Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 5: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland, Part 1
History
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 5: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland, Part 1
Austria -- Description and travel; Germany -- Description and travel; Switzerland -- Description and travel
Meanwhile, service is going on in all parts of the cathedral. They are
singing here; they are praying there; and they are preaching in a third
place. But during the whole time, I never heard one single note of the
organ. I remember only the other Sunday morning--walking out beneath one
of the brightest blue skies that ever shone upon man--and entering the
cathedral about nine o'clock. A preacher was in the principal pulpit;
while a tolerably numerous congregation was gathered around him. He
preached, of course, in the German language, and used much action. As he
became more and more animated, he necessarily became warmer, and pulled
off a black cap--which, till then, he had kept upon his head; the zeal
and piety of the congregation at the same time seeming to increase with
the accelerated motions of the preacher.
In other more retired parts, solitary devotees were seen--silent, and
absorbed in prayer. Among these, I shall not easily forget the head and
the physiognomical expression of one old man--who, having been supported
by crutches, which lay by the side of him--appeared to have come for the
last time to offer his orisons to heaven. The light shone full upon his
bald head and elevated countenance; which latter indicated a genuineness
of piety, and benevolence of disposition, not to be soured, even by the
most bitter of worldly disappointments! It seemed as if the old man were
taking leave of this life, in full confidence of the rewards which await
the righteous beyond the grave.
So much for the living. A word or two now for the dead. Of course this
letter alludes to the monuments of the more distinguished characters
once resident in and near the metropolis. Among these, doubtless the
most elaborate is that of the Emperor Frederick III.--in the florid
Gothic style, surmounted by a tablet, filled with coat-armor, or
heraldic shields. Some of the mural monuments are very curious, and
among them are several of the early part of the sixteenth century--which
represent the chins and even mouths of females, entirely covered by
drapery; such as is even now to be seen and such as we saw on descending
from the Vosges. But among these monuments--both for absolute and
relative antiquity--none will appear to the curious eye of an antiquary
so precious as that of the head of the architect of the cathedral, whose
name was Pilgram.
[Footnote A: From "A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour,"
published in 1821.]
THE BELVEDERE PALACE[A]
BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN
To the Belvedere Palace, therefore, let us go. I visited it with Mr.
Lewis--taking our valet with us, immediately after breakfast--on one of
the finest and clearest-skied September mornings that ever shone above
the head of man. We had resolved to take the Ambras, or the little
Belvedere, in our way; and to have a good, long, and uninterrupted view
of the wonders of art--in a variety of departments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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