Description
Antique print dated 1895.
The page is over 115 years old and in good condition.
In order to enhance and protect the page we have set in within a bespoke frame and mount.
Frame size 400mm x 370mm. available also in a
gold frame, your choice. RtW.66.
Entitled – The Axenstrasse. The Axentrasse, near Fluelen.
From a Photo by Stengel & Markert, Dresden.
Below the picture an inscription reads:
Axenstrasse. – Immediately after leaving Lucerne, which, by the way, is a recognised head-quarters for some of the most beautiful excursions in Switzerland, the traveller obtains a really splendid glimpse of that town, with its towers and battlements.
To the left is seen the Rigi; to the right, Pilatus.
Facing us we have the Burgenstock, Buochser Horn, and Stanser Horn; to the left of Pilatus, above the hills of Sachsaln, the Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, Monch, Eiger, and Jungfrau gradually become visible.
At Brunnen begins the south arm of the lake, known as the Urner See, or the Lake of Uri.
The mountains now rise very abruptly and the lake narrows.
Snow-clad peaks peep through the gorges at intervals.
Just by the sharp angle which juts into the lake from the west bank rises the Myenstein Rock, 80ft. high, and inscribed in immense gilded letters to the memory of Schiller, the Bard of Tell.
On the east bank of the lake runs the almost level Axenstrasse, which extraordinary road is depicted in our photograph above.
This road leads from Brunnen to Fluelen, and is a very triumph of engineering skill, being simply hewn out of solid rock.
Until 1865, when the Axenstrasse was constructed, the east shore of the Bay of Uri was impassable, except by a very difficult mountain path.
The grandest part of the Axenstrasse is between Tell’s Platte Inn and Fluelen, a distance of 2 and a half miles, where the road pierces the curiously contorted limestone strata of the Axenfluh, 360ft. above the lake, by means of a tunnel.
On the Axenstrasse is a ledge of rock at the base of the Axenberg, on which stands Tell’s chapel, washed by the lake and over-hung by trees; it dates from 1380 and was built in 1880.
The chapel is supposed to mark the spot where the famous, but somewhat mythical, Swiss liberator sprang out of Gessler’s boat.
After passing the chapel, the steamer reaches Fluelen in a quarter of an hour.
We must not omit to mention that Tell’s chapel contains many paintings and frescoes illustrating the hero’s history, and on the Friday after Ascension Day the little building is the scene of a national demonstration.
If you buy an item and then see it relisted this is because we occasionally have more than one available, each page is
original and not a photocopy.
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