Picturesque Danubian Photochrom Collection

6336. Wien, Franz Josefs Kai, the Donaukanal is visible on the right side with the overarching Salztorbrücke. 

MAGYARUL

Photo? Postcard? A painting? It's hard to know exactly which category the images from the Zurich-based Photoglob AG (originally Photochrom Zurich) series of images of Europe and, to a lesser extent, North America fall into. The Zurich-based company was founded by the Orell Füssli Institute of Arts and used lithographic printing techniques to produce colour images from black and white photographic originals, a process developed by the Swiss lithographer Hans Jakob Schmid. Between 1896 and 1906, the company published a monthly magazine in French and German language, featuring their new images. Printing rights were also sold abroad, for example to the Detroit Publishing Co. The company's prosperity came to an end when demand for such pictures fell during the First World War. 

What is certain is that the ink-based photolithographs, which depict nearly six thousand locations, are easily distinguishable from contemporary photographs, postcards and landscapes, whether it is Ragusa in Dalmatia or Königsberg in eastern Prussia, by their colours and gold lettering. These pictures were reproduced and sold as souvenirs all over the world, each with a unique serial number. 

They depict in landscape detail the characteristic features of a settlement or landscape (mountain, valley, river, gorge, coast, etc.), often capturing street scenes and everyday life. The collection of the US Library of Congress includes a large number of images of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although fewer of them are of the Hungarian territories. The Western provinces and Dalmatia are well represented, but there is also a fine series on the Danube Valley, which, as far as I know, no one else has collected. 

From Engelhartszell to the island of Ada Kaleh, covering 1250 river kilometres of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the collection contains a total of 24 pictures, of which 15 are for the Austrian section and 9 for the Hungarian section. Most of them are urban views, but there is also a strong emphasis on castle ruins, and even a few Danube islands, the value of which lies in the fact that most of them have been eradicated by river regulation. There is no doubt that we are looking at a series of documents, which are arranged in the following order, downstream on the Danube:

9214. Engelhartszell, 2201 river kilometer (rkm). A view on the Austrian town, from the former ferry crossing, which was not far from the Dandl creek, representing the German border. From here downstream, both sides of the Danube belong to Austria.

9218. Ottensheim, 2145,5 rkm. Panorama of the Ottensheim castle from the opposite side, Wilhering. The former Habsburg castle is private property nowadays, since the picture was taken, the castle got a new tower.

1731. Linz, 2136 rkm. Outlook on Linz from the west, presumably from the Franz-Josefs-Warte. The huge building in the middle of the picture is the Castle of Linz, next to it the Nibelungen bridge overarches the Danube to the northern suburb Urfahr Beyond the bridge there we see the former forested Strasser Island.

9212. Grein, 2079 rkm. The castle of Grein has been build on a granite cliff over the Danube at the entrance of the Strudel gorge, an old adversary of the shipmen of the Danube. Greinburg is now a property of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, between its walls there is Maritime Museum.

9207. Wörth and Werfenstein, 2077 rkm. The wild Strudel gorge-szoros has been tamed by a hydroelectrical power plant, which raised the water level on the upstream reservoir, reducing the relative height of the steep cliffs, crowned by the castles of Wörth and Werfenstein.

9219. Persenbeug, 2060 rkm. "Patrick Leigh Fermor has arrived exactly 80 years ago, in late January, 1934 to the Austrian town Persenbeug. After having supper in the town inn and filling his journals for the day he made a sketch of the innkeeper's daughter. And he's been talking to an old polymath aristocrat till late night. About the Danube, its fish, especially the catfish, the kraken of the Danube, about hydroelectric dams, Romans, Markomanns, archaeology, flora and fauna, about Hans, ritter of Ybbs, the Tartars, Schubert, Wagner and about the Dodo bird of Mauritius." "Progress" altered much the landscape since then, the author of the picture would stand today underwater in the locks of the Ybbs-Persenbeug dam, on the exact same place.

9211. Marbach and Maria Taferl, 2050 rkm. Maria Taferl, with 291 inhabitants, is a famous place in Austria, its church was built next to a roadside sanctuary to the Virgin Mary between 1660 and 1710 and has since dominated the Danube. It is Austria's second largest and most important pilgrimage site after Mariazell. The picture was taken near Wallenbach on the right.

9224. Weitenegg, 2039 rkm. This castle ruin has a sad history, having fallen into disrepair in the 1700s, but the eastern part was demolished to expand the local ultramarine blue dye factory. On the far right bank is Melk Abbey, with several Danube islands in the foreground, the largest of which is Weitenecker Au, which ends to the right of the castle tower.   

9223. Schönbühel, 2032,5 rkm. Monastery and castle dominate the two cliffs over the Danube north of Melk in the Wachau. Despite river regulation works, if not an island, then by some miracle a large rocky reef still juts out in the middle of the river below the distinctive towered castle, which is still inhabited by an Austrian noble family. 

9226. Spitz a. d. Donau, 2019 rkm. Perhaps Wachau's most famous vineyard, the Tausendeimerberg, rises terraced above the town, where the main grape varieties are Riesling and Neuburger, the latter a cross between the local speciality, red Veltelini and green Riesling. The "Austrian Danube bend" is also famous for its apricots, which are sold in almost every form from dumplings to brandy. Behind the "Thousand bucket hill" you can see the ruins of Hinterhaus castle, at the foot of which the Danube bends eastwards. 

9217. Dürnstein, 2009 rkm. The "Dry Rock" is one of the iconic spots in Wachau in Lower Austria. It was here that King Richard the Lionhearted of England was imprisoned, and for four winter months he could watch the Danube flowing below him, before the ransom he paid was used to launch Ostmark's largest infrastructure development. 

9222. Greifenstein, 1949 rkm. The fact is that the Danube below Greifenstein no longer looks like this, and here too the river has been turned into a canal by the river regulation works, destroying 99% of the islands in the Tulln Danube basin. The Greifenstein castle is still there, privately owned, and is being renovated. 

6441. Wien, Kahlenberg (in the back) and the Leopoldsberg (in front), 1936 rkm. The village of Kahlenbergerdorf can be seen between the two hills, from the Schwarze Lacken Au opposite (now completely built up Au). The village is now part of Vienna's 19th district, but has nevertheless avoided urbanisation largely due to its topography. If you were to look across to the other side today, the artificially shaped, elongated Danube island would largely obscure everything. 

9210. Hainburg, 1884 rkm. View of the town from the Weisser Thurn Haufen on the other side of the river. Between the parish church of Philip and James and the huge building of the old tobacco factory, which closed in 1964, rises the Hainburg hill, mentioned in the Nibelungenlied.

9216. Dévény/Theben/Devín, 1880 rkm. View of Devín to the northeast, from an island in the Danube, half of which belonged to Austria and the other half to Hungary. The column of the Hungarian Millennium Monument is not yet visible, so the picture must have been taken before 1896.

9205. Pozsony/Preßburg/Bratislava, 1869 rkm. View from Pozsonyligetfalu/Engerau/Pertzalka. The castle, which burnt down on 28 May 1811, presumably set on fire by the soldiers stationed here, towers above the crowning temple of numerous Hungarian kingsn. It is not known whether the Franz Joseph Bridge, which was opened in 1890, was already standing at this time, as the picture was taken to the west of the bridge. 

9215. Esztergom, 1718 rkm. The Castle Hill of Esztergom with the Basilica, the ship bridge below and the northern, urbanised tip of the Prímás Island. There is no evidence of the construction of the Maria Valeria Bridge, so the picture must have been taken before 1894. 

9203. Visegrád, 1694 rkm. A well-known view of the Salamon Tower and Visegrád Citadel from near the Nagymaros crossing. To the left is Sibrik Hill, the ancient roman Pone Navata fort, but unfortunately the northern tip of Szentedrei Island is just missed. 

9213. Vác, 1678 rkm. The picture was probably taken in the Bolhavár (Flea fort, a common Hungarian name for roman watchtowers) area, on Szentendre Island, opposite the Hétkápolna (Seven Chapels), with a view of the five downtown churches of Vác, with the main mass of Nagyszál as a background silhouette. Unfortunately the Pokolcsárda (Hell's Inn) or the Vác ferry didn't appear on the picture, but let's not be insatiable.  

9613. Budapest, 1646 rkm. View from the Castle District of Buda, from the area of Matthias Church towards the south. It is most likely that the picture was taken in 1895 or 1896, as the Fisherman's Bastion has not yet been built in the picture, it was started when the Ferenc József Bridge was already standing. 

16531. Orsova, 955 rkm. Interestingly, unlike many larger Hungarian cities, the border town of Orsova has two pictures in the collection. They were taken from two different locations, on the Serbian side, on the hillside above Tekija. In this picture you can see the town's ship harbour and a detail of the Cerna Valley (right).

16530. Orosva, 955 rkm. Visszapillantás Jeselnica és Ogradena felé, azaz keleti irányban, Orsova filmdíszletnek felhasználva lerombolt és vízzel elárasztott központi és nyugati városrészeivel. A look back towards Jeselnica and Ogradena, and Orsova eastwards, which latter was demolished as a film scene of a Romanian II. World War movie, before the ruins were completely flooded. 

16532. Ada Kaleh, 950 rkm. Although the famous Turkish Danubian island of Ada Kaleh was not officially part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the time, we conclude this series with this picture. In the distance, the Danube winds its way between the Serbian and Romanian river banks, slowly emerging from the mountain range where ther river is much more Ister than Danubius onwards.

The link to the complete collection on the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: https://www.loc.gov/search/?q=views+of+the+austro-hungarian+empire&sp=1

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Has Anyone Seen The Babacai Rock Crack?

The Babacai Rock in 1963, photographed from the northeast (Fortepan / Drobni Nándor)

MAGYARUL

The Babacai rock is one of the most prominent places on the Danube. I would deliberately not write island, as it could not be more different from the general concept of islands in the Danube. But then what is it? A reef? A cliff? In the end, it doesn't matter, the point is that, due to its characteristic position in the Danube, there is a particularly well-documented visual representation of it, even from before the time of photography. If you start to browse through the images of the rock from the past to the present, you will notice something interesting. It is as if today it appears both lower and thinner. The obvious explanation for the former is the dammed reservoir effect of Iron Gate I hydroelectric power plant. The raised level of the Danube covered the lower parts of the cliff, a rocky reef that gradually descended towards the south, but what happened to the main mass of the cliff, which used to have two distinct peaks, only one of which is visible today? 

The Babacai rock seen from the Romanian (eastern) side of the Danube.

Mostly harmless - the h̶i̶t̶c̶h̶i̶k̶e̶r̶s̶ sailors of the Lower Danube might say of the Babakai rock, since it is like a raised index finger, towering above the water, signalling the danger lurking ahead (44. 672954, 21.677079). There are, or were, much more treacherous reefs on the Iron Gates, hiding just below the water's surface, but these have been eradicated, along with many others, by regional, somewhat drastic river regulation. The Babakai rock, with its ruined Coronini Castle and the slightly better preserved Golubac, are the trio that guard the section of the Iron Gates gorge where mountains now rise on both banks, right next to the river. These points along the Babakai help to identify its exact position, as the cliff stands in the river and can be navigated around, so typically pictures of it are taken from very different directions. In some photographs it may even appear to be reflected, adding to the spatial uncertainty.

The Babacai rock's single peak photographed from eastern direction.

The limestone mass of the lonely Babakai rock has been transformed into carbonate rock from sediments accumulating in Jurassic seas. Its size may originally have been much larger, but since it was surrounded by the Danube for a long time, it has been constantly eroded by the wind, water, ice and precipitation, and its limestone surface has been eroded and weathered. Most literature on the rock mentions that in Roman and Turkish times it may have been a watchtower, but this is highly unlikely, as the soldiers stationed here would have had to constantly transport supplies, as there is no clean water, and the size of the rock would have made it more of a prison. Its current footprint is the equivalent of a circle about 15 metres in diameter, depending on the water level, which fluctuated a lot more before the construction of the dam. At low water, a flat rocky outcrop emerged to the south of the main mass of the cliff, i.e. downstream, where it was possible to land from a boat and, according to contemporary pictures, trees and bushes could settle, although they probably had to live in very harsh conditions. 

The fresh surface of the crack photographed from the north.

From the west, it is worth climbing Babacai, this side is the least steep, although it also has a slope of at least 60 degrees, while the northern and eastern sides of the cliff rise almost vertically from the Danube. However, these two stone walls are easily distinguishable to the naked eye. The eastern face is weathered, mottled, with several areas of vegetation, mosses and lichens, while the northern face is almost smooth, with geologically intact rock, clearly a fresh fracture surface, not yet ready to be eaten away by the iron teeth of external forces. The geological condition of the rock clearly shows that it has been rock-cut, as confirmed by the photographs available to us. The double peaks of the Babakai rock, which can be seen in postcards and photographs, was clearly still there at the turn of the 20th century. Despite the fact that it is a fairly well documented century, and despite the attention paid to the area due to the construction of the power station, it is not clear when and why the northern rock pillar disappeared.

The double summit of the Babacai rock, seen from the south. Kajtor I./MTI (source)

What is certain is that Kajtor I. was able to photograph the two peaks of Babakai in August 1969 and the picture could appear in the Hydrological Bulletin, so it seems that the unstable rock had already collapsed into the newly created reservoir. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out the exact date. In any case, the first photo of this post, taken in 1963, shows a wide crack between the two peaks, running down to the base of the cliff. It is possible that the second peak collapsed during work on the power station, or that it was cracked by rising water levels or ice, or that careless tourists ventured too far, or that someone wanted to carve a portrait of a Dacian prince. Someone must have noticed... if there were navigation signs on one of the peaks. In any case, there is hope that Romanian-language newspaper articles documented the rockfall and that someone, somewhere, will stumble across this perhaps not-so-important piece of information. 

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The First Photo of Ada Kaleh And The Last Photo of Fort Elisabeth

MAGYARUL

"Progress has now placed the whole of this landscape underwater", as Partick Leigh Fermor writes in his epilogue in his book "Between The Woodsa and the Waters, from the Iron Gate gorge, at a table in a submerged café in Orsova. The laconic realistic pessimism of the final sentence could not better express what has happened here: "and everything has fled". There are many ways of expressing the loss, but if only one image were needed to illustrate it all, one could look no further than Amand Helm's photograph from the same place from sometime in 1867. 

Ada Kaleh and Fort Elisabeth before 1868. Source: Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

On the Donauinslen blog, a single photo can sometimes get a special article if it is unique enough. By unique, we mean that the section of the Danube or the riverine landscape depicted has some additional meaning that not only details the landscape, but also has the chance to make the post a book-length long, with background information explained in diversified train of thoughts. The photograph of the fortress of Ada Kaleh (Fort Island in Turkish) by the Austrian photographer Amand Helm (1831-1893) shows the western tip of the island with the entrance to the Iron Gate gorge in the background, photographed from the Hungarian side, Orsova, and opposite the island a fortress on the Serbian coast, Fort Elisabeth, which, like the island, was most probably under Turkish rule at the time the photograph was taken. 

Amand Helm's original collection of his Danubian photographs from 1868, called the "Donau Album" compilation, from which this photograph originally came, costs nowadays for around a million Hungarian forints (€2500).  Moreover, the price is not for the whole album, from source to the delta, but for a single section of the series. Some of Helm's photographs are also available online, but this particular image is not among the Danube images in the Albertina collection in Vienna.

Born in Teplitz-Schönau (Teplice) in the Czech province of the Habsburg Empire, Amand Helm opened his first photographic studio in St. Wenceslas Square in Prague, but from the mid-1860s he worked in Vienna and Lower Austria, sometimes photographing railway construction projects such as the Crown Prince Rudolf railway. In 1868-69, he photographed the most notable sites along the Danube from source to the delta, from which he compiled the Donau-Album series mentioned above. In his photographs, the landscape appears like a painting, capturing almost the last natural, often ancient, moments before the effects of the Industrial Revolution, which arrived belatedly in Central Europe. 

However, there is another twist to the story of the exceptional picture, which belonged to the French geographer Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), who donated it to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 1886.

Forced into exile by his activism during the Paris Commune, he wrote his monumental 19-volume series 'La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes', published by Librairie Hachette, during his stay in Clarens, Switzerland, which consists the photo of Ada Kaleh in the third volume, called the "Central Europe, Austria-Hungary, Germany, 1878."

Fort Elisabeth was built in 1736 on the right bank of the Danube, not far from today's Tekija, when the Serbian side of the Danube was also under Habsburg rule after the Peace of Pozsarevac, according to Serbian historian Professor Miloš Petrović. The construction work was led by Johann Andreas von Hamilton, a Scottish-origin military officer, as commander and military governor of the Timis Banat, and the eponym was none other than the wife of King Charles III of Hungary, the most beautiful woman of her time, Queen Maria Theresa's mother, Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. 

Fort Elisabeth was probably part of a complex of forts built on the island of Ada Kaleh to control the Danube border and the shipping traffic through it. It had several levels, the central part of the fortress being at the level of the Danube, with a watchtower built on the steep hillside above it. According to the usual superstitious beliefs about the Danube, an underwater tunnel connected it to the island of Ada Kaleh, but if not a tunnel, a temporary bridge might have connected the two fortresses. Fort Elizabeth continued to exist and expand after its transfer from Austrian to Ottoman hands, and was regularly depicted on maps of the Lower Danube, most recently on the section of the Second Military Survey dated 1858. Although the area around the fortress became part of the Serbian Principality in 1833, it remained under the direct administration of the Ottoman Empire, with some 500 Turkish soldiers stationed there until the mid-19th century.

What man has created, man has also destroyed around here. Fortress Elizabeth was demolished by the newly independent Serbian state in 1868 at the Turkish request. The ruins were dismantled by the local population, then further destroyed by the construction of a road, and the ruins of the lower parts were submerged at the same time as the neighbouring Ada Kaleh Island, after the construction of the Iron Gate I hydroelectrical power plant.The water level of the Danube was raised by about 30 metres in this stretch, and the flooded coastal road was built that much higher, cutting irreparable wounds in the landscape on the sides of the mountains that tower in the background. 

Finally, if the significance of Amand Helm's unique photograph were to be summed up in a single sentence, it is the very first photograph of Ada Kaleh Island that we know of, and the last and only known photograph of Fort Elizabeth. 

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)