Tyrol (Austria) -- Description and travel; Tyrol (Austria) -- History
Indeed, probably in no other garden in the world do unsuspecting
visitors run such risks of a soaking or impromptu shower baths as at
Hellbrunn. Jets start suddenly (at the turn of secret taps by the
custodian, who seems to take a cynical delight, bred of many
experiences, in the visitor's discomfiture) from rockeries, from the
corners of plaster columns, from the mouths, finger-tips and eyes of
statues, from the foliage of trees, from roofs of grottoes, from the
edges of the very paths along which one is unsuspectingly walking,
from, it appears, the very ground beneath one's feet. One is lured
into a grotto to admire a statue or to "see something" which may or
may not actually exist, only a moment later to find one's exit blocked
by a curtain of water, which pours down from the outside rocks above
the entrance. This lifts and one makes a dash for liberty, only to be
assailed by jets of water converging or spurting across the path one
has to follow. Visitors seat themselves upon a marble bench a few
moments later, and a whole battery of jets plays upon the unfortunate
sitters, or are so arranged that, whilst not actually playing upon
them, to escape without "running the gauntlet," for the amusement of
the more discreet or knowing onlookers, is impossible. On fine Sundays
when there is usually a great crowd of visitors at this favourite
out-of-town resort, which boasts of an excellent restaurant, there is,
of course, plenty of fun when the jets begin to play for the lucky
folk who have "been there before."
Along one path leading from the chateau to the lawns and fish-ponds,
the latter of which are crowded with huge carp and other fish, some of
which are reputed to be as old as Hellbrunn itself, there are set in
niches a number of figures, blacksmiths, armourers, millers, and the
like with their anvils, forges, and mills worked by a tiny runlet of
water. And not far from these is the famous mechanical Theatre, also
worked by water power, with its organ, and some hundred and fifty
figures in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century costumes, which give
quaint performances, depicting a busy town, dancers (these latter very
amusing with their pirouettes and posturings), soldiers, fighting,
jousts, etc. Of the water grottoes that known as the Neptune--with, it
is said, five thousand jets--is the largest, and there are also the
Rainbow, Fairy, and Orpheus grottoes, each one bringing into play some
fresh piece of mechanical or other ingenuity.
In the deer park is situated the famous Monatsschlösschen upon a
wooded knoll, from which a fine view is obtainable. This building was
erected (some say for a bet) within a month's time by Archbishop
Marcus Sittich. There was at the time a popular belief that he was
assisted in the accomplishment of what was, at all events in those
days, a wonderful feat by Satan himself.
[Illustration: MOUNTAIN PASTURES]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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