Tyrol (Austria) -- Description and travel; Tyrol (Austria) -- History
Some of the dolls, more especially those which have Tyrolese costumes
represented in wood, need great care in carving; and others are
swiftly done, some by elementary machinery. The best wood used is the
_pinus cembra_, or Swiss pine, which originally grew thickly on the
sides of the mountains, but has now largely to be imported owing to
the fact that whilst the trees have been cut down by the thousand,
scant provision appears to have been made for the future by planting
others. There is, however, plenty of the wood still left in the
immediate neighbourhood.
Nowadays at St. Ulrich there is an excellent Imperial School of
Drawing, and modelling, and there would appear to be a distinct
advance of recent years in the carving (of animals and figures
especially) in consequence of the teaching given, though in their main
characteristics the animals and small figures produced have not much
varied from the ancient types.
The church of St. Ulrich, although comparatively modern, dating only
from quite the end of the eighteenth century, has a beautifully
adorned interior; rather ornate and highly coloured perhaps, but
interesting and typical. There is also in it a Mater Dolorosa by
Maroder, and in the sacristy a fine marble Madonna by a pupil of
Canova, Andrea Colli. The restored chapel of St. Anthony is also worth
seeing, as it possesses a remarkably fine altar-piece, the work of
Deschwanden.
[Sidenote: CONCERNING DIALECT]
There is a distinct dialect in the villages of the Grödener Thal,
locally known as Ladin, which is said by philologists to be directly
derived from the Latin tongue, and to date from the days of the Roman
occupation. It is certainly so different from the dialects of modern
Italy that it is almost impossible for the stranger, even though
well-versed in those, to understand it. In some points it may be said
to resemble the Grisons Romanche, and Romanese of the Engadine; but
the parallel is not at all a close one, and needs several distinct
qualifications. Although a deeply interesting one to philologists, it
is impossible to deal with the question at all fully here. Certainly
one would be inclined to think that this peculiar dialect has an
Etruscan origin, for it is well-known that considerable remains of
that people have from time to time been unearthed in the Grödener
Thal, and, indeed, in the immediate neighbourhood of St. Ulrich
itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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