6336. Wien, Franz Josefs Kai, the Donaukanal is visible on the right side with the overarching Salztorbrücke.
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
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment