THUN, SWITZERLAND. One of the most picturesque of Swiss towns is Thun, which is charmingly situated on the banks of the river Aar, three-quarters of a mile below its efflux from the lake. Many of the town’s buildings are very old. The Castle of Zahringen-Kyburg, whose large square tower forms a noted feature of the landscape, dates from 1182. The principal street is curious. In front of the houses projects a row of warehouses and cellars, on the flat roofs of which is the pavement for foot passengers, flanked with the shops. The view here presented is taken from the pavilion in the Bellevue Grounds, which overlooks the city, and commands the old-fashioned town, the lake, the Alps and the Valley of the Aar.
JUNGFRAU FROM INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND. The town of Interlaken, as its name indicates, is situated between two lakes (Brienz and Thun), in a valley about three miles wide, on either side of which rises a ridge of precipitous mountains six thousand feet high. The great attraction of the place is not the scenery either way along the valley, but a view that is caught through a depression in the mountains on the southern side, revealing the Jungfrau (“Young Maiden”) Mountain and her attendant galaxy of noble Alpine peaks, rearing their snow-crowned heads far above the horizon. The Jungfrau is the most imposing eminence in all the Bernese Alps. Surrounded by stupendous precipices, her surface is broken by valleys, ravines and glaciers, which from a distance look like creases in the mantle of snow that covers her enormous flanks. The first ascent of this mountain was made on August 3d, 1811.
CURSALON, VIENNA, AUSTRIA. This handsome structure, in the Italian renaissance style, was put up in 1865–67. With its surrounding gardens, it forms one of the most attractive spots in the city. Concerts are given here on Sundays and Thursdays, when large crowds are always sure to attend.
CATHEDRAL, MILAN, ITALY. The Milanese look upon this church as the eighth wonder of the world. In truth, it is a marvelous edifice. “Gothic art,” as Taine says, “here attains its triumph and its extravagance.” Nowhere else is it so pointed, so complex, so highly embroidered, so full of delicate detail. It differs from most Gothic cathedrals in being built, not of dark stone, but of beautiful, lustrous white Italian marble. Begun in 1386, it was not fully completed until 1805, at the direction of Napoleon. The design is said to be taken from Monte Rosa, one of the loftiest peaks of the Alps. Its ninety-eight sculptured pinnacles, rising from every part of the body of the church, certainly bear a striking resemblance to the splintered ice crags of Savoy. Next to St. Peter’s, at Rome, and the Cathedral at Seville, this is the largest church in Europe, covering, as it does, an area of fourteen thousand square yards.
PANORAMA OF VENICE, ITALY. No city in the world is more fascinating than Venice. Its very situation makes it unique, built as it is on a cluster of small islands, a hundred or more in number, in the lagoon of the same name. A long, narrow sand-bank, divided by several inlets, separates the lagoon from the Adriatic. The largest of the islands is the Isola di Rialto, which gives its name to the famous bridge. The Grand Canal winds through the city in a double curve, like the letter S, and divides it into two unequal parts. The one hundred and forty-six smaller canals and a perfect network of small streets and bridges form the other thoroughfares. The splendid churches, the vast treasures of art and the magnificent palaces, remind one of the glories of the past, and fill the present with a surpassing beauty. By the fifteenth century Venice had become the greatest republic in Europe and the focus of its commerce. The immense wealth of its merchant princes enabled them to gratify their artistic sense in the superb monuments still extant.
