Tyrol (Austria) -- Description and travel; Tyrol (Austria) -- History
The approach to Innsbruck, whether one come to it by railway or by
road from the west, north, east or south, is picturesque and even
wonderfully beautiful. Most English and American travellers, however,
we imagine, come to the old-time capital of Tyrol via Zurich and the
Arlberg railway, with its marvellous tunnel all but six and a half
miles in length, above which tower snow-clad peaks and glaciers. This
route provides a wonder-world of delight, a succession of deep gorges
lying at the foot of towering mountains covered on their summits with
a mantle of spotless and eternal snow. At one moment the train
traverses a steep gradient climbing slowly along the hillside as
though the line were laid upon a shelf of rock from which nothing but
a miracle can keep it from tumbling into the foaming torrent below;
the next plunging into the darkness of one of the many tunnels, to
emerge a moment or two later into a blaze of light and vistas of still
greater beauty. The Arlberg railway is not alone an engineering
triumph; it is also an artistic one. Few lines in Europe present
greater charm or variety of scenery in so comparatively short a
distance. To enter Tyrol by it is to see the country as it is, largely
unaltered from the days when Napoleon's armies entered it also from
the Swiss frontier with the same objective, Innsbruck.
Soon after leaving Feldkirch the valley commences to contract as the
line climbs upwards from Bludenz and passes through the beautiful
Kloster Thal; and at Langen one suddenly comes into the region of
Alpine pastures, and from the valley below one can hear the musical
tinkle of cow-bells, and discover on the hill-slopes picturesque
groups of peasants minding their flocks. Then comes the ascent through
the famous Arlberg tunnel, which is 26 feet in width and 23 feet in
height, with its six and a half miles of gloom succeeded by
magnificent scenery as St. Anton is passed, and the line proceeds
through the narrow Stanzer valley, between towering mountains, many of
whose peaks are snow-covered. Soon it crosses the wonderful Trisanna
Viaduct which, in one arch of nearly 150 yards in length, spans the
gorge of the Patznaum valley, at the bottom of which, nearly 200 feet
below the line, rushes the glacial stream, and thence past the ancient
Castle of Wiesberg onwards to Landeck, which is set in a wide valley
with its commanding castle.
From Landeck by taking a carriage one can reach Innsbruck in a
leisurely way along the Finstermunz high-road via Sulden and Trafoi,
and thence along the Stilfserjoch, the highest carriage road in
Europe, which climbs to the height of 9055 feet above sea level. This
was constructed between the years 1820-25 by the Austrian Government,
and traverses a wonderful variety of exquisite scenery, from the
region of the eternal snow on the Ortler and Monte Cristallo to the
vine-clad slopes of the Val Tellina. The most impressive scenery is,
however, found on the Tyrol side of the pass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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