Tyrol and its People Part 9

Maximilian's splendid memorial is well-placed so that its beauty and impressiveness is given full effect, and the spectator is able to consider it not only in detail but as a whole. As an example of sepulchral art of its kind it is unrivalled.

Of a very different character to this magnificent cenotaph is the tomb of Andreas Hofer at the entrance to the left aisle, wrought in Tyrolese marble by Schaller, of Vienna, and with a bas-relief by Joseph Klieber, of Innsbruck, depicting six Tyrolese taking the oath of allegiance to the National flag and cause. On either side of the great patriot lie his comrades, Joseph Speckbacher and Joachim Haspinger. Near them is a tablet inscribed, "From a grateful Fatherland to the sons who perished in the Patriotic Wars," with the date (1838) of erection, and the motto, "Death is swallowed up in Victory."

[Sidenote: STATUETTES IN SILVER CHAPEL]

In the opposite aisle and reached by a flight of steps is the Silberne Kapelle (Silver Chapel), so known because of the silver statuette of the Virgin, presented by the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, who was Regent of Tyrol from 1563-1595, and the embossed representations of the Lauretanian Litany, also in silver, which adorn the altar.

Underneath the marble steps by which the chapel is reached is a notable tomb, the work of Alexander Colin, with a reclining figure of Katharina von Loxen, aunt of Philippine Welser. In the chapel itself are the beautiful tombs of the Archduke Ferdinand, and his first wife Philippine Welser in marble, with effigies which are ascribed to Alexander Colin. The first named tomb is adorned with four scenes of events in the Archduke's life in relief; and the latter with two reliefs. There is also a notable life-size bronze figure of the Archduke kneeling, clad in full armour, with his face turned towards the altar, and his hands folded in prayer. These monuments in themselves are sufficient to ensure a degree of fame for the Silberne Kapelle with all who are either interested in art or historical memorials.

The twenty-three statuettes, originally intended as part of the scheme of Maximilian's cenotaph, to which reference has already been made, have been placed in the chapel without following any particular design or order of arrangement. They have a considerable interest from the fact that they represent saints of royal or n.o.ble birth whose destinies, legendary or real, have been bound up with those of the House of Habsburg. They are frequently overlooked by visitors to Innsbruck and by even those who enter the Hofkirche; but, irrespective of their individual merits, they should be studied on account of having originally formed part of the scheme for the magnificent memorial to Maximilian.

(1) St. Adelgunda, daughter of Walbert, Count of Hainault. (2) St.

Adelbert, Count of Brabant. (3) St. Doda, wife of St. Arnulf, Duke of the Moselle. (4) St. Hermelinda, daughter of Witger, Count of Brabant.

(5) St. Guy, Duke of Lotharingia. (6) St. Simpert, Bishop of Augsburg, son of Charlemagne's sister Symporiana, who rebuilt the monastery of St. Magnus at Fussen. (7) St. Jodok, son of a king of Great Britain, wearing a Palmer's dress. (8) St. Landerich, Bishop of Metz, son of St. Vincent, Count of Hainault, and St. Waltruda. (9) St. Clovis. (10) St. Oda, wife of Duke Conrad. (11) St. Pharaild, daughter of Witger, Count of Brabant. (12) St. Reinbert, her brother. (13) St. Ronald, brother of St. Simpert, Bishop of Augsburg. (14) St. Stephen, King of Hungary. (15) St. Venantius, martyr, son of Theodoric, Duke of Lotharingia. (16) St. Waltruda, mother of St. Landerich. (17) St.

Arnulf, husband of St. Doda, afterwards Bishop of Metz. (18) St.

Chlodulf, son of St. Waltruda. (19) St. Gudula, sister of St. Albert, Count of Brabant. (20) St. Pepin Teuto, Duke of Brabant. (21) St.

Trudo, priest, son of St. Adela. (22) St. Vincent, monk. (23) Richard Coeur-de-Lion. All of whom were more or less closely related or a.s.sociated with the royal house of Habsburg.

The monuments which we have referred to, gathered within the walls of the Hofkirche, serve to conjure up for those versed in Tyrolese history many stirring, romantic, and tragic episodes. To this historic building was the beautiful Philippine Welser borne from Castle Ambras to her last resting-place. And here knelt the Archduke Leopold V. at his marriage with the lovely Claudia Felicitas de Medici, whilst all the while there rolled the thunder and tumult of the Thirty Years' War beyond the frontier of Tyrol. And a few years later came Queen Christian of Sweden to make her abjuration of the Protestant faith on October 28, 1655. We read in one account of this imposing and impressive ceremony that the Queen was attired in a plain black silk gown, and wore no other jewels than a cross on her breast in which flashed five great diamonds of wonderful beauty symbolical of the five wounds of Christ. Her repet.i.tion of the Latin profession of faith after the Papal nuncio, we are told, was so clear and emphasized as to attract general comment. Not only was the Ambrosian hymn sung after the ceremony, but "the Innsbruckers celebrated the event of her conversion to the true faith by the firing of cannon and the ringing of the church bells." An ever popular ceremony which marked her stay in the town was the procession of the favourite picture of Tyrol, Cranach's Madonna brought to the country by Leopold V. Mystery plays, which are still popular in Tyrol, were also performed, and the event was made the excuse or occasion for much general rejoicing.

The historic Hofkirche has seen more joyful scenes and sadder than the renunciation of Queen Christian, for in it was held a solemn thanksgiving service on behalf of yet another Claudia de Medici, the Tyrolese princess who was chosen for his bride by the Emperor Leopold I. And here in more modern times knelt Andreas Hofer to receive the gifts of his Emperor, the medal and chain which were hung around his neck when he was made Regent or Governor of Tyrol.

Into this Hofkirche, which was destined to provide him ultimately with a fit resting-place, he also came to return thanks after his greatest triumph over the invaders of his country, on Berg Isel, whilst outside the church the brave citizens of Innsbruck were acclaiming him Dictator, and cheering in a delirium of joy.

[Sidenote: ABBEY OF WILTEN]

No description of Innsbruck, however brief, could be deemed complete without at least a pa.s.sing reference to the famous Abbey of Wilten which stands on the outskirts of the south-western portion of the town. The present Abbey belonging to the Praemonstratensian Order was founded in the eleventh century upon the site where stood the Roman settlement of Veldidena. The Abbey and Church of that day, however, have been so frequently damaged by fire that during the centuries it has been practically reconstructed. The story of its foundation forms one of the most remarkable of Tyrolese legends, and exhibits in its incidents with extraordinary clearness the conflict taking place in those times between the doctrines of Christianity and Heathendom.

[Sidenote: HAIMON AND THE DRAGON]

Certain authorities state that the Romans, when they entered the country, found a town already existing, which they adopted as one of their most important stations, and re-named Veldidena. This settlement, however, was, according to tradition, destroyed by Attila on his way back through the country after the desperate Battle of Chalons; but it nevertheless continued to be a largely frequented station in the stretch of country lying between the Po and the Rhine owing to the convenience of its situation and the existence of the famous Brenner Road. Afterwards came the expedition of Theodoric of Verona against Chriemhild's Garden of Roses at Worms; and we are told amongst those who enlisted in Theodoric's service and distinguished themselves at the taking of the famous Rose Garden was one Haimo or Haimon (now believed to be the Heime of "the Heldenbuch") who, after the expedition, came through Tyrol in his master's victorious train.

This Haimon was a giant, taller and more powerful even than Goliath himself; and as he approached Veldidena he found barring his progress another giant named Thyrsus (now identified as Schrudan) living near Zirl. This latter giant having heard of Haimon's prowess, and as his own supremacy had hitherto remained unchallenged, determined to force Haimon to fight him.

Theodoric's giant proved willing enough for the encounter, and scarcely, indeed, waited to be challenged. Thyrsus, although the bigger and more terrible of aspect, with a skin bronzed by the open-air life he had led, and his muscles developed and kept in condition by constant exercise, was not so skilful and wily as his opponent, whose every movement showed him to be a master in both the arts of attack and defence.

We are told that Thyrsus grasped in his hand a pine tree which he had torn up by the roots to serve as a weapon, and that at every movement of his the ground shook under his tread, which made a noise like thunder. Rushing impetuously to attack Haimon he found the latter cool and collected, watchful of his antagonist's every movement, and waiting patiently for the opportunity of striking a decisive blow. As the t.i.tanic struggle went on, Haimon merely acting on the defensive, Thyrsus became weary, and then Haimon gathering all his force together fell upon him and slew him.

The story goes on to tell how a Benedictine monk of Tegernsee, pa.s.sing whilst Haimon was still flushed with victory, stopped to reason with him on the worthlessness of mere brutal strength and all that he had hitherto deemed of value, and succeeded so well in painting the attractions of a better life that the giant was converted on the spot, and thenceforth abandoned his life of battle and bloodshed, and devoted his time and strength to the service of G.o.d. One of his first acts was to start building with his own hands a church and monastery on the site of ruined Veldidena on the banks of the Sill.

The legend tells us that he quarried the stone necessary for this undertaking with his own hands, and at last the day came when he had sufficient to lay the foundations of the church. He found, however, that the work he did in the day was always undone at night, so that he made no progress. This, though he did not know it, was the work of the devil; who, in the form of a huge dragon, had hidden himself in a cave with the express purpose of thwarting Haimon's pious intentions.

At last the latter realized that he must watch and discover what happened. This he did, and after a little time one evening the dragon emerged from his cave, lashing the ground with his tail in his fury, and filling the air with the sulphurous smoke and flame which he breathed out. Great as was his strength, Haimon at once realized that he could not overcome so terrible an enemy easily; so commending his soul to G.o.d he waited with a brave heart. Soon dawn began to break over the mountains, and at the first glimpse of light the dragon turned and fled back to his lair. Haimon, taking courage at the sight, set off in pursuit, and by-and-by they both arrived at the cave in which the dragon was accustomed to hide during the day. The entrance was so narrow that when the monster had got partly in it was impossible for him to turn, and so Haimon, seeing his opportunity, raised his sword, and calling on G.o.d to strengthen him, cut off the dragon's head with a single blow. Then he cut out the tongue or sting of the monster as a trophy, and eventually hung it up in the sanctuary of the church. Nowadays one is shown at Wilten a representation of this dragon's tongue, which we are told was above two feet in length.

The dragon once dead the building progressed rapidly, and when it was finished Haimon, no doubt in an ebullition of joy, seized a huge rock, which he had quarried, but did not need to use for the foundations, and threw it with all his might into the valley. It was a good throw, for the rock, after nearly two miles of flight, struck against the hill of Ambras and fell into the valley, where it may yet be seen!

Haimon endowed the Abbey with all the land which stretched between its site and the stone at the foot of the hill of Ambras.

Now it only remained to colonize the monastery, and ultimately the Benedictines came to inhabit it, and here the giant lived amongst them a life of penance and good works, dying in the year 878. His body, so tradition states, was buried on the right-hand side of the high altar in the church. But although many searches have been made for his remains during the period which elapsed between his death and the middle of the seventeenth century, they have never been discovered.

But the last search in 1644 was disastrous as well as unsuccessful, because it undermined a great part of the wall of the church, which collapsed. The popular belief in the two giants is kept alive by the huge wooden statues representing them, which are placed at the entrance of the church. The interior of the building is in the form of a basilica, and contains not only frescoes by Caspar Waldmann, but also some good pictures by Grasmayr, Busjager, Andersag, Egid Schor, and other artists.

The Abbey of Wilten in those days was one of the three most important in Tyrol, and was not only the centre of religious, but also of the artistic life of the country, and it nowadays possesses some very interesting and valuable pictures.

One of the most famous of the old-time inmates of the Abbey was Petermann, once a lover of the licentious Margaret of Tyrol, yclept "Pocket-Mouthed Meg." After her abdication in 1367, Petermann entered the monastery to expiate the sins and follies of his youth. He endowed the Abbey with an estate, but he showed his business capacity by having an agreement drawn up with the Abbot setting forth the terms upon which he joined the brotherhood. Amongst other things he was, firstly, to derive benefit from all the ma.s.ses said by the monks, and the good works performed by them; secondly, was to have two servants to wait upon him, who were to share the meals of the brethren; thirdly, he, himself, was to have food similar to that served to the Abbot and wines from the monastic cellar. Apparently the arrangement did not, after all, fit in with the views of Petermann, for we find he afterwards insisted upon an increase in his food allowance to the extent of a capon, four fowls, forty eggs, and four pounds of b.u.t.ter, with sufficient hay for the feeding of his three horses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A PINE WOOD NEAR INNSBRUCK]

[Sidenote: A LEGEND OF WILTEN]

The other church at Wilten (the Parish Church), which stands on the opposite side of Leopold-Stra.s.se, dates only from the latter part of the eighteenth century, and was built as a secular church in conformity with the decree of the Emperor Joseph II., by Franz Penz of Telfs, in the Rococo style of architecture. On the high altar of the church is a very ancient and quaint Madonna known as "Mutter Gottes unter den vier Saulen" carved in sandstone, the legend relating to which is as follows: The "Thundering Legion" of Marcus Aurelius, when stationed at Veldidena about the year 137, brought this image with them, which they are stated to have worshipped, and on one occasion, when departing for an expedition to a distant part of the country, they buried it under four trees, and as they did not return had no opportunity of resurrecting it. There it lay for many years, until one, Rathold Von Aiblingen, after making a pilgrimage to Rome, where he heard the story of its burying and the place of its concealment, dug it up and set it upon the altar in a _baldachino_, which was supported by four pillars, where it has always been an object of much veneration. Amongst its many famous devotees was Frederick of the Empty Purse, who, during his wanderings through Tyrol with his trusty Hans Von Mullinen, when under the ban of the church, came and knelt before the shrine and prayed for a blessing. Afterwards, when he had regained his possessions, he attributed his success to the intervention of the Madonna at Wilten and caused a picture to be painted of himself and his esquire, in which they are shown kneeling at the shrine under the protective mantle of the Virgin. This quaint picture is now hung in the church amongst many other curious and often pathetic votive offerings.

In the mortuary chapel is a rudely carved and painted wooden statue of Haimon holding the dragon's tongue in his hand. There are also some of Grasmayr's paintings to be seen in the church, and in the adjoining churchyard, from which one can obtain a most beautiful view of the valley and surrounding mountains, is the modern Calvary by the Tyrolean sculptor, Professor Fuss. In this quiet spot, crowded with memories of the dead past, one is able in a measure to conjure up pictures of the times when the Etruscan, Roman, and Gothic invaders poured into the valley by the Brenner Pa.s.s and overran Tyrol, and left upon the country and the people enduring traces of their occupation.

The Wilten Churches are both of simple architectural style, but nevertheless are effective and even impressive when seen amidst the environment of a beautiful landscape, with their picturesque, red-capped towers lit by the Alpine sunlight, and with their buff-coloured walls beautified by the stains of weather and of time.

[Sidenote: WINTER SPORTS]

Numerous as are the undoubted attractions of Innsbruck in early spring, summer, and autumn, when the encircling fields and mountain slopes are gay with Alpine flowers, and beautiful with the varied tints of the foliage of trees and shrubs, the town is yearly becoming more widely known and more largely frequented as a winter holiday resort, where what are generally known as "winter sports" can be indulged in to one's heart's content. Indeed, Innsbruck, which possesses one of the largest and most beautiful ice rinks in Europe, takes a very leading part in the Tyrolean winter sports. One of the town's most remarkable features is its climate, which, notwithstanding the proximity of huge ma.s.ses of ice and snow, not only upon the summits of the towering mountains of the Karwendel, but also on the lower slopes, and in the valley of the Inn itself, is a mild one, and the sunny days are many.

One of the most delightful Alpine experiences possible, for those who do not take part in the more active sports of ski running, skating, or tobogganing, is a sleigh ride on the Brenner Road to Matrei or even further, returning on the other side of the gorge of the Sill by way of Igls and Patsch. Expert ski runners find many opportunities for exercising their skill, the more adventurous and hardy making excursions far afield in the valley of the Inn. A very favourite ground for this pastime of ski-ing is on the farther side of the Sill near Natters and Mutters, where are to be found those immense plateaux of smooth-surfaced snow beloved of good runners, and a beautiful landscape forming a charming background. Expert runners, however, frequently extend their field of operations into the Karwendel mountains, or as far as the Kalkkogel in the beautiful Stubai valley.

Tobogganing has become not only a fashionable pastime amongst visitors, but also with the better cla.s.s inhabitants of Innsbruck. And thus every evening when the snow is sufficient and in good condition, hundreds of tobogganers make their way of the heights of Igls and Mutters, where the best tracks are prepared.

Sunday is, however, the great day; and then the long runs near Hall and Oberperfutz are crowded with hundreds of bob-sleighs and tobogganers. The Hall run is famous throughout Tyrol. A road extends from Salzberg far into the Karwendel mountains, pa.s.sing through beautiful Alpine scenery to Hall itself, forming a natural run or track some five kilometres (just over three miles) in length, with a drop of nearly 3000 feet in that distance. The Innsbruck Club, by means of a snow plough, keeps a run about fifteen feet wide clear.

This track is to be soon further lengthened to the extent of two kilometres by carrying it as far as Lafatscherjoch, where several important races are arranged and held every year.

Winter sports are indulged in on all sides. Along the valley of the swiftly flowing Inn from Schwaz, past Jenbach and Brixlegg on to Kufstein, one finds facilities for those most invigorating of pastimes tobogganing, ski-ing, and skating. Even the children have their little home-made and often ornamented toboggans, and on the mountain roads and by-paths one meets with scores of youngsters emulating their elders and foreign visitors; whilst the frozen tributary streams which fall into the Inn provide fine skating grounds and curling links without stint set amid the delightful scenery, which had so much to do with the popularity of the valley of the Inn and Innsbruck as winter holiday resorts.

It is not without reason that many who come to the capital of Tyrol return again and again, finding in its life and movement, its historic buildings, a.s.sociations, and art treasures material for study; in its climate renewed health and vigour.

The circle of snow-capped environing hills, upon which effects of cloud and sunlight ceaselessly pa.s.s, never palls; and in the ancient byways and secluded courtyards ears and minds attuned to the historic past seem to catch the echoes and see visions of stirring scenes, and the pageantry of long ago when knights and ladies and serving-men, and burghers in quaint old-time costumes trod the rough-paved streets.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] See Zoller's "Geschichte der Stadt Innsbruck."

[11] By some authorities the work is stated to have been carried out by Andrea Crivelli of Trent.

[12] See Kloppel's "Maximilian."

[13] This is as stated in Baedeker, and is the view of several authorities, though by no means certain.-C. H.

CHAPTER V

THE ENVIRONS OF INNSBRUCK--CASTLE AMBRAS AND ITS TREASURES--IGLS: A QUAINT LEGEND CONCERNING ITS CHURCH--THE STUBAI VALLEY, AND SOME VILLAGES--HALL AND ITS SALT MINES--SPECKBACHER'S OLD HOME--ST. MICHAEL

Distant from Innsbruck about three miles by a shady road running eastward from Berg Isel, which forms a charming walk of a summer afternoon, stands the famous Castle Ambras on a well-wooded spur of the Mittelgebirge overlooking the wide Inn Valley, and with a fine view of the slopes and peaked summits of the limestone mountains which shut in the valley. It is a conspicuous and commanding feature of the landscape when seen from the latter, its yellow-grey walls pierced with many windows showing up against a background of dark-green forest. But on a fine summer day Castle Ambras is too bare-looking and insistent in colour to be entirely picturesque.