NORTH TIROL--THE INNTHAL.
INNSBRUCK (continued).
Ora conosce come s'innamora
Lo Ciel del giusto rege, et al sembiante
Del suo fulgore il fa vedere ancora.
Dante Paradiso, xx. 63. [152]
Another local tradition of Ambras attaches to a spot where Wallenstein,
while a page in the household of Ferdinand and Philippine, fell
unharmed from the window of the corridor leading to the dining-hall,
making in the terrible moment a secret vow to the Blessed Virgin
of his conversion if he escaped with life, which hastened the work
begun doubtless by Philippine's devout example and teaching. There
is another, again, more marvellous still, and dated from an earlier
period, and shortly before the purchase of the castle by the reigning
family. It is said that Theophrastus Paracelsus, of whom many weird
stories are told, was at one time sojourning at Innsbruck--where,
another tradition has it, he died--and in the course of his wanderings
in search of plants of strange healing powers, came to this outlying
and then neglected castle. A peasant woman seeing him pass her cottage
weary and footsore, asked him to come in and rest and taste her
freshly-baked cakes, of which the homely odour scented the air. The
man of strange science thanked her for her hospitality, and in return
touched the tongs upon the hearth with his wonder-working book, and
behold the iron was turned into pure gold. The origin of such a legend
as this is easy to trace; the book of the touch of which such virtue
is fabled, plainly represents the learning of the studious savant,
which brought him, as well as fame, pecuniary advantage, enabling him
to astonish the peasants with payment in the precious metal not often
seen by them. But there are many others told of him, the details of
which are more complicated, and wander much further from the outline
of fact. The way in which he became possessed of his wonder-working
power is thus accounted for. [153] One Sunday morning, when he was
after his custom wandering in search of plants in a forest on the
heights not far from Innsbruck, he heard a voice calling him out of a
tree. 'Who are you?' cried Paracelsus. 'I am he whom men call the Evil
One,' answered the voice; 'but how wrong they are you shall judge;
if you but release me out of this tree you shall see I am not evil
at all.' 'How am I to set about it?' asked the clever Doctor. 'Only
look straight up the stem of the pine opposite you, and you will see
a bung with three crosses on it; all you have to do is to pull it
out, and I am free; if you do this I will show you how good I am by
giving you the two things you most desire, an elixir which shall turn
all to gold, and another which shall heal every malady.' Paracelsus,
lured by the tempting promise, pulled out the bung, and straightway
an ugly black spider crawled out of the hole, and quickly transformed
itself into an old man wrapped in a scarlet mantle. The demon kept his
word, and gave the Doctor the promised phials, but immediately began
threatening the frightful vengeance he would wreak on the exorcist
who had confined him in the tree. Paracelsus now blamed himself
for his too ready confidence in the character the demon had given
himself for goodness, and bethought him of a means of playing on the
imp's vanity. 'What a knowing man that same exorcist must be,' said
Paracelsus, 'to turn a tall powerful fellow like you into a spider,
and then drive you into a tree.' 'Not a bit of it,' replied the imp,
piqued, 'he couldn't have done anything of the sort, it was all my
own doing.' 'Your own doing!' exclaimed Paracelsus, with a mocking
laugh. 'Is that likely? I have heard of people being transformed by
some one of greater power than themselves, never by their own.' 'You
shall see, though,' said the provoked imp; and with that he quickly
resumed the form of a spider, and crawled back into the hole. [154]
Paracelsus, it may well be imagined, lost no time in replacing the
bung, on which he cut three fresh crosses to renew the spell; and
never can he again be released, for it was agreed never to cut down
this forest on account of the protection it afforded to the country
against the avalanches.
But, it may be asked, the wonder-working phials once vouchsafed to
men, would surely be taken good care of. There is a legend to provide
for that too. [155] When the other doctors of Innsbruck found that
Paracelsus so far exceeded them in skill, they determined to poison
him. Paracelsus had knowledge of their plot by his arts, he knew too
that there was only one remedy against the poison they had adopted,
and he shut himself up, telling his servant not to disturb him for
five days. At the end of the fourth day, however, the curious servant
came into his room and broke the spell. Paracelsus had employed a
wonder-working spider to draw out the poison, which it would have done
in the course of five days. Disturbed on the fourth, Paracelsus knew
he must die. Determined that the jealous members of his profession
should not profit by their crime, he sent his servant with the two
phials and bid him stand in the middle of the Inn-bridge and throw
them into the river. Where they fell into the river the water was
streaked with molten gold.
It remains to call attention to the splendid and truly Tirolean
panoramic view from the pretty terrace of Ambras, with its luxuriant
trellis of passion-flower and 'virgin vine.' Overhanging the village
of Ambras is the so-called Tummelplatz, where in the lifetime of
Ferdinand and Philippine, many a gay tournament was held, but since
used as a burying-place; first for the military hospital, to which
the castle was at one time devoted--and some seven or eight thousand
patriots were interred here between 1796 and 1810--and afterwards
for those who fell successfully resisting the Italian invasion of 1859.
Whatever was the manner of Philippine's death, it was bitterly lamented
by Ferdinand, who found the usual refuge of human grief in raising a
splendid monument to her memory, in the so-called Silberne Kapelle in
the Hofkirche. The chapel had been built by him to satisfy her devotion
to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception; and in her lifetime was
so called from the solid silver image of the Blessed Virgin, and the
bas-reliefs of the mysteries of the rosary in the same metal over the
altar, itself a valuable ebony carving. She had loved to pray there,
and it accordingly formed a fitting resting-place for her mortal
remains. Her effigy in marble over her altar-shaped tomb is a figure
of exceeding beauty, and is ascribed to Alexander Collin; it stands
under a marble canopy. The upright slab is of white marble, carved
in three compartments; the centre one bearing a modest inscription,
and the other two, subjects recording her charity to the living and the
dead; the outline of the town of Innsbruck, as it appeared in her day,
forms the background. By his desire Ferdinand was buried near her;
his monument is similarly sunk in the thickness of the wall, which is
adorned with shields carved in relief, bearing the arms of his house
painted with their respective tinctures; and on the tomb are marble
reliefs, setting forth (after the manner of those on Maximilian's
cenotaph) the public acts of his life. This chapel came to be used
afterwards for Italian sermons by the consorts of subsequent rulers
of Tirol, many of whom were Italians.
In 1572 Innsbruck was visited by a severe shock of earthquake, which
overthrew many buildings, and so filled the people with alarm, that
temporary wooden huts were built in the open field where they took
refuge. Ferdinand and Philippine had recourse to the same means of
safety; and while living thus, their only daughter, Anna Eleonora,
was born. In thanksgiving for this favour, and for the cessation
of the panic, the royal pair vowed a pilgrimage to Seefeld, [156]
which they accomplished on foot, accompanied by their sons; above
two thousand Innsbruckers following them. The general sentiment
of gratitude was further testified by the enactment on the part
of Ferdinand, and the glad acceptance on the part of the people,
of various rules of devotion, which have gone to form the subsequent
habits of the people. Three years of dearth succeeded the earthquake,
and were accepted by the pious ruler and people as a heavenly warning
to lead them to increased faith and devotion. Many Lutheran books
which had escaped earlier measures against them were spontaneously
brought forward and burnt; special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament
was promoted, Ferdinand himself setting the example; for whenever he
met the Viaticum on the way to the sick, whether he was in a carriage
or on horseback, he never failed to alight and kneel upon the ground,
whatever might be its condition. This was indeed a special tradition of
his house; it is told of Rudolf of Hapsburg, that one day as he was out
hunting, a furious storm came on, soon swelling the mountain torrents
and sweeping away paths and bridges. On the brink of a raging stream,
which there was no means of crossing, stood a priest, weather-bound on
his way to carry the last sacrament to a dying parishioner. Rudolf
recognised the sound of the bell, and directed his steps by its
leading to pay his homage to the 'hochwürdigste Gut.' He no sooner
learned the priest's difficulty than he dismounted, and offered him
his own horse. When the priest brought the animal back next day, the
pious prince told him he could not think of himself again crossing a
horse which had been honoured by having borne his Lord and Redeemer,
and begged him to keep it for the future service of religion.
While Philippine's relations never sought to overstep the limits which
imperial etiquette had set them, Ferdinand seems to have treated them
with kind cordiality. An instance of this was the magnificence with
which he celebrated the marriage of her nephew, Johann von Kolourat,
with her maid-of-honour, Katarina von Boimont, in 1580: the 'Neustadt'
or principal street afforded space for tournaments and races which
lasted many days, and attracted the remaining votaries of chivalry
from all parts of Europe. The festivities were closed by a splendid
pageant, in which Ferdinand took part as 'Olympian Jove.'
In 1582 Ferdinand married Anna Katharina Gonzaga, daughter of the Duke
of Mantua, who was no less pious than Philippine. The marriage was
celebrated at Innsbruck with great pomp. She was the first to introduce
the Capuchin Order into Germany. Some discussion in the general chapter
of the Order preceded the decision which allowed the monks to accept
the consequences of being exposed to a colder climate than that to
which they had been used. The first stone of their monastery was laid
by Ferdinand and Anna Katharina in August 1593, at the intersection
of the Universitäts-gasse and the Sill-gasse. Ferdinand died the
following year, regretted by all the people, but by none more than by
Anna Katharina, who passed the remainder of her days in a convent she
had founded at Innsbruck. She died in 1621, and desired the following
inscription to be put on her tomb:--'Miserere mei Domine dum veneris
in novissimo die.'
The warning of the disastrous years 1572-4 was further turned
to practical account by Ferdinand in his desire to relieve the
distress of the peasants. In the first months of threatening famine
he bought with his own means large stores of grain in Hungary and
Italy, and opened depôts in various parts of Tirol, where it was
sold at a reasonable price. To provide a means of earning money for
those who were shut out of their ordinary labour, he laid out or
improved some of the most important high roads; he likewise exerted
himself in every way to promote the commerce of the country. His
reign conferred many other benefits on the people. Many laws were
amended and brought in conformity with the altered circumstances of
the age; the principle of self-taxation was established, and other
measures enacted which it does not belong to my present province to
particularise. He introduced also the use of the Gregorian Calendar,
and gave great encouragement to the cultivation of letters. It was
by his care that the most authentic MSS. of the Nibelungen poems and
other examples of early literature were preserved to us.
As Ferdinand had no children by Anna Katharina, and those of Philippine
were not allowed to succeed, [157] the rule over Tirol went back at
his death to the Emperor Rudolf II., Maximilian's eldest son. In 1602,
however, he gave over the government to his brother Maximilian, who
is distinguished by the name of the Deutschmeister. Tirol was again
fortunate in her ruler; Maximilian was as pious and prudent a prince
as his predecessors. He promoted the educational establishments
of the town, and was a zealous opponent of religious differences;
he brought in the Order of Servites to oppose the remaining germs
of Lutheran teaching; the church and monastery at the end of the
Neustadt being built for them by Katharina Maria. There are some
pictures in the church by Theophilus Polak, Martin Knoller, Grasmair,
and other native artists; and the frescoes on the roof by Schöpf
are worth attention. A fanatic named Paul Lederer, one of the very
few Tirol has produced, rose in this reign, and carried away about
thirty persons to join a kind of sect which he attempted to form;
in accordance with the laws of the age, he was tried and executed,
after which his followers were no more heard of.
Maximilian was much attached to the Capuchins, and built himself
a little hermitage within their precincts, which is still shown,
where he spent all the time he could spare in prayer and meditation;
following the rule of the monks, rising with them to their night
Offices, and employing himself at manual labour in the field and
in the workshop like one of them. His cell is paneled with plain
wood, the bed and chair are of the most ordinary make, as are the
ink-stand and other necessary articles, mostly his own handiwork;
it has a window high up in the chancel, whence he could assist at the
Offices in the church. The Empress Maria Theresa visited it in 1765,
and seating herself in the stiff wooden chair, exclaimed, 'What men
our forefathers were!' Another illustrious pilgrim, whose visit is
treasured in the memories of the house, was St. Lorenzo of Brindisi,
when on his way to found a house of the Order in Austria. The monks
begged of him his Hebrew Bible, his walking-stick, and breviary,
which are still treasured as relics. All the churches of Innsbruck and
many throughout Tirol felt the benefit of Maximilian's devotion to the
Church. His spirit was emulated by the townspeople, and when the fatal
epidemic of 1611 ceased its ravages, the burghers of Innsbruck built
the Dreiheiligkeitskirche [158] for the Jesuits, as a thank-offering
that the plague was stayed.
The temporal affairs of Tirol received no less attention from
Archduke Maximilian than the spiritual. With the foresight of a true
statesman, he discovered the coming troubles of the Thirty Years' War,
and resolved that the defences of his country should be in a state
to keep the danger at a distance from her borders. The fortified
towers, especially those commanding the passes into the country,
were all overlooked, and plans of them carefully prepared, all the
fortifications being put in repair. The Landwehr, the living bulwarks,
the ready defenders of their beloved mountain Vaterland, attracted his
still more special attention, and he furnished them with a regulation
suited to the needs of the times. He settled also several outstanding
disputes with the Venetians, with Count Arco, and with neighbours over
the north and west frontiers; and an internal boundary quarrel between
the Bishops of Brixen and Trent. The death of Rudolf II., in 1612, had
invested him with supreme authority over the country, and simplified
his action in all these matters for the benefit of the commonwealth.
Another outburst of pestilence occurred in 1611; the old Siechen-haus
was not big enough for all the sick, and had no church attached to
it. Two Jesuits--the professor of theology at their university, and
Kaspar von Köstlan, a native of Brixen--assisted by a lay-brother,
devoted themselves to the service of the sick; their example so
edified the Innsbruckers, that in their admiration they readily
provided the means, at their exhortation, to build a church. Hanns
Zimmermann, Dean of the Burgomasters, bound himself by a vow to see
to the erection of the building, and from that time it was observed
the fury of the pestilence began to diminish. Maximilian bought the
neighbouring house and appointed it for the residence of the chaplain
of the Siechen-haus and the doctors. He gave also the altarpiece by
Stötzl, representing the three Pestschutzheiligen, [159] and another
quaint and curious picture of the plague-genius.
Maximilian died in 1618, and a religious vow having kept him unmarried,
the government was transferred to Leopold V., Archduke of Styria,
again a most exemplary man. His father was Charles II., son of
the Emperor Ferdinand I.; he had originally been devoted to the
ecclesiastical state, and nominated Bishop of Strasburg and Passau;
but out of regard for the exigencies of the country a dispensation,
of which I think history affords only two or three other examples,
was granted him from Rome. He married the celebrated Claudia de'
Medici, Duchess of Urbino. Though also Governor of the Low Countries,
he by no means neglected the affairs of Tirol. Some fresh attempts of
Lutherans to interfere with its religious unity, as well as to foment
political dissensions, were put down with a resolute hand. Friedrich
von Tiefenbach, sometime notorious as a politico-religious leader in
Moravia, was discovered in a hiding-place he had selected, in the
wild caves at Pfäffers [160] below Chur, and tried and beheaded at
Innsbruck in 1621. The selection of Innsbruck for the marriage of
the Emperor Ferdinand II. with his second wife Eleonora, daughter of
the Duke of Mantua, in 1622, revived the splendours of Maximilian's
reign, for the Emperor stayed there some weeks with all his court;
the Landwehr turned out three thousand strong to form his guard of
honour. It was the depth of winter, but the bride braved the snow;
the Count of Harrach was sent out to meet her on the Brenner Pass with
six gilt sledges, and a vast concourse of people. It is recorded that
the Emperor wore on the occasion an entirely white suit embroidered
with gold and pearls, on his shoulders a short sky-blue cloak lined
with cloth of gold, and a diamond chain round his neck. Eleonora,
more in accordance with the season, wore a tight-fitting dress of
carnation satin embroidered in gold, over it a sable jacket, and a
hat with a plume of eagles' feathers. The banquet was entirely served
by young Tirolean nobles. The Emperor's present to his bride was a
pearl parure, costing thirty thousand ducats; and that of the town of
Innsbruck a purse of eighteen thousand ducats. Leopold was confirmed
by his imperial brother in the government on this occasion. His own
marriage was celebrated with scarcely less state than the Emperor's in
April 1626, an array of handsome tents being pitched in the meadows
of Wilten, where the Landesschützen performed many marksmen's feats
for the diversion of the company assembled for the ceremonial. This
included the Archbishop of Salzburg, who officiated in the Church
function, one hundred and fifty counts and barons, and three hundred
of noble blood. The visit of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1628,
and of Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia, in 1629, were other
notable occasions of rejoicing for Innsbruck.
Leopold benefited and adorned the town by the enclosure and planting
of the Hofgarten, and the bronze equestrian statue of himself, still
one of its chief ornaments; but his memory has been more deeply
endeared to the people by the present of Kranach's Madonna, which
they have copied in almost every church, household, and highway of
the country. It is a little picture on panel, very like many of its
date, in which the tenderness of devotion beams through and redeems
all the stiffness of mannerism; but which we are apt to pass, I had
almost said by the dozen, in the various galleries of Europe, with no
more than a casual glance. With the Tirolese it was otherwise. Their
faith-inspired eyes saw in it a whole revelation of Divine mercy
and love; they gazed on the outpouring of maternal fondness and
filial confidence in the unutterable communion of the Mother and the
Son there portrayed; and deeming that where so much love reigned no
petition could be rejected, they believed that answers to the frequent
prayers of faith sent up before it were reaped an hundredfold, [161]
and the fame of the benefits so derived was symbolized in the title
universally given to the picture, of Mariähülfsbild. [162] Leopold
being in the early part of his reign on a visit to the Elector of
Saxony, on occasion of one of his journeys between Tirol and the
Low Countries, and being lost in admiration of his collection of
pictures at Dresden, received from him the offer of any painting he
liked to select. There were many choice specimens, but the devotional
conception of this picture carried him away from all the rest, and it
became the object of his selection. He never parted from it afterwards,
and it accompanied him in all his journeyings. When in Innsbruck, it
formed the altar-piece of the Hofkapelle, whither the people crowded
to kindle their devotion at its focus. After the withdrawal of the
allied French, Swedish, and Hessian troops in 1647, the Innsbruckers,
in thanksgiving for the success of their prayers before it, built
the elegant little circular temple [163] on the left bank of the Inn,
still called the Mariähülfskirche, thinking to enshrine it there; but
Ferdinand Karl, who had then succeeded to his father Leopold, could
not bear to part with it, and gave them a copy instead, by Paul Schor,
inserted in a larger picture representing it borne by angels, and the
notabilities of Innsbruck kneeling beneath it, the Mariähülfskirche
being introduced into the background landscape. However, the number of
people who pressed to approach it was so great that he was in a manner
constrained to bestow it on the Pfarrkirche only two or three years
later, where it now remains; it was translated thither during Queen
Christina's visit, as I have mentioned above. It was borne on a car by
six white horses, the crowded streets being strewn with flowers. It
is a small picture, and has been let into a large canvas painted in
Schöpf's best manner, with angels which appear to support it, and
beneath St. James, patron of the church, and St. Alexius. A centenary
festival was observed in memory of the translation by Maria Theresa
in 1750, when all the precious ex votos, the thank-offerings for many
granted prayers, were exposed to view under the light streaming from a
hundred silver candelabra, the air around being perfumed by the flowers
of a hundred silver vases. The procession was a splendid pageant, in
which no expense seems to have been spared, the great Empress herself,
accompanied by her son, afterwards Joseph II., heading it. This was
repeated--in a manner corresponding with the diminished magnificence
of the age--in 1850, the Emperor Ferdinand I., the Empress Anna, and
other members of the Imperial family, taking their part in it. [164]
The only remaining act of Leopold's reign which calls for mention
in connexion with Innsbruck, was the erection of the monument to
Maximilian the Deutschmeister, in the Pfarrkirche, almost the only one
that was spared when the church was rebuilt after the earthquakes of
1667 and 1689, the others having been ruthlessly used--the headstones
in building up the walls, the bronze ones in the bell-castings.
Leopold's son, Ferdinand Karl, being under age at the time of
his death, in 1632, he was succeeded by his widow, Claudia de'
Medici, as regent. The troubles of the Thirty Years' War, in which
Leopold like other German princes had had his chequered share,
were yet raging. Claudia was equal to the exigencies of her time and
country. She continued the measures of Maximilian the Deutschmeister
for perfecting the defences of the country, and particularly all its
inlets; and she encouraged the patriotic instincts of the people
by constantly presiding at their shooting-practice. The Swedish
forces, after taking Constance, advanced as far as the Valtelin,
and Tirol was threatened with invasion on both sides at once. By
her skilful measures, at every rumour of an inroad, the mountains
bristled with the unerring marksmen of Tirol, securely stationed
at their posts inaccessible to lowlanders. Nothing was spared to
keep up the vigilance and spirit of the true-hearted peasants. By
this constant watchfulness she saved the country from the horrors of
war, in which almost the whole of the German Empire was at that time
involved. During all this time she was also developing the internal
resources, and consolidating the administration of the country. Two
misfortunes, however, visited Innsbruck during her reign: a terrible
pestilence, and a destructive fire in which the Burg suffered severely,
the beautiful chapel of Ferdinand II. being consumed, and the body of
Leopold, her husband, which was lying there at the time, rescued with
difficulty. After this, Claudia spent some little time at Botzen, and
also visited Florence. It may be questioned whether the introduction of
the numerous Italians about her court was altogether for the benefit
of Tirol. They brought with them certain ways and principles which
were not altogether in accordance with the German character; and we
have seen the effect of the jealousies of race in the tragic fate of
her chancellor Biener. [165]
Ferdinand Karl having attained his majority in 1646, Claudia withdrew
from public affairs, and died only two years later. In his reign
the introduction of the Italian element at court was apparent in the
greater luxury of its arrangements, and in the greater cultivation of
histrionic and musical diversions. The establishment of the theatre
in Innsbruck is due to him. The marriage of his two sisters, Maria
Leopoldina and Isabella Clara, and the frequent interchange of visits
between him and the princes of Italy, further enlivened Innsbruck. The
visit of Queen Christina, [166] of which I have already said enough
for my limits, also took place in his reign (1655). Nor did Ferdinand
Karl give himself up to amusement to the neglect of business, or of
more manly pleasures. He maintained all his mother's measures for the
encouragement of the Scheibenschiessen, and had the satisfaction of
seeing the departure of the enemy's army from his borders, which was
celebrated by the building of Mariähülfskirche. [167] To his love of
the national sport of chamois-hunting his death has to be ascribed;
for the neglect of an attack of illness while out on a mountain
expedition near Kaltern after the wild game, gave it a hold on his
constitution, which placed him beyond recovery. His death occurred
in 1660, at the early age of thirty-four; he left no heir.
He was succeeded by his only brother, Sigmund Franz, Bishop of Gurk,
Augsburg, and Trent, who seems to have inherited all his mother's finer
qualities without sharing her Italianizing tendencies. With a perhaps
too sudden sternness, he purged the court and government of all foreign
admixture, and reduced the sumptuous suite of his brother to dimensions
dictated by usefulness alone. However popular this may have made him
with the German population, the ousted Italians were furious; and his
sudden death--which occurred while, after the pattern of his father,
applying for a dispensation to marry, in 1665--was by the Germans
ascribed to secret poisoning; his Tuscan physician Agricola having,
it is alleged, been bribed to perpetrate the misdeed.
Tirol now once more reverted to the Empire. Though Leopold I. came to
Innsbruck to receive the homage of the people on his accession, and a
gay ceremonial ensued, yet it lost much of its importance by having
no longer a resident court. While there, however, Leopold had seen
the beautiful daughter of Ferdinand Karl's widow, Claudia Felicità,
who made such an impression upon him, that he married her on the death
of his first wife. The ceremony was performed in Innsbruck by proxy
only; but the dowager-archduchess provided great fêtes, in which the
city readily concurred, and gave the bride thirty thousand gulden
for her wedding present. Claudia Felicità, in her state at Vienna,
did not forget the good town of Innsbruck; and by her interest with
her husband, Tirol received a Statthalter in the person of Charles
Duke of Lotharingia, husband of his sister Eleonora Maria, widow of
the King of Poland. Charles took up his residence at Innsbruck; and
though he was often absent with the army, the presence of his family
revived the gaiety of the town; still it was not like the old days of
the court. Charles, however, who had been originally educated for the
ecclesiastical state, was a sovereign of unexceptionable principles
and sound judgment; and he did many things for the benefit of Tirol,
particularly in developing its educational establishments. He raised
the Jesuit gymnasium of Innsbruck to the character of a university;
and the privileges with which he endowed it, added to the salubrity
of the situation, attracted alumni from far and near, who amounted
to near a thousand in number.
Nothing of note occurred in Tirol till 1703--the Duke of Lotharingia
had died in 1696--which is a memorable year. The war of the Spanish
Succession, at that time, found Maximilian, Elector of Bavaria, and
some of the Italian princes, allied with France against Austria--thus
there were antagonists of Austria on both sides of Tirol; nevertheless,
no attack on it seems to have been apprehended; and thus, when a plan
was concerted for entering Austria by Carinthia (the actual boundaries
against Bavaria being too well defended to invite an entrance that
way), and it was arranged that the Bavarian and Italian allies
should assist the French in overrunning Tirol, everyone was taken by
surprise. Maximilian easily overcame the small frontier garrison. At
Kufstein he met a momentary check, but an accident put the fortress
in his power. Possessed of this base of operations, he was not long
in reducing the forts of Rottenburg Scharnitz, and Ehrenberg, and
possessing himself of Hall and Innsbruck. He now reckoned the country
his, and that it only remained to send news of his success to Vendôme,
who had taken Wälsch-Tirol similarly by surprise and advanced as far
as Trent, in order to carry out their concerted inroad through the
Pusterthal. So sure of his victory was he, that he ordered the Te
Deum to be sung in all the churches of Innsbruck.
In the meantime the Tirolese had recovered from their surprise,
and had taken measures for disconcerting and routing the invaders;
the storm-bells and the Kreidenfeuer [168] rallied every man capable
of bearing arms, to the defence of his country. The main road over
the Brenner was quickly invested by the native sharp-shooters; there
was no chance of passing that way. Maximilian thought to elude the
vigilance of the people by sending his men round by Oberinnthal
and the Finstermünz. The party trusted with this mission were
commanded by a Bavarian and a French officer. They reached Landeck
in safety, but all around them the sturdy Tirolese were determining
their destruction. Martin Sterzinger, Pfleger or Judge, of Landeck,
summoned the Landsturm of the neighbouring districts, and arranged
the plan of operation. The enemy were suffered to advance on their
way unhindered along the steep path, where the rocky sides of the
Inn close in and form the terrible gorge which is traversed by the
Pontlatzerbrücke; but when they arrived, no bridge was there! The
mountaineers had been out in the night and cut it down. Beyond
this point the steep side afforded no footing on the right bank,
no means remained of crossing over to the left! The remnants of the
bridge betrayed what had befallen, and quickly the command was given
to turn back; in the panic of the moment many lost their footing,
and rolled into the rapid river beneath. For those even who retained
their composure no return was possible; the heights above were peopled
with the ready Tirolese, burning to defend their country. Down came
their shots like hail, each ball piercing its man; those who had
no arms dashed down stones upon the foe. Only a handful escaped,
but at Landeck these were taken prisoners; and there was not one
even to carry the news to Maximilian. This famous success is still
celebrated every year on the 1st of July by a solemn procession.
Maximilian and Vendôme remained perplexed at hearing nothing from
each other, and without means of communication; in vain they sent
out scouts; money could not buy information from the patriotic
Tirolese. Meantime, danger was thickening round each; the Landsturm
was out, and every height was beset with agile climbers, armed with
their unerring carbines, and with masses of rock to hurl down on
the enemy who ventured along the road beneath them. The Bavarian
and French leaders in the north and in the south only perceived how
critical was their situation just in time to escape from it, and
the waste and havoc they had made during their brief incursion was
recompensed by the numbers lost in their retreat. The Bavarians held
Kufstein for some time longer, but their precipitate withdrawal from
all the rest of the country earned for the campaign, in the mouths
of the Tirolese, the nickname of the Baierische-Rumpel. While brave
arms had been defending the mountain passes, brave hearts of those
whose arms were nerved only for being lifted up in prayer, not for
war, were day by day earnestly interceding in the churches for the
deliverance of their husbands, fathers, and brothers; and when, on the
26th of July, the land was found free of the foe, it was gratefully
remembered that it was S. Anne's Day, and the so-called Annensäule,
which adorns the Neustadt--the principal thoroughfare of Innsbruck--was
erected in commemoration.
It is composed of the marbles of the country; the lower part red, the
column white, the effigy of the Immaculate Conception, which surmounts
it and the surrounding rays, in gilt bronze. Round the base stand
St. Vigilius and St. Cassian (two apostles of Tirol), and St. Anne
and St. George; about them float angels, in the breezy style of the
period. The monument was solemnly inaugurated on S. Anne's Day, 1706;
and every year on that day a procession winds round it from the parish
church, singing hymns of thanksgiving; and an altar, gaily dressed
with fresh flowers, stands before it for eight days under the open sky.
Leopold I. died in 1705, and was succeeded by his son, Joseph I.,
who reigned only six years. Charles VI., Leopold's younger son,
followed, who appointed Karl Philipp, Palsgrave of Neuburg, Governor
of Tirol. He was another pious ruler, and much beloved by the people;
his memory being the more endeared to them, that he was their last
independent prince. His reign benefited Innsbruck by the erection of
the handsome Landhaus and the Gymnasium, and also by the extensive
restoration of the Pfarrkirche. This occupied the site of the little
chapel, the accorded privilege to which of hearing in it masses of
obligation forms the earliest record of Innsbruck's history. It had
grown with the growth of the town, and had been added to by various
sovereigns, and we have seen it gifted with Kranach's Mariähilf. The
earthquakes of 1667 and 1689 had left it so dilapidated, however,
that Karl Philipp resolved to rebuild it on a much larger plan. He
laid the first stone on May 12, 1717, in presence of his brother,
the Bishop of Augsburg, and it was consecrated in 1724. It has
the costliness and the vices of its date; its overloaded stucco
ornaments are redeemed by the lavish use of the beautiful marbles
of the country; the quarrying and fashioning these marbles occupied
a hundred workmen, without counting labourers and apprentices, for
the whole time during which the church was building. The frescoes
setting forth the wonder-working patronage of St. James, on the roof
and cupola, are by Kosmas Damian Asam, whose pencil, and that of his
two sons, Kosmas and Egid, were entirely devoted to the decoration
of churches and religious houses. There is a tradition, that as the
fervent painter was putting the finishing touches to the figure of the
saint, as he appears, mounted on his spirited charger as the patron
of Compostella, in the cupola, he stepped back to see the effect
of his work. Forgetting in his zeal the narrowness of the platform
on which he stood, he would inevitably have been precipitated on
to the pavement below, but that the strong arm of the saint he had
been painting so lovingly, detached itself from the wall, and saved
his client from the terrible fate! [169] Other works of this reign
were the Strafarbeitshaus, a great improvement on the former prison;
and the church of St. John Nepomuk, in the Innrain, then a new and
fashionable street. The canonization of the great martyr to the seal
of Confession took place in 1730. Though properly a Bohemian saint,
his memory is so beloved all through southern Germany, that all its
divisions seem to lay a patriotic claim to him. His canonization was
celebrated by a solemn function in the Pfarrkirche, lasting eight
days; and the people were so stirred up to fervour by its observance,
that they subscribed for the building of a church in his honour,
the governor taking the lead in promoting it.
Maria Theresa succeeded her father, Charles VI., in 1742. She seems
to have known how to attend to the affairs of every part of the
Empire alike; and thus, while the whole country felt the benefit
of her wise provisions, all the former splendours of the Tirolean
capital revived. Maria Theresa frequently took up her residence at
Innsbruck; and while benefiting trade by her expenditure, and by that
of the visitors whom her court attracted, she set at the same time an
edifying example of piety and a well-regulated life. Her associations
with Innsbruck were nevertheless overshadowed by sad events more than
once, though this does not appear to have diminished her affection
for the place.
When Marshal Daun took a whole division of the Prussian army captive
at Maxen in 1758, the officers, nine in number, were sent to Innsbruck
for safe custody. Here they remained till the close of the war, five
years later. This, and the furnishing some of its famous sharpshooters
to the Austrian contingent, was the only contact Tirol had with the
Seven Years' War. Two years after (1765) Maria Theresa arranged that
the marriage of her son (afterwards Leopold II.) with Maria Luisa,
daughter of Charles III. of Spain, should take place there. The
townspeople, sensible of the honour conferred on them, responded to it
by adorning the city with the most festive display; not only with gay
banners and hangings, but by improving the façades of their houses,
and the roads and bridges, and erecting a triumphal arch of unusual
solidity at the end of the Neustadt nearest Wilten, being that by
which the royal pair would pass on their way from Italy; for Leopold
was then Grand Duke of Tuscany. The theatre and public buildings were
likewise put in order. Maria Theresa, with her husband Francis I., and
all the Imperial family, arrived in Innsbruck on July 15, attracting
a larger assemblage of great people than had been seen there even
in its palmiest days. Banquets and gay doings filled up the interval
till August 5, when Leopold and Maria Luisa made their entrance with
unexampled pomp. The marriage was celebrated in the Pfarrkirche by
Prince Clement of Saxony, Bishop of Ratisbon, assisted by seven other
bishops. Balls, operas, banquets, illuminations, and the national
Freischiessen, followed. But during all these fêtes, an unseasonable
gloom, which is popularly supposed to bode evil, overclouded the
August sky, usually so clear and brilliant in Innsbruck. On the 18th,
a grand opera was given to conclude the festivities; on his way back
from it Francis I. was seized with a fit, and died in the course of
the night in the arms of his son, afterwards Joseph II.
Though Maria Theresa's master mind had caused her to take the lead in
all public matters, she was devotedly attached to her husband, and this
sudden blow was severely felt by her. She could not bear that the room
in which he expired should ever be again used for secular purposes,
and had it converted into a costly chapel; at the same time she made
great improvements and additions to the rest of the Burg. She always
wore mourning to the end of her life, and always, when state affairs
permitted, passed the eighteenth day of every month in prayer and
retirement. A remarkable monument remains of both the affection and
public spirit of this talented princess. Driving out to the Abbey of
Wilten in one of the early days of mourning, while some of the tokens
of the rejoicing, so unexpectedly turned into lamentation, were still
unremoved, the sight of the handsome triumphal arch reminded her of
a resolution suggested by Francis I. to replace it by one of similar
design in more permanent materials. Her first impulse was to reject
the thought as a too painful reminder of the past; but reflection on
the promised benefit to the town prevailed over personal feelings,
and she gave orders for the execution of the work; but to make it a
fitting memorial of the occasion, she ordered that while the side
facing the road from Italy should be a Triumphpforte, and recall
by its bas-reliefs the glad occasion which caused its erection,
the side facing the town should be a Trauerpforte, and set forth the
melancholy conclusion of the same. The whole was executed by Tirolean
artists, and of Tirolean marbles. She founded also a Damenstift, for
the maintenance of twelve poor ladies of noble birth, who, without
taking vows, bound themselves to wear mourning and pray for the soul
of Francis I. and those of his house. Another great work of Maria
Theresa was the development she gave to the University of Innsbruck.
After her death, which took place in 1780, Joseph II., freed from the
restraints of her influence, gave full scope to his plans for meddling
with ecclesiastical affairs, for which his intercourse with Russia had
perhaps given him a taste. Pius VI. did not spare himself a journey
to Vienna, to exert the effect of his personal influence with the
Emperor, who it would seem did not pay much heed to his advice, and
so disaffected his people by his injudicious innovations, that at the
time of his death the whole empire, which the skill of Maria Theresa
had consolidated, was in a state of complete disorganization. [170]
Though increased by his ill-gotten share of Poland, he lost the Low
Countries, and Hungary was so disaffected, that had he not been removed
by the hand of death (1790), it is not improbable it would have thrown
off its allegiance also. Leopold II., his brother, who only reigned
two years, saved the empire from dissolution by prudent concessions,
by rescinding many of Joseph's hasty measures, and abandoning his
policy of centralization.
One religious house which Joseph II. did not suppress was the
Damenstift of Innsbruck, of which his sister, the Archduchess Maria
Elizabeth, undertook the government in 1781; and during the remainder
of her life held a sort of court there which was greatly for the
benefit of the city. Pius VI. visited her on his way back from Vienna
on the evening of May 7, 1782. The whole town was illuminated, and
all the religious in the town went out to meet him, followed by the
whole body of the people. Late as was the hour (a quarter to ten, says
a precise chronicle) he had no sooner reached the apartment prepared
for him in the Burg, than he admitted whole crowds to audience, and
the enthusiasm with which the religious Tirolese thronged round him
surpasses words. Many, possessed with a sense of the honour of having
the vicar of Christ in their very midst, remained all night in the
surrounding Rennplatz, as it were on guard round his abode. In the
morning, after hearing mass, he imparted the Apostolic Benediction from
the balcony of the Burg, and proceeded on his way over the Brenner.
Leopold II. had not been three months on the throne before he came to
Innsbruck to receive the homage of his loyal Tirolese, who took this
opportunity of winning from him the abrogation of many Josephinischen
measures, particularly that reducing their University to a mere
Lyceum. He was succeeded in 1792 by his son, Francis II.; but the
mighty storm of the French Revolution was threatening, and absorbed
all his attention with the preservation of his empire, and the defence
of Tirol seems to have been overlooked. Year by year danger gathered
round the outskirts of her mountain fastnesses. Whole hosts were
engaged all around; yet there were but a handful, five thousand
at most, of Austrian troops stationed within her frontier. The
importance of obtaining the command of such a base of operations,
which would at once have afforded a key to Italy and Austria, did not
escape Bonaparte. Joubert was sent with fifteen thousand men to gain
possession of the country, and advanced as far as Sterzing. Innsbruck
was thrown into a complete panic, and I am sorry to have to record
that the Archduchess Maria Elizabeth took her flight. The Austrian
Generals, Kerpen and Laudon, did not deem it prudent, with their small
contingent, to engage the French army. Nevertheless, the Tirolese,
instead of being disheartened at this pusillanimity, with their wonted
spirit rose as one man; a decisive battle was fought at Spinges, a
hamlet near Sterzing, where a village girl fought so bravely, and urged
the men on to the defence of their country so generously, that though
her name is lost, her courage won her a local reputation as lasting
as that of Joan of Arc or the 'Maid of Zaragoza,' under the title of
Das Mädchen von Spinges. [171] Driven out hence, the French troops
made the best of their way to join the main army in Carinthia. After
this the enemy left Tirol at Peace for some years, with the exception
of one or two border inroads, which were resolutely repulsed. One of
these is so characteristic of the religious customs of Tirol, that,
though not strictly belonging to the history of Innsbruck, I cannot
forbear mentioning it. The French, under Massena, had in 1799 been
twice repulsed from Feldkirch with great loss. Divisions which had
never known a reverse were decimated and routed by the practised guns
of the mountaineers. Thinking their victory assured, the peasants,
after the manner of volunteer troops, had dispersed but too soon, to
return to their flocks and tillage. Warily perceiving his advantage,
Massena led his troops back over the border silently by night,
intending in the morning to take the unsuspecting town by storm--a
plan which did not seem to have a chance of failure. But it happened
to be Holy Saturday. Suddenly, just as he was about to give the order
for the attack, the bells of all the churches far and near, which had
been so still during the preceding days, burst all together upon his
ear with the jubilant Auferstehungsfeier. [172] General and troops,
alike unfamiliar with religious times and seasons, took the sound
for the alarm bells calling out the Landsturm. In the belief that
they were betrayed, a precipitate retreat was ordered. But the night
no longer covered the march; and the peasants, who were gathered in
their villages for the Offices of the Church, were quickly collected
for the pursuit. This abortive expedition cost the French army three
thousand men.
In the meantime the Archduchess had returned to Innsbruck, and all
went on upon its old footing, as if there were no enemy to fear. So
little was another disturbance expected, that the Archduchess devoted
herself to the promotion of local improvements, including that of the
Gottesacker. This is one of the favourite Sunday afternoon resorts of
the Innsbruckers, and is well worthy of a visit. The site was first
destined for the purpose by the Emperor Maximilian. It was gifted with
all the indulgences accorded to the Campo Santo of Rome by the Pope,
and in token of the same some earth from San Lorenzo fuori le mura
was brought hither at the time of its consecration by the Bishop of
Brixen in 1510. It has, according to the frequent German arrangement,
an upper and a lower chapel; the former, dedicated to S. Anne; the
latter, as usual, to S. Michael, though the people commonly call
it die Veitskapelle, on account of some cures of S. Vitus' dance
wrought here. The arcades which now surround the cemetery were the
result of the introduction of Italian customs later in the sixteenth
century. Some of the oldest and noblest names of Tirol are to be
found upon the monuments here, some of which cannot fail to attract
attention. The bas-reliefs sculptured by Collin for that of the
Hohenhauser family, and those he prepared for his own, may be reckoned
among his masterpieces. Some which are adorned with paintings would be
very interesting if the weather had spared them more. The Archduchess
had prepared her own resting-place here also, but was not destined to
occupy it. The disastrous defeat of Austerlitz filled her with alarm,
and she once more fled from Innsbruck, this time not to return.
This was the year 1805, and a sad one it was for Tirol. The treaty
of Pressburg had given Tirol to Bavaria, and Bavaria and Tirol had
never in any age been able to understand each other. Willingly would
the Tirolese have opposed their entrance; but the Bavarians, who knew
every pass as well as themselves, were enabled to pour in the allied
troops under Marshal Ney in such force, that they were beyond their
power to resist. The fortresses near the Bavarian frontier were razed,
and Innsbruck occupied. On February 11, 1806, Marshal Ney left, and the
town was formally delivered over to Bavarian rule. The most unpopular
changes of government were adopted, particularly in ecclesiastical
matters and in forcing the peasants into the army; the University
also was once more made into a Lyceum. But the Landsturm was not
idle, and the Archduke Johann, Leopold's brother, came into Tirol to
encourage them. Maturing their plans in secret, the patriots, under
Andreas Hofer, who had been to Vienna in January to declare his plans
and get them confirmed by his government, and Speckbacher, broke into
Innsbruck on April 13, 1809, where the townspeople received them with
loud acclamations; and after a desperate and celebrated conflict at
Berg Isel, succeeded in completely ridding it of the invaders. The
Bavarian arms on the Landhaus were shattered to atoms, and when the
Eagle replaced them, the people climbed the ladders to kiss it. This
was the first great act of the Befreiungskämpfe which have made 'the
year Nine' memorable in the annals of Tirol, and, I may say of Europe,
for it was one of the noblest struggles of determined patriotism those
annals have to boast, and at the same time the most successful effort
of volunteer arms. Hofer accepted the title of Schützenkommandant, and
was lodged in the imperial Burg, while his peasant neighbours took the
office of guards; but he altered nothing of his simple habits, nor his
national costume. His frugal expenses amounted to forty-five kreuzers
a day, and he lost no opportunity of expressing that he did nothing
on his own account, but all in the name of the Emperor. On May 19 the
Bavarians laid siege to the town; but the defenders of the country,
supported by a few regular Austrian troops, obliged them by the end
of a fortnight to decamp. On June 30 they returned with a force of
twenty-four thousand men; but other feats of arms of the patriots in
all parts of Tirol showed that its people were unconquerable, and for
the third time Hofer took possession of Innsbruck. In the meantime,
however, the Peace of Schönbrunn, of October 25, had nullified
their achievements, though the memory of their bravery could never
be blotted out, and always asserted its power. Nor could the brave
people, even when bidden by the Emperor himself to desist, believe
that his orders were otherwise than wrung from him, nor could their
loyalty be quenched. Hofer's stern sense of subordination made him
advise abstention from further strife, but the more ardent patriots
refused to listen, and ended by leading him to join them. A desultory
warfare was now kept up, with no very effectual result, but yet with
a spirit and determination which convinced the Bavarians that they
could never subdue such a people, and predisposed them to consent to
the evacuation of their country in 1814; for they saw that
Freedom from every hut
Sent down a separate root,
And when base swords her branches cut,
With tenfold might they shoot.
In the meantime a terrible wrong had been committed; the French,
knowing the value of Hofer's influence in encouraging the
country-people against them, set a price on his head sufficient to
tempt a traitor to make know his hiding-place. He was taken, and thrown
into prison at the Porta Molina at Mantua. Tried in a council of war,
several voices were raised in honour of his bravery and patriotism; a
small majority, however, had the cowardice to condemn him to death. He
received the news of the sentence with the firmness which might have
been expected of him, the only favour he condescended to ask being the
spiritual assistance of a priest. Provost Manifesti was sent to him,
and remained with him to the end. An offer was made him of saving his
life by entering the French service, but he indignantly refused to join
the enemies of his country. To Provost Manifesti he committed all he
possessed, to be expended in the relief of his fellow-countrymen who
were prisoners. He spent the early hours of the morning of the day on
which he was to die, after mass, in writing his farewell to his wife,
bidding her not to give way to grief, and to his other relations and
friends, in which latter category was comprehended the population of
the whole Passeyerthal, not to say all Tirol; recommending himself
to their prayers, and begging that his name might be given out, and
the suffrages of the faithful asked for him, in the village church
where he had so often knelt in years of peace. He was forbidden
to address his fellow-prisoners. He bore a crucifix, wreathed in
flowers, in his hand as he walked to the place of execution, which
he was observed repeatedly to kiss. There he took a little silver
crucifix from his neck, a memorial of his first Communion, and gave
it to Provost Manifesti. He refused to kneel, or to have his eyes
bandaged, but stood without flinching to receive the fire of his
executioners. His signal to them was first a brief prayer; then a
fervently uttered 'Hoch lebe Kaiser Franz!' and then the firm command,
'Fire home!' His courage, however, unmanned the soldiers; ashamed
of their task, they durst not take secure aim, and it took thirteen
shots to send the undaunted soul of the peasant hero to its rest. It
was February 20, 1810; he was only forty-five. The traditions of his
courage and endurance, his probity and steadfastness, are manifold;
but in connexion with Innsbruck we have only to speak of his brief
administration there, which was untarnished by a single unworthy deed,
a single act of severity towards prisoners of war, of whom he had
numbers in his power who had dealt cruel havoc on his beloved valleys.
The Emperor for whom he had fought so nobly returned to Innsbruck,
to receive the homage of the Tirolese, on May 28, 1816, amid the loud
rejoicings of the people, preceded by a solemn service of thanksgiving
in the Pfarrkirche. Illuminations and fêtes followed till June 5,
when the ceremony was wound up by a grand shooting-match, at which
the Emperor presided and many prizes were distributed. The number
who contended was 3,678, and 2,137 of them made the bull's-eye;
among them were old men over eighty and boys of thirteen and fourteen.
The claims of Hofer on his country's remembrance were not forgotten
when she once more had leisure for works of peace. His precious
remains, which had been carefully interred by the priest who consoled
his last moments at Mantua, were brought to Innsbruck in 1823,
and laid temporarily in the Servitenkloster. On February 21 they
were borne in solemn procession by six of his brothers in arms,
all the clergy and people following. The Abbot of Wilten sang the
requiem office. The Emperor ordered the conspicuous and appropriate
monument to mark the spot where they laid him, which is one of the
chief ornaments of the Hofkirche. The pedestal bears the inscription--
Seinen in den Befreiungskämpfen gefallenen Söhnen
das dankbare Vaterland,
and the sarcophagus the words--
Absorbta est mors in victoria.
Tirol had no reason to regret the restoration of the dynasty for
which she had suffered so much. Most of her ancient privileges were
restored to her, and in 1826 Innsbruck again received the honour of
a University, and many useful institutions were founded. Francis came
to Innsbruck again this year, and while there, received the visit of
the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia. Another shooting-match
was held before them, at which the precision of the Tirolese received
much praise; and again for a short time in 1835. The Archduke John,
who came in 1835 to live in Tirol, was received with great enthusiasm;
his hardy feats of mountain climbing, and hearty accessible character,
endearing him to all the people.
The troubles of 1848 gave the Tirolese again an opportunity of showing
that their ancient loyalty was undiminished. The Emperor Ferdinand,
driven out of his capital, found that he had not reckoned wrongly in
counting on a secure refuge in Tirol. It was the evening of May 16
that the Imperial pair came as fugitives to Innsbruck. Though there
was hardly time to announce their advent before their arrival, the
people went out to meet them, took their horses from the carriage,
and themselves drew it into the town; and all the time they remained
the towns-people and Landes-schützen mounted guard round the Burg. More
than this, the Tirolese Kaiser-Jäger-Regiment volunteered for service
against the insurgents, and fought with such determination that
Marshal Radetsky pronounced that every man of them was a hero. With
equal stout-heartedness the Landes-schützen repelled the attempted
Italian invasion at several points of the south-western frontier, and
kept the enemy at bay till the imperial troops could arrive. These
services were renewed with equal fidelity the next year. A tablet
recording the bravery of those who fell in this campaign--one of the
officers engaged being Hofer's grandson--is let into the wall of the
Hofkirche opposite Hofer's monument.
It was this Emperor from whom the name of Ferdinandeum was given to
the Museum, but it was rather out of compliment, and while he was
yet Crown-Prince, than in memory of any signal co-operation on his
part. It was projected in 1820 by Count Von Chotek, then Governor of
Tirol. It comprises an association for the promotion of the study of
the arts and sciences. The Museum contains several early illuminated
MSS., in the production of which the Carthusians of Schnals and the
Dominicans of Botzen acquired a singular pre-eminence. At a time when
the nobles of other countries were occupied with far less enlightened
pursuits, the peaceful condition of Tirol enabled its nobles, such as
the Edelherrn of Monlan, Annaberg, Dornsberg, Runglstein, and others,
to keep in their employment secretaries, copyists, and chaplains,
busied in transcribing; and often sent them into other countries to
make copies of famous works to enrich their collections. It has also
some of the first works produced from the printing-press of Schwatz
already mentioned. This press was removed to Innsbruck in 1529;
Trent set one up about the same time. In the lower rooms of the
Ferdinandeum is a collection of paintings by Tirolean artists, and
specimens of the marbles, minerals, and other natural productions
of the country. The great variation in the elevation of the soil
affords a vast range to the vegetable kingdom, so that it can boast
of giving a home to plants like the tobacco, which only germinates
at a temperature of seventy degrees, and the edelweiss, which only
blossoms under the snow. There is also a small collection of Roman
and earlier antiquities, dug up at various times in different parts
of Tirol, and specimens of native industries. Among the most singular
items are some paintings on cobweb, of which one family has possessed
the secret for generations, specimens of their works may be found in
most of the museums of South Germany; these almost self-taught artists
display great dexterity in the management of their strange canvas,
and considerable merit in the delicate manipulation of their pigments;
sometimes they even imitate fine line engravings in pen and ink without
injuring the fragile surface. They delight specially in treating
subjects of traditional interest, as Kaiser Max on the Martinswand,
the beautiful Philippine Welser, the heroic Hofer, and the patron
saints and particular devotions of their village sanctuaries. Kranach's
Mariähilf is thus an object of most affectionate care. The 'web' is
certainly like that of no ordinary spider; but it is reported that
this family has cultivated a particular species for the purpose,
and an artist friend who had been in Mexico mentioned to me having
seen there spiders'-webs almost as solid as these. I was not able,
however, to learn any tradition of the importation of these spiders
from Mexico. In the first room on the second floor are to be seen
the characteristic letter written, as I have said, by Hofer, shortly
before his end, and other relics of him and the other patriots, such
as the hat and breviary of the Franciscan Haspinger. Also an Italian
gun taken by the Akademische Legion--the band of loyal volunteer
students of Innsbruck university, in the campaign of 1848--and I
think some trophies also of the success of Tirolese arms against the
attempted invasion of the later Italian war, in which as usual the
skill of these people as marksmen stood them in good stead. Anyone
who wishes to judge of their practice may have plenty of opportunity
in Innsbruck, for their rifles seem to be constantly firing away at
the Schiess-stand; so constantly as to form an annoyance to those
who are not interested in the subject.
This Schiess-stand, or rifle-butt, was set up in 1863, in
commemoration of the fifth centenary of Tirol's union with Austria
and its undeviating loyalty. No history presents an instance of a
loyalty more intimately connected with religious principle than the
loyalty of Tirol; the two traditions are so inseparably interwoven
that the one cannot be wounded without necessarily injuring the
other. The present Emperor and Empress of Austria are not wanting to
the devout example of their predecessors, but the modern theory of
government leaves them little influence in the administration of their
dominions. Meantime the anti-Catholic policy of the Central Government
creates great dissatisfaction and uneasiness in Tirol. Other divisions
of the empire had been prepared for such by laxity of manners and
indifferentism to religious belief--the detritus, which the flood of
the French revolution scattered more or less thickly over the whole
face of Europe. But the valleys of Tirol had closed their passes to
the inroads of this flood, and laws not having religion for their
basis are there just as obnoxious in the nineteenth as they would
have been in any former century.
In concluding my notice of the capital of Tirol, it may be worth while
to mention that the census of January 1870 gives it a population
(exclusive of military) of 16,810, being an increase of 2,570 over
the twelve preceding years.