to hear their enthusiastic descrip-
tions of their conquests over natural obstacles,
and to notice their appreciation of the beauties
of the great pearl-gray forms that rise so
grandly above the turmoil of the world be-
neath.
283
CHAPTER XXX
A STRING OF PEARLS: PRIMOLANO, PRIMIERO,
PANEVEGGIO, PREDAZZO, AND PERRA
ONE of the entrances into the Dolomites
brings the visitor to a trail indicated by five
names beginning with the letter P: Primo-
lano, Primiero, Paneveggio, Predazzo, and
Perra, a string of pearls leading into an Al-
pine labyrinth.
When I speak of Primolano as a pearl, I
stretch the figure of speech somewhat, for
Primolano is after all only an Italian hamlet.
But taken as an abstraction, Primolano is still
a pearl on our string, because in the retrospect
it becomes a stopping-place on the way to a
paradise of peaks.
One fine day I descended from the verdant
table-land of the Sette Comuni to Valsugana,
in the canonlike Canale di Brenta. The path
from Asiago passed Buso, and then continued
down a veritable ravine called Frenzela to
Valstagna. My Rucksack was heavier than
284
A String of Pearls
usual with several big volumes of Abate Mo-
desto Bonato's history of the Sette Comuni.
The path crossed the torrent continually, ex-
cept when the torrent crossed the path, which
happened very often, because the water was
unusually high. Indeed, there was little use
in making a pretence of walking over the
stones, and it was simpler to walk boldly
through the water.
At Valstagna there is an enormous gilded
St. Mark's lion on a tower, a symbol of Vene-
tian days; a bridge spans the Brenta to Car-
pane, where the posta starts for Primolano.
The Canale di Brenta is one of the most
impressive of the southern approaches to the
Alps. Imagine a Norwegian fiord and an
American canon combined! Surely it has not
its superior for wild beauty in the whole Dol-
omite region. From Valstagna to Primolano
it is particularly narrow and frowning, and
is enclosed by perpendicular walls. The west-
ern side is lined with tiny green patches on
terraces that are little more than steps under
cultivation. Nowhere is this terrace culture
reduced to such straits, nowhere does it win
ground under more difficult circumstances,
or perform such wonders with so little stand-
ing room, as in the Canale di Brenta.
285
The Fair Land Tyrol
The posta crossed a bridge over the Cis-
mone, an affluent of the Brenta. Up in the
heights the white church and a few houses of
Enego, one of the Sette Comuni, gleam for a
moment. Then the road is barred by the fort
of Tombione, completely shutting in the val-
ley and covering the road with an arch. A
rocky grotto above the road, accessible only
by ladder, was once the stronghold of Covolo.
It has been known as a fortress since the sev-
enth century, and was only abandoned as a
stronghold by the Emperor Joseph II. in
1783-
From the pearl Primolano the way to the
pearl Primiero passes through the astounding
orrido or gorge of the Cismone. At this point
the road is now cut out of the rocky walls, now
supported over the wild torrent. The water
below wears and tears, atom by atom, inch
by inch, foot by foot, century by century. At
Monte Croce the red, white, and green fron-
tier post of Italy meets the yellow and black
one of Austria, and presently there breaks into
view a picture which calls forth expressions of
happy enthusiasm, — Fiera di Primiero lies
before us.
The valley opens, green and wide; a white
town lies within a ring of mountains; and a
286
A String of Pearls
ruined castle, perched on a crag, fills the mid-
dle distance with exquisite effects. We have
crawled to the very feet of the Dolomites,
whose great and singular charm suddenly
parts our lips with admiration. Sass Maor
(Sasso Maggiore), the Big Rock, Rosetta, the
Palle di San Martino, Cimon della Pala, the
highest of all, and the others, they stand be-
fore us, each one with special distinction and
character in form and colour. The Dolomites
are the individualists among Alpine peaks,
for they are not bound together and mar-
shalled in ranges and chains like their brother
peaks farther north.
Fiera is the capital of the valley of Primi-
ero. Its name acts as a reminiscence of the
fairs which used to be held there in the hey-
day of its mining prosperity. The iron, silver,
and copper mines of the neighbourhood were
known to exist as long ago as 1300, but they
are now exhausted. In 1401 Duke Leopold
of Austria granted the jurisdiction over Pri-
miero to a Lord of Welsperg for the sum of
four thousand florins in gold. The Castello
della Pietra, it is said, still belongs to the fam-
ily. The monster rock on which it is perched
appears, from its geological formation, to
287
The Fair Land Tyrol
have come down from the group of the Pale
on the back of a glacier, as an erratic block.
Miss Amelia B. Edwards, writing in 1873
in her " Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented
Valleys," says of this Castle of the Rock: uThe
solitary tooth of rock on which it stands has
split from top to bottom within the last cen-
tury, since when it is quite inaccessible. The
present owner, when a young man, succeeded
once, and only once, by the help of ropes, lad-
ders, and workmen from Primiero, in climb-
ing with some friends to the height of those
deserted towers; but that was many a year
ago, and since then the owls and bats have gar-
risoned them undisturbed."
The English explorers of the Dolomites
early set foot in the glorious valley of Primi-
ero. Witness the name of the mountain Cima
di Ball among other evidence. Miss Ed-
wards especially wrote one of her most
charming chapters on this district. In the
town itself she detected a double architectural
character. " The town of Primiero," she
wrote, " lies partly in the plain, and partly
climbs the hill on which the church is built.
The houses in the flat have a semi-Venetian
character, like the houses of Ceneda and Lon-
garone. The houses on the hill are of the
288
THE FEDAJA PASS IN THE DOLOMITES
A String of Pearls
quaintest German-Gothic and remind one of
the steep-roofed, many-turreted mediaeval
buildings in Albrecht Diirer's backgrounds.
This curious juxtaposition of dissimilar archi-
tectural styles is accounted for by the fact that
Primiero, in itself more purely Italian than
either Caprile or Agordo, became transferred
to Austria and partly colonized by German
operatives about the latter end of the four-
teenth century. The Tedeschi, drafted thither
for the working of a famous silver mine, took
root, acquired wealth, built the church, and
left their impress on the place, just as the
Romans left theirs in Gaul, and the Greeks
in Sicily."
These German operatives, mentioned by
Miss Edwards, belong to the same class of
imported German Knappen, called Canopi
by the Italians, reference to whom was made
in describing the valleys which branch out
northward from the Valsugana.
The way from Primiero to Paneveggio, the
next pearl on our string, brings us to the nobly
placed summer pastures of San Martino di
Castrozza and to the Rolle Pass.
In July the sun at San Martino di Cas-
trozza rises over the Pala di San Martino,
and thus slowly illumines the forests and pas-
289
The Fair Land Tyrol
tures. At dawn there is an atmosphere of
rare lights and tints. The giant Dolomites
stand round about, sheer above the green-
black pines, wrapped in an awe-inspiring lu-
minosity. Farther south the uniform gray
Vette di Feltre culminate in the Pavione.
As we mount across the pastures, to cut the
zigzags of the carriage road, the Cimon della
Pala grows even greater, improving on ac-
quaintance, as really great personages usually
do. When we reach the top of the pass, it
becomes the dominant peak. Under the foot
gentians and Alpine roses bloom with an in-
tensity of colour such as is rarely seen else-
where in the Alps. The little star gentians
make vivid spots of Prussian blue, where they
gather in bunches on the green pasture. Else-
where, beside the more widely heralded beau-
ties of the gentians, the Alpine roses, and the
edelweiss, the flora of the Alps is rich in the
perfumed pink of the simple mountain carna-
tions; white flags, soft as silk, often stand
timidly by marshy springs or damp water
courses, and flutter sweetly in the passing air;
great yellow anemones, bold and brave on
rocky uplands, turn to flimsy bunches of hair
as seed-time draws near; exquisite asters
match their pale lavender petals against the
290
A String of Pearls
complementary saffron of their centres. There
is the little button of cinnamon red that smells
like vanilla; and the very grass, aromatic
with thyme and sweet-smelling herbs, has a
sheen and shimmer of its own on the smooth
mountainsides.
From the cantoniera, on the top of the
Rolle Pass, the road dips down on the other
side through a beautiful wood to Paneveggio,
another of the places on this route whose name
begins with a P. There is a hospice modern-
ized into a hotel, as at San Martino di Cas-
trozza, a cantoniera for the forestry officials,
a chapel, a dairy, a sawmill, and much lum-
ber.
The forests around Paneveggio are famous.
They belong to the Austrian Crown, and are
said to yield an annual income of some one
hundred thousand gulden. The tree-trunks
are much prized as ship-masts, and are sent
even as far as Venice. Certain rare plants
grow here, among others the Knautia longi-
foglia Koch and the Lonicera nigra and cos-
rule a.
Predazzo is the next pearl on my string.
It is perhaps more useful and curious than
beautiful, for it is given over to sawmills,
foundries, and quarries, and the floor of the
291
The Fair Land Tyrol
valley shows traces of frequent inundations
where the green has been rubbed off.
For all that, Predazzo is one of the show
places of the world. According to the geolo-
gists, it is built nearly in the centre of an ex-
tinct crater. A volcano once burst open the
ground hereabouts, and, after breaking the
superimposed Dolomite crust, poured out a
lot of volcanic rock, lava-like, on top. Some
of these rocks were Syenite, Tourmaline gran-
ite, and Uralite porphyry. Finally the vol-
cano ceased to belch forth, and there suc-
ceeded the era of those great movements
which made the Alps what they are, upheav-
ing here and depressing there, until moun-
tains and valleys were produced. The rains
ran down the slopes, washed and cut away
the sides of the crater, while the torrents of
the Avisio and Travignolo wore their way
through the mountains, scooped out the cen-
tre, and laid bare a cross-section of many strata
for us to see to-day.
Predazzo is treasured by geologists and
mineralogists as a sort of experimental sta-
tion, where they can work out their new the-
ories, or lose their preconceived notions. It
is even called a Key to Geology.
In 1811 a savant, G. B. Brocchi, first called
292
A String of Pearls
attention to the remarkable condition of things
geological at Predazzo in a volume entitled
" Memoria Mineralogica della Valle di
Fassa." In the strangers' book of the Hotel
Nave d'Oro are the names of many illustrious
natural scientists who have visited this region.
On the 3Oth of September, 1822, Von Hum-
boldt arrived there on his way to the Congress
of Verona, executed a rapid survey, and left
the same day for Egna. It is hard to pick
among the names without doing an injustice
to conscientious investigators, but those of
Necker de Saussure, Richthofen, Gilbert and
Churchill and Mojsisovics appear among the
more familiar ones.
A feature of historic and economic interest
near Predazzo is the so-called Feudo, or
Monte Feudale, on the slopes of the Latemar,
a grassy hill which is used for pasture, and is
owned in common by the male descendants
of the original families of Predazzo. In the
archives of the village of Forno there is a
document which says that the Feudo was
granted to the men of Predazzo by a Count
Fuchs. But there has always been a tradition
in Predazzo that the grant came originally
from a woman.
293
The Fair Land Tyrol
Now, as Margaretha Maultasch held the
valley in possession from 1347 to 1359, and
had a Count Fuchs among her managers dur-
ing that period, document and tradition can
be reconciled. The truth would appear to be
that Margaretha Maultasch executed the
grant through the agency of a Count Fuchs.
There is a government school of lace-mak-
ing for the women, and, although Predazzo
owns much cattle and saws much wood, never-
theless, during the summer season most of
the men emigrate to find work in foreign
countries, generally as stone-masons.
Of our last pearl, Perra, in the Fassa Val-
ley, I hesitate to write -at all — it is so small
and trusting. The inn there is so startlingly
picturesque, that some syndicate with a rov-
ing commission might try to buy it for an
exhibition. Imagine a house on the green,
which has backed up against an enormous
rock, like a hermit-crab into a shell. It is
hard to make out what is rock and what is
house. As though that were not enough in the
way of picturesqueness, the entrance to the
inn is an arch and the vestibule a vault.
Massive steps of stone curve up to a hall,
which is rough, but clean. There was trout
294
A String of Pearls
for supper, straight from the torrent outside,
and the next morning, the bill was the small-
est I could remember ever having paid for
a night's lodging.
295
CHAPTER XXXI
CORTINA DI AMPEZZO
THE Magnificent Community of Ampezzo
(Magnifica Comunita Ampezzo), this was
the resounding title conferred upon Cortina
and its surroundings by the Republic of
Venice in 1421. Although Cortina has been
Austrian since 1511, with only a short inter-
mission from 1810 to 1813, when it belonged
to Napoleon's short-lived Kingdom of Italy,
yet this title survives, and is still inscribed on
the coat of arms of Cortina, the chief village.
It is amply descriptive. The village is the
nucleus of a real community, which owns pas-
tures and forests in common, and derives so
large a revenue from them that it has the
reputation of being the richest community in
the Tyrol.
Cortina is doubly magnificent, by reason
both of its wealth and also of its situation.
The mention of its name recalls a white spot
in a vast bowl of green. A campanile shows
296
CORTINA DI AMPEZZO
Cortina Di Ampezxo
from the white, and the warm smell of haying-
time pervades the air. Cortina seems to be
always making hay while the sun shines. It is
a progressive place, some 4,025 feet above the
level of the sea, with an alpine atmosphere
tempered by the nearness of Italy. More-
over, the mountains are a constant inspira-
tion: toward the northeast the Cristallo group
and the Pomagagnon; toward the southeast
the Sorapis and the Antelao, and around from
south to west, the Pelmo, Rocchetta, Becco
di Mezzodi, Croda di Formin, Nuvolau,
Cinque Torri, Crepa, and Tofana. The four
principal outlets from the Cortina basin are
made by the Ampezzo road north to Toblach,
and south to Cadore, and by the Tre Croci
Pass to the east, and the Tre Sassi Pass to the
west. Through these openings the winds
sweep freely across the green.
Cortina has a main street which widens
somewhat at the post-office and the church.
The houses are large and white, mostly of
stone and mortar, for Cortina was burned to
the ground by the French in 1809, and the
sunburnt, wooden cottages tend to disappear.
The campanile of Cortina may be con-
sidered to resemble the bell-tower of St.
Mark's in Venice, but it is not quite as high,
297
The Fair Land Tyrol
the top being only 256 feet above the
street.
The people of Cortina are essentially quiet
and steady by temperament.
The men have discarded whatever peculiar
costume they may have worn, but the women
retain theirs to a great extent. They wear
little black felt hats, which are low in the
crown, and have two long ribbons hanging
down the back.
Most of the peasant costumes in the Alps,
as has been stated elsewhere, are probably
obsolete fashions which once obtained in the
cities.
The people of Cortina are genuinely inter-
ested in matters of art. Witness first of all
the frescoes on the annex of the hotel Aquila
Nera. The wall-spaces above the first floor
are covered with paintings by two members
of the Ghedina family, Guiseppe and Luigi,
who studied in Venice and Vienna. On the
side facing the street and the hotel itself, we
have allegorical groups. One represents the
Arts: sculpture, painting, and architecture;
and the other the Physical Sciences, symbol-
ized by the telegraph, the camera, and the
steam-engine. These groups are flanked by
Mercury and Urania. On this side, also, are
298
Cortina Di Ampezzo
medallion portraits of Rafael, Durer, and
Titian.
On another side of the annex, the artist
has given us his impression of human life in
four acts. The first shows us children sliding
down-hill; in the second, a young man is
talking to a young woman at a cottage door;
the third displays a domestic interior, con-
taining father, mother, and children; and the
fourth reveals a solitary old man, sitting on a
cottage bench.
Although the principal wealth of the Mag-
nificent Community of Ampezzo consists in
horses and cattle and timber, the artistic sense
of the people has been turned to financial
advantage by industrial schools.
The valley is too high for the vine, and even
our American corn does not do well there, so
that a resort to home industries becomes
necessary.
There is an industrial school, supported by
the government, where metal and wood
mosaic is made, as well as gold and silver
filigree work, the latter resembling the
jewelry of Genoa. By the help of these, and
allied industries, carried on in the houses,
most of the people of Cortina are able to
make a living at home, and emigration to
299
The Fair Land Tyrol
America is consequently rarer than on the
Italian side of the frontier.
But, after all, and year by year, it is be-
coming more and more evident that Cortina
has discovered her real source of income in
her scenery, and has instituted a very practical
use for the beauty of the mute Dolomites.
The tourist trade already brings many thou-
sand visitors every year. Cortina is one of the
few places in the Tyrol where the English and
Americans bear anything like a reasonable
proportion to the Germans. In the past, the
inhabitants may sometimes have asked them-
selves how they might utilize all these threat-
ening towers. Now peak and peasant have
entered into partnership, hotel proprietors
have been admitted to the compact, and a
multitude of travellers from all points of the
compass annually rejoice at the result. With
grateful hearts they return to their homes to
sing the praises of Cortina and the Magnifi-
cent Community of Ampezzo.
300
CHAPTER XXXII
FROM CORTINA TO PIEVE DI CADORE
THE drive to Cadore is over a road as hard
as cement, and as white as snow. Though con-
structed in the Alps, it is as smooth as the best
park roads in the plains.
At San Vito, the Austrian Stellwagen is
exchanged for an Italian messageria, while
we wait and watch the clouds drifting around
Antelao, and feeling their way from pinnacle
to pinnacle of that dominant peak. A girl
with a red kerchief bound around her head
is washing bright-coloured clothes in a white
gully. The sun shines so brilliantly on the
Dolomite rock, that no shadows seem able to
find a resting-place there. The Boite torrent
runs glass-green over the stones in the valley
below.
After San Vito, the Ampezzo road creeps
from under the shadow of Sorapis, and
comes wholly within the sphere of influence
of the Antelao, which has been a constant
301
The Fair Land Tyrol
menace to the valley for centuries. Once in
awhile some fissure on high has widened with
the frost, or some tower has toppled over,
and a mass of crumbled magnesian limestone
has started down the slope in a white flood to
desolate and overwhelm what was below.
Such a stream of stone is called in Italian a
boa, and corresponds to the German Muhr.
Antelao looks kingly in its solitary gran-
deur, a snow-patch for a crown, and a row of
precipices down the front for the folds of
royal robes. It is said that once in awhile it
may be seen even from Venice, looking trans-
lucent and opaline on the horizon.
The impression which Pieve di Cadore
makes, when approached from the north, is
that of an outpost of the Alps toward the
plains. If you walk through the village, and
emerge on the southern side, you look off, and
another world lies below, the warm, Italian
world of changing colours. Every step you
take in that direction takes you away from the
mountains of Alpine serenity.
Titian (1477-1576}
4
The village of Pieve di Cadore centres
around Titian even to-day. The largest
302
From Cortina to Pieve Di Cadore
houses gather around the Piazza Tiziano,
there is a Cafe Tiziano, a Tipographia Tiz-
iano. His family name of Vecellio is fre-
quently borne by the Sindaco (the mayor),
by the butcher, the baker, the grocer, and the
shoemaker.
The statue of Titian represents him with
palette and brush in hand. He presents a
dignified, long-bearded figure, clad in tunic
and trunks, with a graceful mantle hanging
from his shoulders. The statue was erected
in 1880. Antonio dal Zotto, a fellow country-
man of Titian, modelled it; the brothers De
Poli, the famous bell-makers of Ceneda, cast
it in bronze, and Giuseppe Ghedina of Cor-
tina designed the stone pedestal.
The house where Titian was born is in a
corner just off the main Piazza. There seems
to be no reason to question the authenticity
of this house. Titian's family were not ob-
scure people, but important inhabitants of
Pieve, and the painter himself had become
famous long before he died. A mistake could
not well have arisen. The house itself is
small, whitewashed, and flat-roofed, showing
its great age. Some of the windows retain
tiny round panes set in lead, but otherwise
there is nothing remarkable about this house.
303
The Fair Land Tyrol
The room is shown where he was born, and
another where he painted, when he was at
home.
Still, the view from the window of Titian's
studio is valuable. Rev. Henry Van Dyke,
after his visit, wrote of this outlook in his
" Little Rivers : " " Now, for the first time,
I could understand and appreciate the land-
scape backgrounds of his pictures. The com-
pact masses of mountains, the bold, sharp
forms, the hanging rocks of cold gray emerg-
ing from green slopes, the intense blue aerial
distances — these all had seemed to be unreal
and imaginary — compositions of the studio.
But now I knew that, whether Titian painted
out-of-doors, like our modern impressionists,
or not, he certainly painted what he had seen,
and painted it as it is."
In this same little side square stands the
Palazzo Sampiere, which belonged to Titian's
grandfather.
A Museum contains Titian's patent of no-
bility with his armorial bearings, for he was
created count by the German emperor,
Charles V,
The story of Titian's life may be gathered
from any encyclopaedia. The bare facts
which concern us are that he was born in
304
CLIMBERS ON THE CINQUE TORRI
From Cortina to Pieve Di Cadore
Pieve in 1477; left home in 1486 to study
with Zuccati and Bellini in Venice, but re-
turned almost every summer to Cadore. He
died in Venice in 1576, aged ninety-nine.
The Republic of Cadore
The mountaineers of Cadore enjoyed prac-
tical self-government for eight centuries, from
about 1000 to 1807, when Napoleon repealed
their statutes. They were first connected with
Aquileia, then with Venice, but during that
whole period they never surrendered their
local rights.
There is no doubt that Venice made friends
easily. As with the mountaineers of the Sette
Comuni, so with those of Cadore, she under-
stood how to win their confidence, and to
keep their good-will. She met them half-
way, and showed them respect.
The truth is that there were strong mutual
interests. The mountaineers stood on the
northern border, and were a bulwark against
the German Imperialists. Their forests were
full of masts for ships, and piles upon which
to build the houses of Venice. Indeed, the
palaces of Venice were set on the tops of
Cadore trees. Mr. Robertson, in his valuable
305
The Fair Land Tyrol
work, " Through the Dolomites," has well
said: "The heart of Venice is of Dolomite
pine. Kings from the mountain forests thus
sustain the throne of the Queen of the Adri-
atic." In those days, too, there were many
mines of precious and useful metals in the
mountains.
On the other hand, Venice offered Cadore
an outlet for all this raw material, a market
that was in touch with the ends of the then
known world. She supplied Cadore with
grain, and her alliance practically placed
armies and navies in the service of the little
republic.
The reciprocal evidences of friendship
were many and substantial throughout the
centuries, but greatest of all was this: that
the stronger republic never stretched forth
her arm to conquer the weaker, never treated
the mountaineers as subjects, but preferred
to enlist their help as friends. Therein lay the
permanency of the bond between Venice and
Cadore, and in the disregard of this, where
distant lands were concerned, lay the cause of
the ultimate decline of Venice. C. Lom-
broso has expressed this thought as follows:
"The greatness of the Venetian States
must be attributed primarily to the liberty
306
From Cortina to Pieve Di Cadore
they enjoyed, and the decline of their liberty
was brought about chiefly by conquests in
distant lands — conquests entailing tremen-
dous expenses, hateful taxes, enormous arma-
ments, and the surrender of the supreme
power into the hands of men who ended in
tyrannizing over them, and in completely
suppressing their liberty."
307
CHAPTER XXXIII
TO CORVARA
THE Falzarego road climbs westward be-
tween Tofana and Nuvolau to the Pass of
Tra i Sassi. This last name exactly suits the
scenery of the pass. The road winds literally
" Among the Rocks," through a tract of
debris, of mountain waste, thrown off from
the Lagazuoi and the Sasso di Stria on either
hand. Now and again the tinkle of goat-bells
from the crags above give a sense of relief,
but for the most part there is the oppression of
desolation, the melancholy of ruin and decay.
Here were vast masses going to pieces, Ti-
tanic crumblings loosened from above, and
heaped in grand confusion around the moun-
tain bases.
The all-pervading and all-providing Ger-
man-Austrian Alpine Club has marked the
path over the Castello Pass (Valparola Joch),
down grassy slopes and through woods to St.
Cassian.
308
To Corvara
The neighbourhood of St. Cassian is rich
in fossils and petrifactions, to delight the
heart of a natural scientist. The Enneberg
valley is, in fact, almost as interesting to
mineralogists and geologists as that of Fassa.
Corvara, farther along, has an hotel full
of sketches by a native artist, Franz Rotta-
nara. The paintings are on the stair walls
and in the rooms. I liked best certain outline
sketches of local types, portraits of old people,
or of members of the Rottanara family.
Although the names hereabouts sound
Italian, German is the language most in
use. If we turn southward, however, down
the Enneberg valley, we shall come upon
traces of Ladin, a survival of the Roman
occupation.
It may be stated in a general way that, at
the time of the invasion of Teutonic races, the
whole of the Eastern Alps had already become
Romanized. The conquest of German over
Latin from that time forward was by no means
rapid. We know that Romance dialects
maintained themselves even in some regions
of Northern Tyrol until the fourteenth cen-
tury. To-day, the Ladin dialects of the Can-
ton of Graubimden in Switzerland, and of
Groden, Enneberg, and Livinalongo, each
3°9
The Fair Land Tyrol
distinct from the others, are the only rem-
nants of a once widely spread language.
These dialects are not merely corrupt
Italian; they are separate branches of the
original Latin stock. In these days of rapid
communication, they are making way for
German on the one hand, or Italian on the
other. Their isolation being broken, they
must accommodate themselves to their sur-
roundings.
Turning northward from Corvara the road
leads by Colfosco over the Grodenjoch to the
Grodenthal.
On the walls of the inn at Colfosco an
artist has painted the legends of the valley
with rapid but firm strokes, and told the story
underneath in native Ladin.
To Toblach
Northward from Cortina the Ampezzo
road soon becomes involved in forests of pro-
found and solemn beauty, above which the
ethereal peaks and bulwarks of the Dolo-
mites reach into the sky. The road only grows
whiter by contrast with the trees, while the
torrent of the Boite seems greener and glass-
ier, as it sings to itself over its limestone bed.
310
To Corvara
Now and again a boa of broken stone comes
down to the path, on either hand. Now and
then a view opens to the side, and there, at
the end, some silent, exalted tower stands,
some peak called a ringer or a horn, some
group like a cathedral, some cyclopean wall,
with cornices where small glaciers or snow-
slopes have lodged. In fact, shapes that you
may construe as you like, and schemes of
colour from which you may pick your favour-
ite shades, have backed up against the sky
and are at bay to right and left.
As it advances, the road becomes gradu-
ally Teutonic. Botestagna becomes Peutel-
stein. The rock of that name was once
crowned by a castle, which was held succes-
sively by the Republic of Cadore, by Venice,
by the German Imperialists, and the Austri-
ans. It fell into disuse during the reign of
the Emperor Joseph II., and was destroyed
in 1867. At present only the foundations and
parts of the walls are standing.
Ospitale was once a pilgrim shelter, an
hospice, as its name indicates.
At Schluderbach the invisible line of lan-
guage has been crossed. We are in Deutsch-
Tyrol again, in the land of entirely neat and
appetizing inns, of landlords, who once and
The Fair Land Tyrol
again speak their " wunsch <wohl zu speisen! "
as the soup comes on the table. Welschland,
with its undoubted but different charms, is
behind us. Here are coziness and freshness,
the smell of new paint^ and the appearance
of good repair.
Schluderbach is also the centre of much
climbing for high tourists, and of many pretty
walks for mountain amateurs.
The Ampezzo road continues northward
along the Durrensee, this lake reflecting the
Monte Cristallo group on its quiet surface.
There is not always enough water to make the
picture perfect, especially in the late summer
and autumn, when the tourist travel is heavi-
est, but it is a consolation to know that the
spring never fails to fill up the lake.
At Hohlenstein (Italian Landro), the val-
ley of the Schwarze Rienz opens to the right,
admitting a view of the Drei Zinnen.
In all the range of the Alps it would be
hard to find a gap wjiich reveals so much, so
suddenly. We look through a dark frame
of pines upon a bare world of rock. Thus
seen, the Drei Zinnen look unapproachable
and intangible. They seem to display more
than the usual exclusiveness of the Dolomites,
and long after the sun has left Landro, and
312
To Corvara
the valley is dark, the Drei Zinnen continue
to glow and to retreat into a world of their
own, where they reflect the glory of some-
thing we cannot see.
And so through uninhabited stretches of
dark forests, springing from a white soil, the
great Ampezzo road passes by the lake of
Toblach, and finds an outlet in the green
Pusterthal. Cadore at one end, Toblach at
the other, and Cortina in the middle! The
road winds its long arms from the Latin to the
Teuton. It proclaims their brotherhood, and
pleads for the unity of the human race.
Lake Misurina — Tre Croci Pass
Lake Misurina is not large, but it reflects
the Drei Zinnen somewhat as the Diirrensee
does the Cristallo group. It is shallow, and
well stocked with trout, but those who ought
to know, say that the fish are very wary.
The road passes an alp with a large herd
of cattle, and presently plunges once more
into the solemn pines. The walk from Lake
Misurina to the Tre Croci Pass is like a
promenade in a park. Every foot of ground
seems cared for, every tree nursed to maturity.
The Tre Croci Pass is a depression be-
3*3
The Fair Land Tyrol
tween Sorapis and Cristallo, and derives its
name from three wooden crosses. A cool
breeze generally draws through the depres-
sion in summer, and sighs in the surrounding
larch woods. Across the resplendent plain, in
which Cortina lies unseen, wayward shreds
of cloud crawl close, to the precipices of
Tofana. A piece of snow-crowned Marmo-
lata shows between the Torre di Averau and
Nuvolau. The Cristallo peaks on the right
stand out clear and clean-cut against the sky.
The Valley of Silver and Gold
The Valbona may very properly be called
the Valley of Silver and Gold on account of
the names Argentiera (Latin argentum, sil-
ver), .and Auronzo (Latin aurum, gold),
which occur there.
As though to emphasize the metallic char-
acter of this valley, the big road down into
Valbona is called the Erzstrasse, or the
Mineral Road, because it was constructed to
serve the mines.
As the Ampezzo valley offers many objects
for our admiration, so the Valbona possesses
only a few intensely beautiful objects to hold
our attention. Chief among these are the
3H
To Corvara
astounding peaks, the truly terrific towers that
loom up in a circle above the forests. The
forest of San Marco is a touch of Venice in
the wilderness. This is a forest of larch-trees
which the Republic of Cadore presented to
its ally the Republic of Venice in 1463. Ever
since then the San Marco trees have supplied
timber for ship-building at Venice. Beyond
the forest of San Marco the Mineral Road
comes out upon Miniera Argentiera, where
mining shafts have laid bare the mountainside
and made the torrent of the Ansiei run brown
with the washing of the ore. There are great
mounds, slopes and terraces of reddish earth.
The miners swarm into the shafts and the
wooden sheds. The whole is a monster ant-
hill in the forest. Although the name Argen-
tiera is still retained, lead and zinc only are
now extracted, but the remarkable vitality of
this mine may be appreciated, when we re-
member that it was already famous in the
tenth century, and has been worked at inter-
vals ever since.
The range of the Marmarole on the right
hand becomes more and more dominant as
we progress, and presently we reach the strag-
gling series of villages known collectively as
The Fair Land Tyrol
Auronzo, " the golden town," and the most
populous aggregation in Cadore.
The surrounding mountains are on a vast
scale, high and rugged, but they show them-
selves to best advantage when you draw away
from Auronzo itself.
Villa Grande, one of the villages of the
series, seems really less of a place than Villa
Piccola.
There is no doubt that the wooden houses,
which have survived the fires of late years,
are interesting to a degree. They represent a
bold type of wood and stone architecture
which is exceedingly effective. The wood of
the superstructure is burned a rich chocolate
brown, almost black, by the sun, and this
forms a striking contrast to the white mortar
of the substructure. The truth is the old
Cadore houses show the influence both of
Romance and Teutonic conditions. They
stand in the borderland. They partake of
mountain and plain, of forest and quarry.
Wooden balconies and wooden shingles sur-
mount vaulted Romanesque doorways, and
in the interior you will often find behind the
hearth a space furnished with seats.
The costume of the women is sober. They
wear dark dresses, and the invariable fazzo-
To Corvara
letto, or kerchief, is of dark brown, the ends
being left to flap at the side or back of the
head. Instead of heavy mountain shoes, they
wear felt slippers.
Over the Monte Croce Pass
From Auronzo there is a drive by Gogna
to Tre Ponte. Here is to be seen a most curi-
ous as well as graceful piece of construction.
Imagine three roads meeting in a triple
bridge, the arches resting on a central pier,
and the whole forming three obtuse angles
over the torrents of Ansiei, Piave, and over a
dry gorge. This position has always had
strong strategic capabilities, and there was
successful fighting here by the natives against
Maximilian's invaders in 1508-09, and
against the Austrians in 1866.
The Piave valley to Pieve di Cadore is
rich in lights and shades, and full of a ma-
jestic, classic quality, but a wonderful road
turns the corner and goes up-stream to San
Stefano through a gorge which deserves to
rank with the Canale di Brenta among the
wonders of the Dolomites. To fitly describe
this gorge one would need to piece together
the strongest adjectives that denote profun-
The Fair Land Tyrol
dity and seclusion, the mountains rise so sheer
and gray, on either hand; and the opening
worn by the Piave is so narrow, and looks so
impenetrable. Yet the Italians have built a
road there, that winds along for six miles, now
crawling close to the cliffs, and now piercing
them with tunnels, until open ground is
reached shortly before San Stefano.
Looking up from San Stefano one can see
afar off and high up a row of houses long-
drawn across a slope of more than usual bril-
liancy. When the afternoon sun throws a
glow over the picture, the houses at this dis-
tance look stately and very white, and the
place well deserves its name of Candide.
From Candide San Nicolo and San Stefano
are seen in the plain. The sombre Dolomites
are contrasted with the vivid green slopes.
The peasants mount homeward-bound from
their work, and nature is soothed and re-
freshed by the setting sun.
The Monte Croce Pass is an easy affair,
though rather long and tedious.
The way to Innichen lies through the
Sexten valley and Moos. The Fischelein-
thal opens on the left, barred by forts, and the
jagged Drei Schuster Spitzen throne above.
Then presently the Pusterthal looms into
To Corvara
view and Innichen is discovered reposing
quietly on the edge of its green fields. The
railroad-track reminds us that we are once
more in touch with the world of the lowlands,
and that the repose of the Alps must now be-
come for us a treasured memory.
It will be a happy consummation if we can
feel that the Crown Land Tyrol has benefited
in some measure by our visit, even if but a
little; that our admiration and appreciation
of beauty and goodness, and our gratitude for
services rendered may have lightened the
burden of some peasant climbing into the
heights, strengthened some stooping back in
the fields or on the slopes, rendered the house-
hold work of the women happier in the lonely
huts, the play of the children freer, and the
song of the people truer, better, and sweeter.
Thus may mountain, stream, and valley
receive a benison; the lakes and waterfalls
rejoice greatly, and the very glaciers bristle
less threateningly by reason of the melting in-
fluence of kindliness and good cheer.
THE END.
319
INDEX
Abel, Bernhard and Arnold,
20.
Absam, 57.
Achensee, 66, 76-79.
Adamello, The, 175, 257.
Adelbert, Count of Tyrol,
101.
Adige River (Etsch), 168,
249.
Adige Valley, 248, 249, 251,
252.
Adriatic, 222, 250.
Aguntum, 97, 98.
Ala, 249.
Albrecht III., Duke of Aus-
tria, 150.
Alle Sarche, 253.
Aim, xii., xiii., 68-75.
Alpine Club, German and
Austrian, 13, 170, 223, 229,
231, 232, 308.
Alpine climbing, 223-226.
Alps, vii., 5, 8, 53-55.
Ambras Castle, 36-38, 40.
Ampezzo Valley, 107.
Ampezzo Road, 281, 297, 301.
Andechs, Counts of, u, 36,
310-313-
Anne of Brittany, 25.
Ansiei River, 315, 317.
Antelao, The, 297, 301-302.
Aquila Nera (Cortina), 298.
Aquileia, 97, 305.
Architecture, domestic, xiv.-
xv., 316.
Arco, 251, 253, 254,
Argentiera, 315.
Arlberg, The, 45, 51.
Arthur of England, statue,
16-17.
Aryay, R. V., 170.
Asiago, 269, 270, 271, 273,
276.
Aspern, Battle of, 203.
Assa, Val d', 265, 266.
Auersperg, Prince, 88.
Augsburg, 40, 242.
Augusta Vindelicorum
(Augsburg), 97.
Austria, 5, 45, 51, 52, 99, 184,
191, 201, 203, 204, 206, 207,
208, 214, 239, 243, 257, 263,
265, 286, 296.
Auronzo, 316, 317.
Ausuganea, 256.
Avisio River, 292.
Ball, 282; Cima di, 288.
Barlow, Henry Clark, 248.
Bsssano, 265, 282.
Bavarians, 7, 201, 202, 208.
Beck, Leonhard, 30-31.
Becco di Mezzodi, The, 297.
Belluno, 265, 282.
Beru, 3, 273.
Bezau, 47, 48, 49.
Bianca, Maria Sforza, 10, 18,
26.
Biener, Chancellor Wilhelm,
Big Rock, The, 287.
Bisson, General, 214.
321
Index
Black Sea, 222.
Blumau, 169.
Boeheim, Wendelin, 39.
Boite River, 301, 310.
Bona, Val, 314-317.
Bonato, 272, 285.
Borgo, 256, 262.
Bormio (Worms), 233-235.
Botestagna (Peutelstein), 311.
Bozen, 157-166.
Bregenz, 46.
Bregenzerwald, 47.
Brenner Route, 5, 33, 89-93,
98, 143, 159, 187, 264-265.
Brenta River, 250, 284-285.
Bretterwand, The, in.
Brixen, Bishops of, 190.
Brixlegg, 65, 66.
Brocchi, G. B., 292, 293.
Broussier, General, 104-105.
Bruneck, 100-103.
Buco di Vela, 253.
Buon Consiglio, Castello del
(Trent), 239.
Burgkmair, Hans, 30.
Buxton, H. E., 227, 232.
Cadore, 275, 301-307, 315-
Caldonazzo, Lake, 250, 260.
Galliano, Battle of, 240.
Candide, 318.
Canopi (Knappen), 258-259,
289.
Carinthia, 97, 109.
Carson, F. EL, 170.
Cassian, St., 308-309.
Castelbarco, Guglielmo, 248;
Counts of, 251.
Castelbell (Castle), 218.
Castello Pass (Valparola
Joch), 308.
Caxton, William, 180.
Celtic, 141.
Charlemagne, 218.
Charles, Archduke of Aus-
tria, 198, 203.
Charles the Bold, of Bur-
gundy, 18, 22, 28.
Charles VIII. of France, 25,
26, 27.
Charles V., Emperor of Ger-
many, 244, 304.
Christina, St., 141.
Churburg Castle, 220.
Cimbro Dialect, 265-266, 269,
271-274.
Cimon della Pala, The, 287,
290.
Cinque Torri, The, 297.
Cismone River, 286.
Civezzano, 257.
Coburg, Duke of, 77.
Colfosco, 310.
Colin, Alexandre, 20.
Conrad II., Emperor of Ger-
many, 256.
Cortina di Ampezzo, 29, 296-
300, 310, 314.
Corvara, 308-310.
Costume, vi., vii., 5, 6, 84-
85, no, 165, 191-196, 298,
316-317.
Council of Trent, The, 243-
246.
Counter Reformation, 245.
Coursen, Charlotte H., 147-
149.
Crepa, The, 297.
Cristallo group, 297, 312,
313, 314; Monte, 107, 171.
Croda di Formin, The, 297.
Dante in the Trentino, 247-
255; statue, 240, 247.
Danube, 45, 56.
Defregger, 12-13, 113-127.
Delagothurm, 170.
Democracy, 48.
Dodici range, 261, 265.
Dolomieu, 282.
Dolomites, 107, 109, 140, 142,
143, 170, 264, 265, 278-283,
287, 290, 296, 310.
Dorcher, 220.
Dornauberg-Klamm, 86.
Doss Trento, 242.
322
Index
Drama, popular, Brixlegg, 66;
Meran, 188-189, 197.
Drau River, 106.
Dreischusterspitze, 109, 235.
Dreisprachenspitze, 109, 235.
Drei Zinnen, 312-313.
Dro, 254.
Diirer, Albrecht, 22, 30-31.
Diirrensee, 171, 312, 313.
Eben, 78.
Edwards, Amelia B., 134, 282,
288.
Eggenthal, 169.
Eisack River, 158.
Eisack Valley, 129.
Eleonora of Scotland, 187-
188.
Engadine, 51.
Enneberg Valley, 309.
Eppan Castle, 174.
Etruscan, 141, 191.
Etsch, League on the, 152.
Etsch River (Adige), 158,
218.
Etsch Valley, 158, 222.
Fallmerayer, 129-133.
Falzarego Road, 308.
Fassa, Val, 171, 292, 294.
Feldkirch, 51.
Feltre, 282. .
Ferdinand of Aragon, 19, 25,
27. _
Ferdinand, Archduke, 40.
Ferdinand Karl, Archduke,
40, • 58.
Ferdinandeum Museum
(Innsbruck), 5, II, 39.
Fersina River, 257.
Fiera di Primiero, 286, 287.
Fierozzo, Val (dei Mocheni),
259, 260.
Finstermunz, 52, 159.
Fischburg Castle, 142.
Fischeleinboden, 109.
Fischeleinthal, 318.
Floitenthal, 88.
Fohn, 89-90.
Fornace, 259.
Francis I., Emperor of Aus-
tria, 64.
Francis L, Emperor of Ger-
many, 6.
Francis Joseph, Emperor of
Austria, 34.
Frankfort National Assem-
bly, 132-133-
Franks, 256.
Franzensfeste, 98.
Frau Hitt, 5.
Frederick IV., King of Den-
mark and Norway, 271.
Frederick II., Emperor of
Germany, 146.
Frederick III., Emperor of
Germany, 19, 24.
Frederick "With the Empty
Pockets,"' 9, n, 19, 183, 187.
French, 7, 99-100, 104, 105,
202, 206, 208, 210-216, 257,
297.
Frescoes of Runkelstein Cas-
tle, 178-185.
Fugen, 81.
Gaisstein, 71.
Game, xi.
Garda, Lake, 251-252, 253,
254-
Geislerspitzen, 140.
Georgenberg, St., 65.
Gerlos, 85.
German Empire, 190, 218.
German language, 309, 310,
3H-3I2.
Germany, 5, 52.
Ghedina, Giuseppe, 303.
Gilbert and Churchill, 282.
Gilm, Hermann von, 7, 102-
104.
Ginzling, 86-88.
Glurns, 221.
Gnadenwald, 61.
Godl, Stephan, 20.
Gogna, 317.
3*3
Index
Golden Roof (Innsbruck), 9-
10.
Gomagoi, 228, 232-233.
Gossensass, 90.
Goths, 256.
Gottfried von Strassburg,
147, 178.
Greifenstein Castle, 174.
Gries, 172.
Groden Valley, 134-142, 144.
Grohmann, Baillie, 66.
Gross G 1 o c k n e r , 70, no,
230.
Gross Venediger, 70, no.
Gsieserthal, 105.
Guntschnaberg, 167.
Habsburg, 18, 21, 29, 46, 47,
151, 152, 191.
Hafelekar, 5.
Hall, 55-
Haspinger, Joachim, 105-106,
198, 204, 209.
Henry VIII. of England, 27-
28.
Herzog Friedrichstrasse
(Innsbruck), 8.
Hilliers, Baron d', 211, 212.
Hitt, Miss, 227.
Hofburg (Innsbruck), n, 37.
Hofer, Andreas, tomb, 15;
statue, 33-34, 197-216.
Hofkirche (Innsbruck), 4-5,
15-20; tablets, 22-29; Sil-
ver Chapel, 44.
Hohenschwangau Castle, 152.
Hohe Salve, 70.
Hohlenstein (Landro), 312.
Hollauer, 33.
Huard, 213.
Humboldt, Alexander von,
282, 293.
Hungary, 25, 28.
Imst, 52.
Inn River, 3, 5, 52, 53, 56.
Inn Valley, 4, 33, 53-55, 70,
79, 222.
Innichen, 97, 98, 108-109, 318,
319..
Inns, ix., x.
Innsbruck, 3-14, 201, 202, 203,
204, 205, 206.
Interlaken, 3.
Isel, Berg, 4, 13-14, 33-34,
202-203, 206.
Iselthal, in.
Italian language, 243, 260, 310.
Italians, 257.
Italy, 233, 263, 264, 301.
James I. of Scotland, 187.
Jaufen Pass, 200, 201, 209,
211.
Jenbach, 65.
Jenesien, 164, 173.
Johann, St., in Tyrol, 74.
John, Archduke of Austria,
198, 203, 208, 209.
Joubert, General, 99.
Juval Castle, 218.
Kaisergebirge, 4, 70.
Kardaun, 169.
Karersee, 171.
Karneid Castle, 174.
Kaufmann, Angelika, 48-50.
Kitzbiihel, 68, 70.
Kitzbiihelhorn, 68, 71.
Klausen, 144.
Klotz, 60.
Konigspitze, The, 228, 232.
Kreuzberg Pass, 109.
Kropfsberg Castle, 66.
Kiichelberg, The, 189; Battle
of, 210.
Kuf stein, 4, 66-67, 202.
Laas, 219.
Laaserthal, 219.
Ladin, 141, 309-310.
Lagarina, Val, 248.
Lagazuoi, The, 308.
Landeck, 50.
Landesfiirstliche Burg (Me-
ran), 187.
3*4
Index
Landhaus (Innsbruck), 7.
Landro (Hohlenstein), 312.
Landtag, 7, 45.
Langenthal, 142.
Langkofel, 135, 140, 142.
Latemar, The, 174, 293.
Latin, 141, 175, 229, 309.
Latsch, 218.
Lebenbacher, Friedrich, 185.
Lefebre, Marshal, 202, 203,
204, 205.
Lendenstreich, Hans, 19.
Lengmoos, 173.
Leonhard, St., 211.
Leopold, Archduke, 6.
Leopold III., Duke of Aus-
tria, 19.
Levico, 261, 266.
Levico, Lake, 250.
Leuthold von Saben, 144.
Lichtenberg Castle, 221.
Lichtwer Castle, 66.
Liechtenstein, 45, 50-51.
Lienz, vii., 109-110.
Lizzana Castle, 248-249, 251.
Lombardy, 230.
Lombroso, 306-307.
Longpbards, 256.
Loppio Pass, 251, 253, 254.
Lorenz, Dr. H., 170.
Louis XL of France, 22, 25,
26.
Luzern, 3.
Maierhofen, 80, 86.
Malory, Sir Thomas, 178, 180.
Mais, 221.
Malserheide, 221.
Mantua, 214, 215.
Margaret of Austria, 18, 26,
27.
Maria Maggiore, Santa
(Trent), 239, 245.
Maria Theresa, 6, n.
Maria Theresienstrasse, 4, 6, 7.
Marmarole range, 315.
Marmolate, The, 314.
Martellthal, 218.
Martin, St., 200, 215.
Martino, San, di Castrozzo,
289, 291.
Martinswand, 32.
Mary of Burgundy, 19, 22-24.
Matzen Castle, 66.
Maulbertsch, n.
Maultasch, Margaretha, 184,
294.
Maurice of Saxony, 244.
Max, King of Bavaria, 62,
64.
Maximilian I., Emperor of
Germany, 9-10; tomb, 15-
20; life, 21-31.
Melegg, Battle of, 62.
Menador di Levico, 265.
Mendel Pass, 174.
Meran, vi., 186-196, 210, 211,
217.
Milan, 257.
Misurina, Lake, 313.
Mittelgebirge, 4, 61.
Mittersill, 69.
Mittewald, 205.
Mocheni, Val dei (Fierozzo),
259-260.
Mojsisovics, Edmund von,
227, 228, 280.
Montan, Castles of Ober and
Unter, 218.
Monte Croce Pass, 286, 317,
318.
Moos, 318.
Mori, 251, 254.
Muhlau, 20.
Munzerthurm (Hall), 56.
Nago, 251, 253.
Napoleon I., 197, 202, 203,
208, 210, 214, 296, 305.
Natter, Heinrich, 33, 162-163.
Naturns, 218.
Neruda, Norman, 170.
Neu Spondinig, 220.
Nicolo, San, 318.
Nibelungenlied, 218-219.
Nuvolau, The, 297, 308, 314.
325
Index
Ortler, 220, 227-233.
Ospitale, 311.
Ottoburg (Innsbruck, u.
Palle di San Martino, 287,
289.
Paneveggio, 289, 291.
Paris, 5.
Passeier Valley, 200, 201.
Passer River, 200.
Passion Play (Brixlegg), 66.
Patscher, Kofel, The, 4.
Pavione, The, 290.
Payer, Julius von, 227, 228,
229.
Payerhiitte, 228-229.
Pelmo, The, 297.
Pergine, 258-261.
Perra, 294-295.
Pertisan, 77.
Peutelstein (Botestagna),3ii.
Pflerschthal, 90.
Philip I. of Spain, 18, 27.
Philippine Welser, 39-44.
Phillmore, J. S., 170.
Piave River, 250, 317-318.
Pichler, Joseph, 227, 234.
Pietra, Castello della, 287-288.
Pietra Murata, 253.
Pieve di Cadore, 281, 282,
302-305, 317.
Pine, Val, 259.
Pinzgauer Promenade, 71.
Plattkofel, The, 140.
Poli, De, 303-
Pomagognon, The, 297.
Prad, 228, 233, 234.
Predazzo, 282, 291-294.
Predis, Ambrose de, 22, 26.
Presanella, The, 175.
Primiero, 286-289.
Primolano, 263, 284-286.
Puflatsch, The, 140.
Pusterthal, 97-110, 313, 318.
Raetians, 90, 141, 143, 217,
218, 221.
Rattenberg, 66.
Raynor, G. S., 170.
Reding, Ital, 46.
Reschen Scheideck, 221-222.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 49.
Rhine, 45, 51.
Richthofen, 280.
Rienz River, 102, 106.
Rinn, 61.
Rio River, 261.
Ritten, The, 173.
Rochetta, The, 297.
Robertson, 305-306.
Rolle Pass, 289, 291.
Romance Languages, 141,
309-310.
Romans, 90, 97, 160, 173, 190,
218, 221, 242, 256.
Rome, 5, 36.
Rosa, Monte, 230.
Rosengarten, 158, 167-172.
Rosetta, The, 287.
Rosszahne, The, 140.
Rovereto, 249.
Rumer Spitze, 5.
Runkelstein Castle, 174, 177-
185.
Saalfelden, 69.
Saben, 129.
Salzburg, 3, 69, 71.
Salzkammergut, vii.
Sandwirth, 200.
Sangerkrieg, 146.
Sanseverino, Roberto da, 240.
Sarca, Val, 253-255.
Sass Maor, The (Sasso
Maggiore), 287.
Sasso di Stria, The, 308.
Scaliger, Bartolomeo, 248.
Scalza, Ludovico, 19.
Schaubachhiitte, 232.
Schlanders, 219.
Schlern, 140, 169.
Schluderbach, 311-312.
Schluderns, 220-221.
Schmittenhohe, 71.
Schnalserthal, 218.
Scholastika Inn, 78.
326
Index
Schwarze Rienz River, 312.
Schwatz, 65.
Seehof, 78.
Seespitz, 76-77, 78.
Seiser Alp, 139, 140, 266.
Sentlinger, Heinz, 182.
Series Spitze, The (Wal-
drast), 4.
Sesselschreiber, Gilg, 20.
Sette C o m u n i , 264 - 277,
284.
Sextenthal, 109, 318.
Sigismund, Archduke, 18,
187, 240.
Sigmaier, Peter (Tharer
Wirth), 104-105.
Sigmundskron, 174.
Sill Valley, 35-
Slavs, 97, 98.
Sorapis, The, 297, 301, 314.
Spanish Succession, War
of, 7.
Speckbacher, Joseph, 61-65,
198, 204.
Speech (German), vii.-ix.
Spinges, 99-100.
Staben, 218.
Stabius, 30.
Stainer, Jacob, 57-61.
Statthalter, 45.
Stefano, San, 317, 318.
Steinhovel, Meister, 188.
Stelvio Pass, 159, 220, 230,
233-235.
Sterzing, 91-93, 201.
Steub, Dr. Ludwig, 62, 64,
99.
Stilfs (Stelvio), 234.
Strass, 80.
Strigno, 263.
Strigel, Bernhard, 22.
Stubai Valley, 33, 90.
Styria, 97.
Sugana, Val, 256-263, 284.
Sulden, 228, 229, 231-233.
Swiss Confederation, 19, 22,
28, 29, 45-47, 269.
Switzerland, xii, xv., 51.
Tabarettawande, 228, 231.
Talfer River, 158, 177.
Tartsch, 221.
Tassilo, Duke, 98.
Tauern, 70, 112.
Taufererthal, 101.
Tellina, Val, 235.
Telvana Castle, 262.
Terriolis, 190.
Tesino, Val, 263.
Teuton survival, 264-277.
Tezze, 256, 263.
Tharer Wirth (Peter Sig-
maier), 104, 105.
Theodoric, King of the
Goths, statue, 17.
Thurn and Taxis, 7.
Tiers, 169.
Titian, 282, 302-305.
Toblach, 106-108, 281, 310-
313; Lake, 313.
Tofana, The, 297, 308, 314.
Tombione, 286.
Torbole, 251, 254, 255.
Torre di Averau, 314.
Trafoi, 228, 229, 230, 234.
Trapp, Counts of, 220.
Tra i Sassi Pass, 308.
Tratzberg, 65.
Travignolo River, 292.
Tre Croci Pass, 297, 313-314.
Tredici Comuni, 264.
Tre Ponte, 317.
Tre Sassi Pass, 297.
Trent, 239-246, 253, 254, 256,
257; Bishops of, 165, 190,
242, 256; Council of, 243-
246.
Trentino and Dante, 247-255.
Trostburg Castle, 134, 150.
Tucker, C. C., 170.
Tuckett, F. H., 227, 228, 232.
Tuckettspitze, The, 227.
Tummelplatz, 35.
Tyrol, Castle of, 174, 189-191,
210; Counts of, 36, 37, 65,
187, 190, 257 ; Crown Land,
xv., 319.
327
Index
Ulrich, St., 134, 135.
Vajolett Valley, 170-172.
Valentine, St., 221.
Valparola Joch (Castello
Pass), 308.
Valstagna, 284, 285.
Van Dyke, Dr. Henry, no,
304.
Venice, 256, 257, 270, 275-
276, 281, 296, 302, 305-307,
315.
Venosti, 217.
Verona, 248, 257, 264, 273.
Vette di Feltre, The, 290.
Vezzena, 265.
Vincentin, Vicenzo, 245.
Vicenza, 264.
Viecht Abbey, 77, 78.
Vienna, 5, 25; Congress
of, 64, 97; Peace of, 208-
209.
Vints^au, 159, 186, 217-222,
228, 230, 233.
Vintage, 175-176.
Vintler, Nicholas and Franz,
181 ; Hans, 182.
Virgil, 241.
Vischer, Peter, 17.
Vito, San, 301.
Vogelweide, Walther von der,
143-150; statue, 162.
Vorarlberg, 45.
Wagram, Battle of, 203.
Waidbruck, 134, 143, 169.
W a 1 d r a s t Spitze, The
(Series), 4.
Wanga, Lords of, 181.
Weber, Beda, 218-219.
Weiherburg Castle, 32.
Weisse Knott, 234.
Weisslahn Bad, 169.
Welschland, 312.
Welsperg, Lords of, 287.
Windisch-Matrei, no, m-
112.
Winklerthurm, 170.
Wolf, Carl, 189.
Wolkenstein, Counts of, 142;
Oswald von, 150-153.
Worgl, 66.
Worms (Bormio), 235.
Wrede, General, 202.
Zaniboni, Eugenic, 248, 252.
Zebru, The, 228.
Zell am See, 69.
Zell am Ziller, 83-85.
Zemmthal, 86.
Zernale, Bernardo, 22.
Zillerthal, vii., 66, 70, 80-86.
Zingerle, Professor I g n a z
von, 62, 144.
Zotto, Antonio dal, 303.
Zurich, 3.
Zwolfmalgreien, 172-173.
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