CVIII.
Vienna, Austria, April 26, 1855.
A ride of eighteen hours by rail from Prague, the Bohemian capital, brought me to Vienna, the imperial city of Austria, passing through Brunn, a town of some importance, leaving Austerlitz and its battle ground on the left. A former visit to the places named, taking Iglau and Czaslau en route to Prague, over much tedious and uninteresting country, occupied five days; but by the aid of the iron horse the journey is now accomplished in the time mentioned. I find the old city quite unchanged; so unlike many of our American cities, where, on a return visit, after a few years’ absence, one can scarcely recognise the localities formerly familiar to the eye.
I arrived here in time for the festivals, at the close of the Holy Week, and found the old Cathedral of St. Stephen’s filled with the multitude as I had last seen it on the occasion of the annual departure of the devotees or pilgrims to the mountain chapel of Maria Zell. It seemed that only a brief interval had elapsed; but hundreds of those whom I then saw have probably made the pilgrimage from which there is no return, while I have been permitted, during the lapse of fourteen years, to pass three similar annual festivals under Popes Gregory and Pius, in Rome; another at the tomb of our Saviour, in Jerusalem; one in Murcia, in Catholic Spain, and two in Havana. The altars here, bedecked with natural plants and flowers, reminded me of a much greater horticultural display on a similar occasion in Lima.
The new chapel has been erected in commemoration of the preservation of the young Emperor from the hands of an assassin; and, on the anniversary of his marriage, about a year since, a brilliant mass was performed in presence of the imperial family. Notwithstanding the attempt upon his life, he seems to have full confidence in the loyalty of his people. I met him recently with an aide-de-camp only, walking in the vicinity of the palace, and we saluted each other politely. I met the mother of the emperor in the palace garden, in like manner, with a lady of the court and a servant, and she also responded politely to my civilities.
The empress, who is of the House of Bavaria, appears youthful, and rather pretty. She is not yet nineteen years of age, and is much esteemed by the public for her simplicity of manner.
On the occasion of the recent birth of a princess an amnesty was granted to many prisoners.
The Prater, with its dense forestry, is the grand lounge, where thousands may be seen on a fine day, and occasionally the cortege of the Imperial family.
The trees are now in bloom, and the country wears a pretty appearance.
The police are very rigid; I found myself closely catechised at the bureau, when I presented myself for an Aufenthalt’s Karte, or permit to remain longer than six days.
The language of the people is corrupt German, but the educated classes speak the language in its purity. The many tongues here spoken make it a sort of Babel.
The Slavonians, who number sixteen millions, extending throughout Bohemia, Illyria, and Dalmatia, and whose language is difficult, seem to have the faculty of acquiring other languages; they are of the Czeck race, one of the three families Mech, Lech, and Czeck, who occupy Poland and Russia; and, although they are remote from the others, they understand much that is said in conversation. The Hungarian or Magyar language has not the slightest resemblance to the Slavonic or German, being an eastern or Asiatic language, the Magyars having migrated from Asia to Hungary about nine hundred years ago.
There is a vast deal to be seen in the capital of Austria. Its amusements are abundant. The Strauss Band, so justly celebrated, gives Sunday and holiday concerts in the Volks or People’s Garden.
Schönbrunn, the Imperial summer palace and grounds, is within a few miles of the city.
The pretty neighboring village of Heitzing is overrun in summer by denizens of the city.
The immense summer palace has one thousand and three hundred rooms. I passed through fifty-two of the principal apartments, many newly furnished with elegance and taste, and rich in historical and family paintings, reminiscences of the legions of Napoleon, and of his son, the young Duke of Reichstadt.
The park contains the largest menagerie or collection of wild animals, and the best exhibition of rare birds I have seen in Europe, the present emperor having a fondness for natural history. The vast inclosures, of some acres, are of a circular form, radiating from the centre, with walls, and barriers, and outbuildings for the winter, heated to an African temperature, for the giraffes and other animals that require it.
The glass summer-houses, resembling military barracks in size, contain all the varieties of tropical vegetation.
Upon the summit of the hill, in the rear of the Park, stands the Gloriette, a massive stone structure, three hundred feet long, and sixty feet high, with columns; it is an Observatory, whence one gets a good view of Vienna and the Danubian banks.
A favorite excursion is by rail to Laxenburg, the favorite summer residence of the young Empress; she manifests, I think, good taste in her selection, nature is so beautiful here; and shade and retirement must be a great relief after the blaze and excitement of court life, particularly for one who is remarkable for her quiet primitive manner, and her fondness for fishing, so my guide informed me; her liege lord’s passion is for the chase, which brings him out of his bed at four o’clock in the morning.
The art of man has produced upon the level surface of the Park, elevated mounds and islands, from the earth thrown out to form ponds for fishing and sailing, in which ponds scores of neatly painted boats are seen; grottoes are formed from heavy blocks of stone brought from the mountain quarries. Upon a small island, called Franzenburg, the miniature Ritterburg Castle is a perfect gem, with its castellated walls and towers; it has several rooms adorned with horse and war armor, and all the antique weapons of war artistically arranged; coats of mail, and lances used in tournaments, etc.; the sculptured oak-ceilings, three hundred or four hundred years old, the paintings, furniture, decorations, marble statues and portraits of the Hapsburg family, illuminated glass windows, cabinets of vases, relics of gold, silver and precious stones, form quite a museum, and give a correct idea of the grandeur and magnificence of the original.
The Viennese have their Baden, a place of summer resort for invalids, and noted for its beautiful mountain scenery, and its valley, called Helenenthal; but it cannot be compared favorably with the celebrated Baden-Baden in any particular, aside from its sulphur waters, which resemble those of Wiesbaden in smell and flavor. It lies twenty miles from Vienna by rail, and is well worth a visit.
The great gala-day of the year is the 1st of May, when nobility and plebeians, great and small, resort to the Prater, and is looked forward to as the chief event of the season.
A sojourn of nearly a month will give me an opportunity of revisiting much that I had seen formerly, and acquiring a better idea of the peculiarities of the different races of mankind.