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 JCHWAT2 
 
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 AUSTRIA 
 
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 MATREI 
 
 BRIXEN 
 
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 DZEN 
 
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 BRVMECKEN 
 
 ENWEBERG 
 
 FREDA: 
 
 PRIMIERO 
 
 STRIGMO 
 
 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 dtibn*, 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 w r hite. 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 
 
 4 2 
 
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 an d 
 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 Florence 7 
 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 w r hen 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 " 2 5- 
 
 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, an d 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: u The 
 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 
 
 39 
 
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. 
 
 328 
 
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