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Show Ancient City 61 Innsbruck Most Important Town of the Austrian Tyrol and Replete with Historic Associations Claims the Traveler's Attention, (Special Correspondence.) nrM. HE mos: dire.et route iJ&wWiy from Italy to (Jermany fc"5 leads ov-er the "Bren- . Kk&C "er F"ss-" through g AVyj&pj Innsbruck, Botzen and TklrM manv smaller Tyrolese Ff ca towns. A K' tttfr Innsbruck, tte most important city of the 2 Austrian Tyrol, lies north of the pass, walled in by lofty and impressive mountains. Lying in the valley of the river Inn, the town is apparently surrounded by mountains, and has, on one side, such a mighty wall of gray and barren When Napoleon I. drove the Aus-trians Aus-trians from the Tyrol, in the early part of the nineteenth century, the outraged peasants arose in thousands, appointed Andreas Hofer their commander-in-chief, and fought bravely for their old allegiance. Andreas Hofer, the landlord of an inn called "The Sands," became on of the most celebrated heroes in Tyrolese Tyro-lese ' history, and even now his name is sung and toasted by the students of Austrian and German universities. Under his command, the Tyrolese won at first the victory, and the Austrian eagle, carved out of wood, was car- , ' wH A l gr i 11 ' , 3 INTERIOR OF HOFKIRCHE. (Innsbruck.) rock that its broad, main street Is darkly shadowed, and it Is difficult, from this point, to get a glimpse of the blue sky. The grandeur pf this frowning mass of solid rock is unsurpassed, unsur-passed, and the city itself, with its ancient towers and tall monuments, sinks into insignificance at the foot of the great mountain chain. The churches in Innsbruck are well filled on Sunday, as the people of the town are devout and regular churchgoers. Not far from the parish church, but on the other side of the river the nuns chant their vespers in a dimly lighted chapel, while their thin and passionless voices seem to e&'me iTorn "some' far-away, invisible world. But the most interesting of all the churches in Innsbruck is the Hof-kirohe, Hof-kirohe, or court chapel, under the control con-trol of the Franciscan friars. The mausoleum of the Emperor Maximilian Maxi-milian I. fills the center of the building, build-ing, and is a wonderful work of art. Designed and executed by the most skilful artists of the time, it is one of the finest examples of the early German Ger-man renaissance. It consists of a finely wrought sarcophagus, sar-cophagus, surrounded by twenty-eight twenty-eight colossal bronze figures, representing repre-senting the ancestors of the Emperor and a few heroes of other lands whom Maximilian wished to honor. In the mfdst of these imposing figures, fig-ures, King Arthur of the early British legends stands in knightly armor, leaning upon a shield. The shield and ned in triumph through the streets ol Innsbruck. But the day of Hofer's power was a short one, as Napoleon finally sepa rated the Tyrol from Austria, and Hofer was forced to fly from his country. He was at length captured and executed at Mantua, where the bells are still tolled on the anniversary anniver-sary of his death. The broadest and busiest street of the town is named after Maria Theresa, The-resa, and leads northward from the Triumphal Arch until it seems to stop at the foot of the mountain range which shadows it so heavily. .From Innsbruck there are many de-IiKhtfui de-IiKhtfui Au"Sni ;e7"'or"ilignls out of town," as the 'Germans say. One of the most interesting is to the Castle Ambras, celebrated as the home of the Archduke Ferdinand II. and his wife, Philippine Welser. The marriage of the archduke to a Greman woman of the middle class was an unusual and romantic one. Philippine Weiser was born in 1527, in the old town of Augsburg, and received re-ceived the simple education which was considered suitable to her station. While paying a visit in Bresnic' she met the archduke, whose habits were de -ocratic, and after a short acquainta. , , was secretly married to him. Some "t'""-. after the king was prevailed upi pardon his son's imprudent marbv.t insisted upon secrecy, and took the Austro-Hun-garian succession from his son and the son's heirs. The marriage was afterward sane i Try's Jfi MARIA THERESA oTREET. j armor are finely wrought with the dragon and the lily, and on each shoulder of the knight two larger dragons rest and form an epaulet. The king's left hand is closed upon the hilt of his good sword, Excalibur. The figure is thought to be the finest of the whole royal assemblage, and is without doubt the work of Peter Vischer, the celebrated German artist. tioned by the pope and recognized by the world at large, and at Castle Ambras Am-bras Ferdinand and his wife lived happily hap-pily for many years. Their court was a large and brilliant one, and was noted for its cultivation and splendor. Many relics of the luxury and wealth of Castle Ambras may now be seen in the museum, where they are carefully pre -arved. |