On our first Sunday in Vienna we attended service at the Church of St.
Augustine, the chief features of the service being the splendid robes of
the priests, and the magnificent music--the instrumental portion, in
addition to the organ, being the full orchestra from the opera-house,
led by its leader, baton in hand, and giving some of the compositions of
the great composers in a style that made the lofty arches of the old
church to seem filled with heavenly melody. In this church is Canova's
superb monument to the Archduchess Christiana, a marble pyramid thirty
feet high, upon a broad marble pedestal, with two wide steps. In the
centre of this pyramid, designed to represent the tomb, is a door, and
grouped upon the steps, on their way towards it, are several life-sized
allegorical figures, most exquisitely wrought. A female figure, in
flowing drapery, bearing a flower-wreathed urn, with a child walking on
either side of her, followed by another figure, Benevolence, supporting
by the arm Old Age, a bent, decrepit, tottering old man leaning upon a
staff, are the figures on one side; while upon the other reposes a lion,
with an angel seated by his side, and half reclining upon his rugged
mane. The white, flowing drapery of these figures is so beautifully
wrought as to fairly rival reality, and the figure of Old Age, with
tottering limbs, weary face, and relaxed muscles, a perfect masterpiece
of art. The angel, reclining upon the lion, is a figure of exquisite
beauty, while the grouping of the whole, and the natural positions of
the figures, render the composition both apt and beautiful.
At the Capuchin Church we went down into the vault of the imperial
family, under the guidance of a sandalled friar, torch in hand. Here
rest the mortal remains of royalty, in seventy great metallic coffins or
sarcophagi,--the oldest that of Ferdinand, 1610, and the most splendid
being that of Joseph I., which has over two thousand pounds of silver
about it, wrought into armorial bearings, crowns, death's heads, wreaths
of flowers, and other designs. The rest are chiefly wrought from zinc
into the forms of mortuary caskets, with appropriate designs.
While the group of visitors were tediously following the monotonous
description of the friar, I unconsciously seated myself upon the end of
one of these ornamented chests of human ashes, from which, when
discovered, I was requested to rise by an indignant wave of the hand,
and a look upon the friar's face that savored strongly of indignation,
as he approached the spot with the party, and commenced his description.
Then it was I discovered that I had been making my seat of the funeral
casket of the Duke of Reichstadt, son of the great Napoleon; and near by
we saw that of the Emperor Francis, his grandfather.
From this gloomy chamber of dead royalty, we were glad once more to
emerge to the busy street and to close the day's sight-seeing by a visit
to a musical festival given in an immense garden just outside the city,
called, I think, the New World Garden. The occasion being the Virgin's
birthday, there was an extra attraction; first there was the splendid
Strauss band, about seventy pieces, led by Strauss himself; then two
large military bands, and these played alternately, and _such_ music!
The Strauss waltzes and dance music were given with a "voluptuous
swell," precision, and beauty that were enchanting to listen to. They
were liquid billows of harmony, and as inspiriting to the feet of the
dancers as a draught of nitrous oxide to the imagination. The voluptuous
waltz ceased, the military band would then burst forth with grand march
or quickstep that would make one's very pulses thrill, and when this
closed, the other band gave an overture or grand musical composition,
which concluded, the lively dance music of Strauss again burst forth
with its exhilarating strains.
There were three or four thousand persons present strolling through the
pleasant walks and shady alleys, or sitting at the tables near the music
pavilions eating ices, drinking light wines or beer, chatting, and
listening to the music. The price of admission to the regular concerts
of the Strauss band here is about eighteen cents! But to this
entertainment, which was an extra occasion, or a sort of a fête day, the
enormous fee of nearly thirty cents was demanded! The excellence of the
music as well as the cheapness of the entertainment, was marvellous to
us Americans.
It is a pleasant excursion to the Schönbrunn, or summer palace, and the
gardens connected with it, about three miles from Vienna. These gardens
on fine Sunday afternoons are thronged with people from the city,
strolling through their shady alleys and beautiful walks. The shrubbery
and landscape gardening here are great curiosities; long, straight
avenues are laid out, with the trees on each side trimmed like hedges to
the height of thirty or forty feet, presenting a perspective of an
avenue as smooth and unbroken as if sliced out of a solid mass of green,
with a keen blade; then the masses of foliage are trimmed into niches
for marble statues, graceful curves, and columns, and curious walks. The
flower-gardens of the palace were beautiful, and the hot-houses rich in
great palms and other tropical wonders; there were quite a number, some
dozen or more, of these conservatories, each devoted to different
varieties of plants, a description of which would be wearisome. As some
of the royal family were at the palace we could not visit the interior,
but passing through the gardens, we ascended to the _Gloriette_, a sort
of open temple with a colonnade of pillars, situated upon rising ground,
and commanding a fine view of Vienna and the surrounding country,
including the battle-fields of Aspern and Wagram.
The Imperial Picture Gallery of Vienna is a collection of paintings
worth a journey over the ocean to see--rich in the masterpieces of the
old masters, and containing in all about two thousand pictures, which
are arranged in different apartments according to the school of art to
which they belong. Here, again, we were bewildered with a wealth of
beauty: here one begins to realize what wonders the painter's brush is
capable of; what laborious finishers the old masters were; how very
little advance, if any at all, has been made in the art; what skill must
have been used in the manufacture and laying on of colors which, after
the lapse of two or three hundred years, are as fresh, bright and
effective as if but yesterday applied to the canvas.
It would be like enumeration by catalogue to give the list of pictures
that we have pencilled notes of admiration against; but only think of
seeing elegant pictures from the pencils of Paul Veronese, Titian,
Raphael, Guido, Correggio, Murillo, Rembrandt, Cuyp, Poussin, Vandyke,
Rubens, Teniers, Albert Dürer, Van Eyck, Andrea del Sarto, Gerard Dow,
and Schneyders! Why, after going through this gallery, having seen that
at Munich, it seemed as if we had seen the originals of half of all the
engravings and copies of great works that we have ever looked upon; and
as in other galleries, we found the longest time we could possibly give
to it allowed us only a glance, comparatively speaking, at its
treasures.
There was Titian's Ecce Homo, a masterpiece of artistic skill that one
wanted hours to study; the Entombment, and his beautiful figure of
Danaë; Correggio's elegant picture of Christ and the Woman of Samaria;
Guido's Holy Family--a room entirely filled with the works of that
industrious artist, Rubens, among which was his Assumption of the
Virgin, Loyola casting out Evil Spirits, and Xavier healing the Sick.
Teniers also had a room, among which his Peasants' Marriage, and Village
Fête, were conspicuous; Albert Dürer's Martyrdom of Ten Thousand
Christians--a wonderful work, in which every form of torture and death
seemed to have been represented; a student for the torture chamber of
the Holy Inquisition might have obtained new ideas by studying it;
Dürer's magnificent picture of the Holy Trinity, surrounded by a crowd
of saints, cherubs, and angels--a representation in which perfect finish
in all the details of features and heavenly beauty was marvellously
executed; Paul Veronese's Holy Family, and two splendid battle-pieces
by Salvator Rosa.
In the modern gallery there were also many wonderfully beautiful works
of art--a fearfully real picture of the Massacre of the Innocents, by
Charles Arrienti; a wonderfully funny one of Mischief-Makers in an
Artist's Studio, by Joseph Danhauser--a picture that will make one laugh
aloud; a fine picture, of the Adieu of a soldier of the Austrian
_Landwehr_ to his wife and children--figures all of life-size, painted
by Pierre Krafft; a sortie of a garrison against Turkish assailants--a
great painting crowded with figures in the most spirited action, and all
beautifully finished by the same artist.; Shnorr's Mephistophiles
appearing to Faust--an elegant and effective composition; Grand Canal of
Venice, by Schoefft--a lovely scene. And so it continued--great
battle-pieces with life-like warriors, with weapons and mail strikingly
like reality; lovely landscapes that filled one with admiration to gaze
upon; religious subjects, on which the loftiest art and the sublimest
conceptions were exhausted; wonderful trickery of art in some
compositions; quiet beauty in others, that drew the beholder, again and
again, back to gaze upon them, till, with aching limbs and fatigued
vertebræ, we closed our first visit to this glorious collection, with
the thought of how discouraging is the effort to attempt, in a day or
two, that over which weeks, and even months, might be used with pleasure
and intellectual profit.
Tourists, who are always buying something in every European capital they
visit, find the beautiful fancy goods shops and Vienna goods potent
attractions. It is in this city that all the beautiful leather-work,
known as Russia leather, is manufactured, its deep-red stain and
peculiar perfume as fascinating as the many-colored hues and glossy
surface of fresh kid gloves, or the fragrance of the leaves of a new
volume, to the purchaser. Travelling satchels of this material, which at
home are an extravagant luxury, are here obtainable at less than half
the American price. Then the leather is wrought in a hundred fanciful
ways: it appears in trunks; portfolios soft, elegant, and portable;
pocket-books smooth and elastic; work-boxes, hat-boxes, covered
smelling-bottles, flasks, and canes; in watch-chains or portable
inkstands, whip-stocks, boots and shoes, elegantly mounted horse
harnesses; and, in fact, in about every way it can be used to court the
eye and be of service.
The meerschaum pipe stores of Vienna must make a smoker half crazy with
delight; and indeed, to those who do not use the weed, their windows are
among the most attractive upon the great streets, from the ingenuity and
skill displayed in the innumerable forms into which pipe bowls are
carved. The most artistic skill and elaborate workmanship appear to have
been expended upon these pipes, and the great pipe stores vie with each
other in displaying in their windows specimens of delicate carvings and
curious designs, beautiful amber mouth-pieces, tobacco-boxes, pouches,
and the smoker's paraphernalia. An American rarely leaves Vienna without
some of its meerschaums in his baggage. Gentlemen's clothing,
excellently made to order, can be bought here at astonishingly low
prices, and the ladies find fans, fancy goods, and laces to be not so
dear as in Paris.
The prices at the leading hotels are rather high, but the cuisine is
unexceptionable, and Vienna bread the best in the world. Once eaten, the
traveller will establish it as his standard of excellence. It is snowy
white, without flake, fine-grained, has a light, brown, crisp crust, no
particle of flavor of yeast, gas, or acidity, but a fragrance of purity
and sweetness, and the dyspeptic may devour the delicious, round
breakfast rolls, almost in any quantity, with impunity. Most Americans
are astonished to find what a luxurious repast can be made from mere
bread and butter in Vienna.
Vienna appears more like London and Paris than other European capitals.
Its brilliant cafés, shops, and the elegant new Boulevards, recently
completed, give it quite the air of Paris; and so also do the numerous
amusements, out-of-door concerts, and musical entertainments, together
with the general pleasure-seeking character of the people. Among the
fine promenades just out of the city is one known as the Prater, near
the River Danube, a favorite resort of fashion and aristocracy, where we
saw a brilliant display of elegant carriages and gayly-dressed
occupants; equestrians, out to display their elegant horses, and their
own horsemanship; Austrian officers, in their rich uniforms, and
pedestrians, out for an afternoon lounge and enjoyment of the gay scene.
We stopped _en route_ to Venice, by rail, at Adelsberg, about fifty
miles from Trieste, and which we were told by certain Americans to be
sure and visit, as its grotto, the Cave of Adelsberg, was one of the
wonders of Europe; and, for once, we found the assertion to be correct,
for, after a visit to it, we classed in our mind as among the wonders we
had seen, thus: the Alps, Milan Cathedral, and the Grotto of Adelsberg.
It is an odd experience to arrive in a foreign country at a railroad
station at nine o'clock at night, and yourself and companion the only
persons who leave the train, finding, on looking about you, after it has
whizzed away into the darkness, that the five or six officials in
attendance cannot understand a word of English, and that their language
is equally unintelligible to you. However, travel sharpens one's wits,
and by sign language, and the pronouncing of the name of the hotel
mentioned in our guide-book, "_Ungarish Krone_," we managed to make the
somewhat stolid officials understand that we wished to go to that place.
But now a new difficulty seemed to arise, and an animated palaver took
place, with the accompaniment of various shrugs, gesticulations, and
contortions of visage, which really seemed to portend something serious,
but which turned out to be that, as we had arrived on a train that very
seldom set down any passengers there, there was no means of conveyance
to the hotel, and we must walk.
A guide, with a hand wagon bearing our luggage, accordingly started, and
we trudged after him in the darkness. No, not darkness; for during our
detention the moon had risen, and our journey to the old-fashioned,
quaint-looking village, and through the court-yard of the Hungarian
Crown Hotel, was less disagreeable than it might have been. Arrived at
the hotel, a new difficulty arose. The landlord spoke only Italian and a
patois of German, which was Dutch to us, and was vexed at being
disturbed from a grand exhibition, which was in progress in his
dining-room, of feats of jugglery, and elocutionary exercises by two
itinerant performers.
Gratifying was it to have a young Italian girl at this Adelsberg
hostelry come out from the crowd,--not one of whom seemed to speak
English or French,--speak perfect English to us, and translate our wants
to the landlord. And gratifying was it to our national pride to see what
alacrity the announcement that we were Americans put into his step, and
the speed of his preparations; for in less than half an hour we had been
provided with an excellent apartment, and were sitting at a little
supper table at one end of the _salle à manger_, enjoying tea, chops,
and other creature comforts. At the same time, a magician was performing
in the room to an audience of fifty or sixty, whose costume,
conversation, and manners were to us the most interesting part of it. We
also found ourselves to be somewhat of a curiosity to the auditors,
while the young Italian who could converse with us in our own tongue,
having formerly been lady's maid in an English family, found herself
quite distinguished, on account of her accomplishment, among her
friends, who crowded around her, and, as we afterwards learned, plied
her with innumerable questions about the Americans and their distant
country.
Being the only foreigners in the place desirous of visiting the cave the
next morning, we were obliged to pay the same expense that would have
been required of a party of a dozen. The cave is the property of the
government, and there is a regular tariff of charges, according to the
grade of illumination,--that is, the number of candles used in
displaying the halls and grottos; for a goodly quantity are required to
even partially display its wonders. The grand illumination, "utterly
regardless," we declared against; so also did we the cheap third and
fourth rate, but decided upon the second, involving an expense of about
twelve dollars and a half, and six guides.
Our former experiences in caves, mines, ruins, and grottos have always
necessitated a change of costume, a donning of rubber coats, overalls,
old hats, or overshoes. Consequently we were a little incredulous at the
assertion that, with the exception of tolerably stout shoes, nothing
more than an ordinary costume was necessary. We entered this wonderful
cavern directly from the road, walking into it as into an arched
excavation in a hill-side. Four of our six guides had preceded us, and
kept about a quarter of an hour in advance, with their satchels of
candles and torches, to illuminate the great halls and chambers on our
approach; while the other two, one of whom, to our joy, spoke French,
accompanied us with torches, to guide us, and point out the curiosities
and wonders of the place. The cavern is miles in extent. And let not the
reader imagine any damp, dirty hole in the earth, with muddy soil and
dripping roof, or a squeezing through of narrow, dangerous passages,
clambering over obstacles, or anything of the kind; for, with the
exception of the damp sand of a shallow stream, for twenty yards near
the very entrance, the walking was as dry and free from absolute
discomforts as a city street.
Three hours' walk through the bowels of the earth revealed to us that
there were as wondrous beauties below as above the earth; for we passed
through great natural Gothic passages, almost as natural as if shaped by
the builder's hands, forests and clusters of columns glittering with
fantastic ornament. We emerged into a great dome-like apartment, big
enough to set Boston State House down in its centre, and leave room to
spare. This our guides had illumined with the candles placed in every
direction, and the effect upon the glittering stalactites and
stalagmites, frosted as they were with flashing crystals, was as if we
stood in a vast hall of diamonds, sparkling around in every direction.
On we went, amid pillars, arches, and spires. Here was a great dome, one
hundred and sixty-five feet high, the guides told us, spangled, as far
up as we could see, with a perfect blaze of sparkling particles,
reflecting back the light of the numerous candles, like a roof crusted
with gems. Another great hall was shaped like a huge theatre. Right
through the centre, where should be the parquet, rushed a swift, silent,
black river--the Poick; a natural stone bridge formed the orchestra;
beyond it, a great platform of rock, the stage; two semicircular ledges
of rock opposite were the two rows of dress circle and boxes; only this
great theatre was double, yes, treble the size of a real one.
Our guides had placed a double row of lights over the orchestral bridge,
which were reflected on the black stream beneath. Another row
represented the stage lights. Two more rows ran round stone balconies
where we stood, while the illusion is heightened by an extemporized
chandelier, made from hogshead hoops, filled with rows of candles, and
swung out by means of a wooden crane into the centre.
The effect was magnificent and indescribable.
Another great hall was designated "Mount Calvary," and was a succession
of gradual ascents, past stalactite columns, by a winding pathway, to a
summit where were three formations of the rock, which, by an effort of
the imagination, might represent the group at our Saviour's crucifixion.
This magnificent hall, like the others, blazed with sparkling particles,
was rich in white, marble-like columns, clustered pillars, wondrous
arches, and semi-transparent sheets of cream-colored rock. Another hall,
when lighted, seemed a realization of those "fairy grottos," "abode of
elves," or "home of the sea-nymphs," which we see represented upon the
stage of the theatre; for it was a wilderness of fret-work, pretty
arches, open, lace-work sort of rock screens, slender spires,
alabaster-like pillars, and all glittering and flashing with the
alum-like, crystal-sparkling particles of the formation which is found
in these caverns.
Passing from hall to hall, we encounter numerous curious and
astonishingly natural formations. There were statues, petrified
waterfalls, a torrent in full career turned into alabaster; towers,
one the leaning tower of Pisa, fifteen feet high, a very good
representation; columns as transparent as an alabaster vase; ruined
castles, thirty feet high, with battlements and turrets; a splendid
pulpit, grand throne, a butcher's shop with joints hanging from its
beams; and a prison with its grated window, all in white stone. Here we
came to great white curtains of rock, a dozen yards high and half that
width, no thicker than the hand, which when struck with a wooden mallet
bounded like a cathedral bell; then we came to a place like the
sea-beach, where it seemed as if the slow in-coming waves, as they
washed upon the sands, had felt the stony touch that had transformed
all--for there were the little rippling waves in solid alabaster, caught
in their retreat, with all the little eddies and foam-whirls as they
were sliding back to the surf that sent them in, and held solid and
immovable. Upon one huge crag of rock sat quite a shapely eagle, and
from another drooped a huge flag in snowy folds, and beneath it, rising
as if to grasp it, reached up a Titanic hand; then came a tall palm
tree, next a broom of stone big enough for a giant; a lion's head
looking over a jutting crag, and yew trees by the path side, besides
many other objects, some most wonderfully natural in appearance, and
others requiring the exercise of a lively imagination to see the
representation.
The last grand apartment in this wonderful cave was the state ball-room,
a beautiful circular-formed apartment, with its centre clear and
unobstructed, affording ample space for dancers, who use it once a year,
on Whit-Sunday, when a grand ball, with full orchestra, is given there.
This apartment contains a natural formation for the orchestra, an
elegant rocky seat as a throne, and tiers of seats, rows of sparkling
columns about its sides, and elegant rocky fret-work far above. The
effect of the illumination here, as in other apartments, was dazzlingly
beautiful.
After our three hours' walk, which was through a succession of natural
wonders, we emerged again into daylight from this Aladdin cavern. The
whole of the journey was, with the exception of a dozen yards, over
walks as dry as a floor, and through passages twenty feet and more
wide, and from twenty to two hundred and more feet in height. This
subterranean wonder, we were informed, and we also saw by the
traveller's register, but comparatively few Americans see; but it is a
sight that none should miss. It may be "done" by stopping over half a
day on the railroad between Vienna and Venice, or can be reached by
riding out from Trieste by rail, a distance of fifty miles.