BOHEMIA AND OTHER LANDS
There is a kingdom in the Austrian Empire which arose at one time to
such a height of power that it might well have been the one eventually
to overshadow the others and assume, as Prussia did, the leading
position in the German confederation. This is Bohemia, at first a
duchy, which became a kingdom about the thirteenth century. At one time
its king had so extended his dominions by purchase and conquest that
they included almost all the Empire of Austria as at present known, the
kingdom of Poland, and more besides, and reached from the Adriatic to
the Baltic Sea.
It is well known that Shakespeare in _The Winter’s Tale_ gives Bohemia
a sea-coast, a thing which at the present time, when many countries
intervene between Bohemia and the sea, seems absurd. There is, however,
no real absurdity in it. The date of the play is not fixed, and the
traditions of Bohemia’s ancient dominions existed long in the minds
of those who had known them. It is true that even in the “long ago”
the sea-coast can hardly be described as Bohemia itself, but it was
under the rule of the king, and therefore the “absurdity” at all events
disappears.
The word “Bohemian,” which has become so deeply rooted in our language
as a synonym for those who despise convention and live careless
artistic lives, has nothing to do with the real Bohemians, who,
artistic as they undoubtedly are, especially in the direction of music,
cannot be described as unconventional in any unusual way. It arises
from the fact that certain wandering gipsies were supposed to have
come from Bohemia in the Middle Ages, whether with truth or not seems
unascertainable, and “Bohemian” was thenceforth used as a synonym for
gipsy.
There is another point which tends to make Bohemia known even to those
who have no taste for European geography, and to whom the middle of
Europe is for the most part only a confused welter of nationalities,
usually German-speaking, and at any rate quite uninteresting. This is
the fact that the motto of the English Prince of Wales, “Ich dien,”
with its proud humility, and the crest of three feathers were taken
from those of the blind king of Bohemia, who was killed at the battle
of Crécy in 1346 while fighting for his ally, King Philip of Valois.
The Black Prince, his conqueror, adopted as his own the crest and
motto, which have been held by successive Princes of Wales ever since.
This compact little land of Bohemia, lying surrounded on three sides by
mountains, now forms the north-western corner of the Austrian Empire.
It contains much beautiful scenery and is more varied than many other
parts of the Empire, being hilly and level, wooded and cultivated in
different places, so that every kind of landscape is met with. Bohemia
has always had a struggle to preserve its national unity, for it was
surrounded on the one side by the German-speaking peoples of Bavaria
and Saxony and on the other by the Magyars of Hungary, and it had to
sway into alliance with one or the other accordingly as the opposite
one attacked it. Moravia has always been closely associated with it,
and Poland and Hungary have frequently in the course of history been
ruled by the same king.
Many times before the ruler of Bohemia adopted the title of king had
it been offered to him by the Emperor of “The Holy Roman Empire.” Once
this was in the reign of Ottakar II. one of the best remembered and
most loved of the rulers of Bohemia. He was of the Premsyl dynasty and
succeeded to the throne in 1253.
The ancient tradition of the origin of this dynasty, which gave a
long line of rulers to Bohemia, beginning before authentic history
and continuing to 1306, is too picturesque to pass over. One of the
semi-mythical rulers of Bohemia, Krok, is said to have left no sons
but only three daughters, the youngest of whom, Libussa, a woman of
intrepid spirit and masculine force, succeeded him. However, in spite
of her fine qualities, her subjects disliked being ruled by a woman and
some of them questioned her judgments. At length, to satisfy them, she
agreed to select a husband, and standing in the midst of her nobles she
pointed to the hills and told them to go to such and such a place where
they would find a man ploughing with two oxen; him they must bring and
him only would she marry. His name was Premsyl. The peasant was found
as described, and readily took up the rôle allotted to him, becoming
the husband of Libussa, ruler of Bohemia, and founder of the greatest
dynasty in his country’s annals.
Ottakar, his descendant, brought the fame of Bohemia to its highest
pitch, for he possessed himself of the dukedom of Austria, and became
lord of all the territories now included in the Austrian Empire on the
western side, with the exception of the Tyrol. Mr. James Bryce, in his
_Holy Roman Empire_, speaks of him as “the rampart of Christianity, a
lion in bravery, an eagle in goodness.”
Ottakar was offered the dignity of Emperor when it became vacant, but
refused, and Rudolph of Hapsburg, whose domains lay in Switzerland,
and who until that time had been comparatively unknown, was chosen
instead. Curiously enough this man was to found a dynasty ruling not
only over all the lands held by Ottakar, but also over Hungary, which
had not even acknowledged his lordship. It seems almost as if Ottakar
must have had some intuitive dread of this new candidate for the high
honour, for he protested violently against his election, basing his
protest on the ground that he himself, though an elector, had not cast
his vote. He appealed to the Pope, but was overruled on the ground that
even had he cast it he would have been in a minority. His fears were
quickly justified, for Rudolph was no sooner in firm possession of
the Imperial dignity than he attacked Ottakar, claiming that Austria,
Styria, Carniola, and Carinthia should be restored to the German
Empire, of which they had formerly been a part. When his claims were
refused he made war on Ottakar, and quickly got the best of it, using
the forces of the German confederation to enforce his claim. Ottakar
was compelled to yield up his latest acquired provinces on condition
of being allowed to keep his older dominions of Bohemia and Moravia,
and Rudolph made the Austrian lands hereditary in his own family, even
though they had been won at German expense.
Rudolph had a numerous family of daughters, and he was accustomed to
cement peace or buy over a foe by offering one of them in marriage
as a prize. As Ottakar had already been married more than once, his
present wife being a daughter of the King of Hungary, it was on behalf
of his son, then a child, that the bribe was offered. It seemed for
a while as if peace might be secured, but not so; there was between
the two men a deadly and ineradicable antipathy, and it was not long
before the smouldering flame burst out again. With the fire of despair
Ottakar collected his troops and flung himself into a contest with the
conqueror and was slain at the battle of Marchfeld.
Rudolph did not act vindictively; he arranged that the dead king’s
son should succeed to the Bohemian throne, ruling in subordination to
himself as overlord, and that when he was old enough he should still
marry the promised bride. But Queen Kunegunda, his mother, restless
under this submission, called in help from outside in the person of
Otto of Brandenburg, who promptly repaid her by grinding Bohemia into
misery and carrying away her and her son as prisoners. The Queen,
however, managed to escape, and the young King Wenceslaus was at length
ransomed, and returned to Bohemia in 1285 as a boy of twelve to begin
his reign. Two years later he married Rudolph’s daughter.
King Wenceslaus became King also of Poland and eventually, when the
male line of the Hungarian kings died out, he was offered the crown of
Hungary as well. He accepted it for his son, who succeeded him, but who
turned out to be a weak and dissolute man, and with his death ended
the male line of the house of Premsyl.
[Illustration: PRAGUE: THE HRADSCHIN, FROM WALLENSTEINSTRASSE]
Various experiments in rulers followed, more or less unsatisfactory,
including John of Luxembourg, who became blind, and was killed at
Crécy, as mentioned above. His son Charles held the dignity of Emperor
(as Charles IV.), as well as that of King of Bohemia. Charles founded
the first German university, that of Prague, and was the originator
of the Golden Bull, a charter which settled--so far as it could be
settled--the difficult question of the right of election to the
position of emperor. He was succeeded in turn by his two sons. In the
reign of the second, named Sigismund, arose the celebrated reformer
John Huss, or Hus, a Bohemian, whose fame is second only to that of
Wyclif in England. He was born in 1369 at the village of Huss, from
which, as was common in those days, he derived the surname which
distinguished him from other Johns.
The people of Bohemia are the Czechs, the most important branch of the
Slav race, and they have a burning sense of their national dignity,
which seems to be centred more in the preservation of their language
than in anything else. Up to the Middle Ages Latin had everywhere
been the language of communication in Bohemia for all official and
religious purposes, as it had in Austria and Hungary, but when John
Huss came into prominence it was chiefly because he fanned the flame
of nationalism, and was the first to bring out in Czech books and
pamphlets stirring up patriotism and appealing everywhere to the strong
sense of nationality in the people. Consequently he was adored by them.
He was a disciple and follower of Wyclif, who was a little senior to
him. Mr. Geoffrey Drage, in his interesting book _Austria-Hungary_,
thus sums him up:
The Wyclif of Bohemia, like his English forerunner, embodied
all that was required to satisfy the moral needs of the time.
A priest, he preached the reform of the Church; a scholar,
he popularized the Divine Word in the common language; a
patriot, he tried to rescue the Bohemian nationality from the
intellectual oppression of the German minority.
Huss denounced the abuses then to be found in the Church strenuously
and at all times. Papal wrath was aroused against him. He was summoned
to the Council of Constance, and went under a safe-conduct, but was
imprisoned and, after some time, burnt to death on July 6, 1415, his
birthday, a fate which fell also on his fellow-citizen and follower,
Jerome of Prague. The end of these two earnest men aroused a storm of
wrath in their native country and the doctrines of the Reformation
swept over the land. Civil war followed, and continued until the
demands of the Hussites were granted. The great leader of the Hussites
was Zizka, who showed admirable judgment and courage. His name is held
in little less reverence than those of Huss and Jerome themselves.
Though the kings of Bohemia were nominally elective, yet as a rule the
crown descended from father to son as smoothly as in countries where
the dignity was hereditary. That is to say, when there was a son to
succeed, but it very frequently happened that, as in the case of other
titles when heirs are earnestly desired, heirs very often failed to
put in an appearance. As Sigismund had no sons, he managed to secure
the succession of the throne to Albert, Archduke of Austria, who had
married his daughter. Albert, however, reigned a very short time. A
posthumous son was born to him, and after considerable debate, he was
crowned king at the age of fourteen, only to die unmarried five years
later, as a result of the terrible plague which acted as such a scourge
in the Middle Ages.
The Bohemians were therefore once more in the unenviable position of
having to choose a king, and the influence which the Reformed doctrines
had by this time gained is shown in the choice of the first “heretic”
king, a national leader called George of Podebrad. After Podebrad’s
death thirteen years later, there was great rivalry for the vacant
place, numberless claimants starting up in the persons of the rulers of
the small kingdoms adjoining Bohemia, but at length the son of the King
of Poland was selected, as there was a very close community of interest
between Poland and Bohemia. He eventually became King of Hungary also,
and was succeeded in all three kingdoms by his son Louis.
Louis was the unfortunate monarch who perished in the debacle at the
battle of Mohács in Hungary, when the Turks swept in like a tidal
wave and submerged the unhappy country for generations. So fearful an
impression did this disaster make upon the minds of the Hungarians
that even to this day, when a man loses house or land or parents or
children, it is a saying, “More was lost on Mohács field.”
On the death of Louis the same strenuous competition for the vacant
throne was aroused as before his father’s accession, and this time
the Archduke Ferdinand, brother of the reigning Emperor, Charles of
Austria, was chosen. Ferdinand became also King of Hungary and Archduke
of Austria, thus uniting in the person of a common ruler three kingdoms
inhabited by different nationalities. This settled the matter as to the
succession for a while, for the throne passed from Ferdinand’s son to
his grandson Rudolph. Rudolph was eventually deposed in favour of his
brother Matthias. During all this time the ceaseless warfare between
the Roman dominion and the Reformed doctrines went on, and the rival
parties were ever striving to gain power and to swing the balance over
to their side. The country was restless, families were divided against
themselves, and no one felt safe.
It was during the reign of Matthias that the curious incident about
throwing the councillors out of the window of the council-chamber took
place, a scene unequalled in any other assembly in any age.
The soreness between Protestants and Catholics had reached a head in
regard to the succession to the throne, for King Matthias was another
of the many childless monarchs. The Catholic councillors had therefore
arranged that he should be succeeded by Archduke Ferdinand of Styria,
a determined persecutor of the Protestants. The Protestants took
immediate action in protesting, but were checkmated by a royal message
prohibiting the meeting of their “Estates” or council. Their leader
was Count Thurn, who had been Burgrave of the Karlstyn, but had been
superseded by a Catholic called Martinic. The Estates usually met
in the Hradcany Palace at Prague, but when they issued a manifesto
attacking the royal councillors they were forbidden to meet there
any more. Accordingly they met elsewhere secretly. Count Lutzow, in
his charming little book _The Story of Prague_, thus describes what
followed:
Besides Thurn, a few other leaders, Colonna of Fels, Budova,
Ruppa, two nobles of the Kinsky, and two of the Rican family
were present. Ulrich of Kinsky proposed that the royal
Councillors should be poniarded in the Council chamber [where
they were to meet next day], but Thurn’s suggestion that they
should be thrown from the windows of the Hradcany Palace
prevailed. This was in Bohemia the traditional death-penalty
for traitors. As the Estates afterwards quaintly stated, “They
followed the example of that which was done to Jezebel, the
tormentor of the Israelite people and also that of the Romans
and other famed nations, who were in the habit of throwing from
rocks and other elevated places those who disturbed the peace
of the commonwealth.”
Early on the morning of the memorable 23rd of May the
representatives of Protestantism in Bohemia proceeded to the
Hradcany; all of them were in full armour and most of them
were followed by one or more retainers. They first proceeded
to the hall where the Estates usually met. The address to the
king which the defenders had prepared was here read to them.
All then entered the hall of the royal Councillors, where
a very stormy discussion arose. Count Slik, Thurn, Kinsky,
and others violently accused Martinic and Slavata, the two
principal Councillors, of being traitors. Slik particularly
accused Martinic of having deprived “that noble Bohemian hero,
Count Thurn,” of his office of Burgrave of the Karlstyn. He
added that “as long as old men, honest and wise, had governed
Bohemia, the country had prospered, but since they (Martinic
and Slavata), worthless disciples of the Jesuits, had pushed
themselves forward, the ruin of the country had begun.”
What now happened can best be given in the words of the
contemporary historian, Skala Ze Zhore:
“No mercy was granted them, and first the lord of Smecno
(_i.e._ Martinic) was dragged to the window near which the
secretaries generally worked; for Kinsky was quicker, and
had more aid than Count Thurn, who had seized Slavata.
Then they were both thrown, dressed in their cloaks and
with their rapiers and decorations, just as they had been
found in the Councillors’ office, one after the other,
headforemost out of the western window into a moat beneath
the palace, which, by a wall, was separated from the other
deeper moat. They loudly screamed, ‘Ach, ach, Ouve!’ and
attempted to hold on to the window-frame, but were at last
obliged to let go, as they were struck on their hands.
“It remains to add that neither of the nobles, nor
Fabricius their secretary, who was also thrown from the
window, perished, a circumstance that the Catholics
afterwards attributed to a miracle.”
About a year after this incident King Matthias died and was succeeded
by Ferdinand of Styria, who was not recognised by the Protestants. They
chose instead Frederick, the Elector Palatine, who had married the
daughter of James I. of England. About two months after his coronation
in Prague his wife Elizabeth gave birth to a son called Rupert; he
lived to be known as the dashing Prince Rupert, who played such a
gallant part in the English Civil Wars. He and his brother Maurice both
died without children, and it was through their sister Sophia that
the Hanoverian kings of England came to the British throne after the
unhappy termination of the Stuart line. Sophia’s son was George I. of
England.
The Elector Frederick is known as “the Winter King,” because hardly
had he assumed the crown than the forces of the Austrian Empire met
the Bohemians in a severe battle, called the Battle of the White
Mountain, near Prague, in which the Bohemians were completely routed
and their newly made king was forced to fly. His brief reign therefore
extended only over a few winter months. The battle was followed by
wholesale executions and confiscations among the Protestants; in the
market-place at Prague, on June 21 in the same year, twenty-six leading
Protestants, headed by Count Slik, were executed.
After this, national aspiration was crushed, and the country was
Germanised by its rulers; the House of Hapsburg was in the ascendant
and became the reigning hereditary rulers of Bohemia. It is only since
the settlement of 1867 that there has been a revival, and the Czechs
have once more been warmed into animation in the desire to keep alive
their national tongue within the Empire.
[Illustration: PRAGUE · CARL’S BRIDGE]
Prague is a mediæval town and one of the most interesting existing, in
spite of some very unsatisfactory buildings dating from the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. Though it has been again and again the scene
of conflict, there is still enough remaining from the past to afford a
rich feast to the lover of antiquities. The castle of Vysehead, built
of the stones of a still older fortress, stands high above the city,
and is a monumental chapter of history in itself if properly studied.
The town is on the river Moldau, and overlooking this is the Hradcany
Palace of the ancient kings, dating mainly from the fourth century,
but since greatly rebuilt and added to. The fine bridge of Charles
IV., fourteenth century, has a high ornamental tower at one end, a
very leviathan of its kind, rich in decorative effects, though simple
in general style. The Cathedral of St. Vitus is only one of numerous
religious buildings well worth seeing. Many of the houses are quaint
and irregular, but the modernisation of the town, and the inevitable
arrival of trams, has given a certain veneer which sits oddly on the
ancient framework.
Bohemia has produced many musicians, and at the present day the leading
professor Sevcik attracts pupils from all over the world; while
Kubelik, with his melodious violin, was a pupil at the conservatoire
and is the son of a Czech. The best-known Bohemian composer is Dvorak,
and rather less known, but little inferior in merit, is Smetaud.
Many other names might be added. Anton Dvorak was born in 1841 at
Nelahozaves and was the son of an innkeeper, and from the first was
wild to follow music as a career. He went to Prague, and as a mere boy
kept himself by his violin, playing in orchestras. He married, and
as a means of adding to his small earnings took pupils. He was very
energetic, and turned out a multitude of compositions. At the age of
thirty-four he was lucky enough to secure a position which relieved
him from the fear of want, and from thenceforth gave himself up to
producing larger works, symphonies and operas. He visited England
frequently, and for three years lived in America, holding the post of
head of a conservatoire in New York. He died in 1904. His best-known
works are the _Stabat Mater_, Symphony in D, and the opera _Jacobin_.
The political history of Moravia is so bound up with that of Bohemia
that it does not need telling separately. Since 1029 the country has
been incorporated with that of Bohemia and has shared its fortunes.
The people are Slavs, and are generally known as Slovaks or Moravians,
but are really very much like the Czechs. There is also a strong
German element, and the German and Slav electors choose their deputies
separately, voting according to their nationality. The country sends
forty-nine deputies to the Austrian Parliament. The Moravians are very
industrious, and their commerce and manufactures compare favourably
with the rest of the Empire. Linen, cotton, and woollen goods are
manufactured in the capital, Brunn; and beet-sugar, leather, and brandy
are also reckoned in the output. The name is derived from the river
March or Morava, which runs through the country.
The principal idea which has reached the mind of the world at large in
connection with Moravia is the use of the word Moravian to distinguish
the sect of an extreme evangelical type started in the times of Huss,
which has since spread far and wide. The Moravian Church has no formal
creed, but believes in simplicity of life and above all in missionary
effort.
The country is cut off from Hungary by the North-West Carpathians,
which form a high ridge between, and several of the spurs of these
mountains run down into Moravia.
[Illustration: CARINTHIA: MARIA-WÖRTH, ON THE WÖRTHERSEE]
The three duchies, with beautiful poetic names, Carniola, Carinthia,
and Styria, are comparatively unknown to strangers outside the borders
of the Empire. Seamed by ranges of the Alps, cut by torrents, and
clothed in rich forests, they include some of the most glorious parts
of the country, and as they get better known will probably be as
popular with tourists as the Tyrol or Switzerland. The two first-named
average about 4000 square miles each, and the last over twice as much.
In Carinthia the largest proportion of the inhabitants are Germans, and
in Carniola all but 5 per cent are Slavs, known as Slovenes. In both
countries the bulk of the people are of the Roman Catholic religion.
The title Duke of Carinthia first appears in the tenth century and
is to be found in the chronicles of many of the local disturbances
throughout succeeding centuries. The celebrated Margaret Maultasche,
mentioned in the account of the Tyrol, received the province as part
of her patrimony from her father the Duke, but it was taken from her
by the King of Bavaria and handed over to the Austrian princes. On the
death of Ferdinand of Austria in 1564 his third son, Charles, became
Duke of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. When Buonaparte created the
province of Illyria, these three countries were incorporated in it.
Carinthia is cut in two by the river Drave. Its capital is Klagenfurt.
Carniola, which has always been closely connected with it, is
traversed by the river Save. Its capital is Laibach.
The Slovenes of Carniola are very near akin to the Croatians, and the
two languages are sufficiently alike for the people to understand one
another without much difficulty. In uniting these provinces as Illyria,
Buonaparte aroused national aspirations which still linger.
Carniola is desperately anxious to preserve alive her nationality and
to cultivate her own tongue. The writer in the tenth edition of the
_Encyclopædia Britannica_ says:
German influence in the province is now very slight and is
still declining. Energetic efforts are being made to cultivate
literature, science and the drama in the Slovene language. The
Dramatic Association has brought out over a hundred original
and translated pieces, many of which have been produced in the
subsidized Slovene theatre at Laibach. The national Literary
Association, which numbers over 46,000 members, distributes a
quarter of a million volumes annually, while its encouragement
promotes and maintains a national periodical press, which calls
forth a succession of talented young writers. The anti-German
and anti-Italian feeling is very strong, and has found
expression in violent demonstrations of fraternity with the
Czechs, and in an abortive effort to make the Russian language
a subject of instruction in the public school, preliminary
to elevating it to the rank of the Panslavist medium of
intercommunication.
In both these provinces the mountains are honey-combed by caves,
grottoes, and subterranean passages. The grottoes of Adelsburg are
among the most remarkable in the world. The Terglou peak in Carniola
rises to a height of 10,000 feet. The celebrated Tauern line, already
mentioned as being one of the most recent of the State enterprises,
runs through both countries. It leaves the main east and west line at
Schwarzach. Its construction was the result of the law of 1901, which
secured to the State the construction of a number of new lines and
the linking up of others. Nine years passed before this particular
line, which presented enormous difficulties, was completed; it pierces
no less than three of the ranges of Alps. It may not be generally
realised, we may remark in passing, how very large a portion of the
Alpine system is included in Austria. Nearly one-quarter of the
Austrian dominions is embraced by these mountains. They extend through
the Rhaetian, Noric, Salzburg, Carnic, Dinaric, and Julian, and other
chains, and the new railway traverses no less than three, the Tauern,
Karawanken, and Julian chains. The tunnels cutting these mountains are
respectively 8520 metres, 7976 metres, and 6399 metres in length.
Any one traversing this route would do well to spend some days at
Salzburg, in order to see the town itself with its cathedral and
fortress, and also to visit the Salzkammergut with its galaxy of lovely
lakes, including the Attersee and Mondsee, or Gmunden, where is the
Duke of Cumberland’s summer residence, and Ischl, where the emperor
himself lives at the best season of the year. The railway after leaving
Schwarzach passes by many a gorge and viaduct and embankment, across
precipices and around hills, to Badgastein, the famous health resort,
with its hotels and bathing establishments and wonderful scenery, at
the foot of the Tauern range. It is after traversing this range that
the railway descends into Carinthia, which can show some scenery as
beautiful as any in Austria. The line touches at Mallnitz and runs high
above the Möll valley dotted with huts and cottages, which show up like
toy dwellings from the heights above. From the station Obervellach
climbers can ascend the Great Glockner. Once again by tunnels and
viaducts, and an ever-changing panorama of mountain and valley, it
reaches Spittal-Millstättersee, the station for Millstättersee, a lake
which bathes the wooded hills of the Millstätteralps. From Spittal
to Villach the trains run over the lines of a private company, the
Sudbahn. This railway deserves a special note. It is part of the line
from Vienna to Trieste, and was engineered by Karl von Ghega, an
Austrian who had visited America to study the problems connected with
his craft. It was built at a time of great commotion and disturbance
in the monarchy, 1848–50, and is amazing in itself with its tunnels
and viaducts and cuttings and embankments even at this time, but when
considered as a feat performed in the early days of railway-making is a
positive marvel. Sixteen thousand men were employed on the making,
and the blasting of rock-work was mistaken at Vienna for the cannon of
an army of insurgents!
[Illustration: STYRIA: THE GRIMMING, FROM PÜRGG]
Villach is a town which forms an excellent centre, being on the lines
connected with Vienna, Venice, Botzen, and Meran. From here there are
views of the glacier-covered Ankogel and other mountains in the Seebach
valley. Through the Karawanken Alps we come down into the atmosphere
of the Mediterranean, and find everything more advanced and smiling
than on the northern side. Here we are in Carniola. The line crosses
the Save valley by a viaduct 165 metres long, runs through a tunnel,
and eventually reaches Veldes--another health resort--with a castle
standing high above a lake. Other tunnels follow, and at last we come
to the Wocheiner See, lying in a deeply cut cleft and most wonderfully
situated. This gives its name to the last of the Alpine tunnels, that
through the Julian Alps, and then we arrive at the most difficult and
impressive part of the new railway, where the engineering feats make us
hold our breath. Through the Isonzo valley we pass, with the river of
that name flowing deep-green and curiously bright among water-carved
white rocks. The river is crossed by a viaduct not once only, but
again, and the second time by what is the largest stone railway bridge
in the world at Salcano, 36 metres above the water. Tunnel after tunnel
follows, until we reach Gorz, the capital of the principality of Gorz
and Gradiska, the houses are grouped round the castle on its hill, and
the place enjoys renown as a winter resort on account of the mildness
of its climate. It is not until we are through the Opcina tunnel that
we emerge to see the panorama of the Adriatic.
Styria lies to the east of Carinthia and Carniola and is no whit
less interesting. It is traversed by the range of the Carnic, here
called the Styrian or Karawanken Alps. Of these, the highest peak
is the Stou, 7346 feet, but higher still is the Hochgolling, 9392
feet, in the prolongation of the Tauern range. The whole country is
mountainous, and in consequence it is, like so much else of the Empire,
rich in minerals; its iron mines are well worked and produce a large
quantity of ore annually. There are also numerous mineral springs,
of iron, of alkali, and of brine. Gratz, which is the capital town,
has a population of over 100,000. There is a university here, and the
inhabitants are almost all Roman Catholic; about two-thirds of them
are German. The industrial side of Styria is worked much better than
most parts of the Dual Monarchy. There is a good manufacture of iron
tools and agricultural implements. The country also produces linen,
paper, shoes, glass, and many other things. It was at one time held
by Hungary, but has generally shared the fate of the two adjacent
provinces. Styria shared in the Reformation, but was re-Catholicised
by the determined efforts of the Archduke Charles in the sixteenth
century. He settled the Jesuits in Gratz and set up a Catholic
printing-press there. “A university for Jesuit instruction was founded
in 1586. The nobles were obliged under pain of disgrace and even
punishment to send their children to this university, and no one was
allowed to attend the heretical schools of Germany.” When Charles died
his work was carried on by his successor Ferdinand, who “began by
driving all the Protestant preachers from Gratz and other towns; he
then took possession of their schools, burnt their books, and forced
the members of the Reformed churches to sell their property and quit
the country. The Capuchins were sent for to help the Jesuits to bring
back the people to the right way, and liberty of conscience was stifled
for long years to come” (_History of Austria-Hungary_, by Louis Leger).