Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

gular tongue of land between the Aar and Reuss, stood Vindonissa, the most important settlement of the Romans in Helvetia, as well as their strongest fortress on this frontier, on which they placed their chief dependence for maintaining this portion of their empire. Its works extended 12 miles from N. to S.

Yet scarcely any portion of it now appears above ground; traces of an amphitheatre, a subterranean aqueduct, which conveyed water from Brauneggberg, 3 miles off, foundations of walls, broken pottery, inscriptions, and coins have been turned up by the spade from time to time, and its name is preserved in that of the miserable little village of Windisch.

"Within the ancient walls of Vindonissa, the castle of Habsburg, the abbey of Konigsfield, and the town of Bruck, have successively arisen. The philosophic traveller may compare the monuments of Roman conquests, of feudal or Austrian tyranny, of monkish superstition, and of industrious freedom. If he be truly a philosopher, he will applaud the merit and happiness of his own time."-Gibbon.

Half a mile beyond the walls of Brugg stands the abbey of Konigsfelden (King's field), founded, 1310, by the Empress Elizabeth; and Agnes, Queen of Hungary, on the spot where, two years before, their husband and father, the Emperor Albert, was assassinated. The convent was suppressed in 1528, and is now converted into a lunatic asylum. The church, fast falling to decay, contains some fine painted glass; and the effigies in stone, as large as life, of a long train of nobles, who fell in the battle of Sempach. The vaults beneath were the burial-place of many members of the Austrian family, including, Agnes and Leopold, who fell at Sempach, but they were removed hence into the Austrian dominions in 1770. According to tradition, the high altar stands on the spot where Albert fell. He had crossed the ferry of the Reuss in a small boat, leaving his suite on the opposite bank, and attended only by the four conspirators. The chief of them, John of Suabia, nephew of Albert-who had been instigated to the design by the wrong he endured in being kept out of his paternal inheritance by his unele-first struck him in the throat with his lance. Balm ran him through with his sword, and Walter von Eschenbach cleft his skull with a felling-stroke. Wart, the fourth, took no share in the murder. Although the deed was so openly done in broad day, almost under the walls of the Imperial Castle of Habsburg, and in sight of a large retinue of armed attendants, the murderers were able to escape in different directions; and the Imperial retainers took to flight, leaving their dying master to breathe his last in the arms of a poor peasant who happened to pass.

A peasant-girl that royal head upon her bosom laid,
And, shrinking not for woman's dread, the face of death survey'd :
Alone she sate. From hill and wood low sunk the mournful sun;
Fast gushed the fount of noble blood. Treason his worst had done.
With her long hair she vainly pressed the wounds to staunch
their tide;

Unknown, on that meek, humble breast, imperial Albert died.
Mrs. Hemans.

A direful vengeance was wrecked by the children of the murdered monarch; not, however, upon the murderers-for, with the exception of Wart, the only one who did not raise his hand against him, they all escaped-but upon their families, relations, and friends; and 1000 victims are believed to have expiated, with their lives, a crime of which they were totally innocent. Queen Agnes gratified her spirit of vengeance with the sight of these horrid executions, exclaiming, while 63 unfortunate men were butchered before her, "Now I bathe in May-dew!" She ended her days in the convent of Königsfelden, which she had founded and endowed with the confiscated property of those whom she had slaughtered. Penance, prayer, and alms-giving would avail but little to stifle the qualms of a guilty conscience for the bloody deeds which she had committed; and it is recorded that a holy hermit, to whom she had applied for absolution, replied to her-"Woman! God is not to be served with bloody hands, nor by the slaughter of innocent persons, nor by convents built with the plunder of orphans and widows-but by mercy and forgiveness of injuries." The building in which she passed 50 years of her life is destroyed-that which is shown as her cell is not so in reality.

About two miles above Brugg, on a wooded height called Wülpelsberg, stand the remains of the Castle of Habsburg, or Habichtsburg (Hawk's Castle), the cradle of the House of Austria, built in the 11th century by Bishop Werner, of Strassburg, an ancestor of the family. A mere fragment of the original building now exists. The tall, square keep of rough stones has walls 8 ft. thick; and beneath it a dungeon, to be entered only by a trap-door in the floor above. The view from it is picturesque and interesting; the eye ranges along the course of the three rivers, over the site of the Roman Vindonissa, and Königsfelden, the sepulchre of imperial Albert on the S. rises the ruined castle of Braunegg, which belonged to the sons of the tyrant Gessler; and below it Birr, where Pestalozzi, the teacher, died, and is buried. It takes in at a single glance the whole Swiss patrimony of the Habsburgs-an estate far more limited than that of many a British peer-from which Rudolph was called to wield the

sceptre of Charlemagne. The house of Austria were deprived of their Swiss territories by papal ban, 150 years after Rudolph's elevation; but it is believed that the ruin has again become the property of the Austrian Emperor by purchase.

Below the castle, at the foot of the Wülpelsberg, and about 3 miles from Brugg, he the Baths of Schintznach, also called Habsburger Bad, the most frequented watering-place in Switzerland. The principal buildings are the Great Inn, Grosser Gasthof, and the Bath-house, erected within a few years, in a semicircular form. In May and June, 300 people often dine here in the splendid saloon. The house contains sleeping accommodations for 200, and 50 baths. The waters are of the saline sulphureous kind, and have a temperature of 60° Fahr. They are efficacious in cutaneous disorders, in rheumatism, and for wounds. Schintznach owes little to nature, except its waters. Some pretty walks have been made near the houses, and winding paths, under the shade of trees, lead up the hill to Habsburg.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

On quitting Brugg, the road passes the convent of Königsfelden, traversing Oberdorf (near which are scanty remains of a Roman amphitheatre), and skirts on the 1. the village of Windisch (p. 21), before it crosses the river Reuss. It then proceeds up the 1. bank of the Limmat, to

2 Baden- (Inns: Löwe, Lion; - Engel, Ange). These inns in the town are inferior to those at the baths.-This ancient walled town, of 1800 inhabitants, is squeezed within a narrow defile on thel. bank of the Limmat, here crossed by a wooden bridge. The ruins of the Castle, nearly as large as the place itself, overlook it from a rocky eminence. It was anciently the stronghold of the Austrian princes, and their residence while Switzerland belonged to them. Here were planned the expeditions against the Swiss, which were frustrated at Morgarten and Sempach. At length when the Pope, in 1415, excommunicated the Archduke Frederick, the Swiss took it and burnt it. In the Rathhaus of Baden the preliminaries preceding the treaty of peace which terminated the war of Succession were arranged by Prince Eugene, on the part of Austria and by Marshal Villars, for France, in 1712.

Baden, like its namesakes in Baden and Austria, was frequented on account of its mineral waters by the Romans, who called it Thermo Helvetica. It was sacked and destroyed by Cocina.

The Baths-(Inns: Stadthof, best;-Hinterhof;-Raabe) -are situated on the borders of the Limmat, a quarter of a

mile below or N. of the town. They are resorted to between the months of June and September by numerous visitors, chiefly natives of Switzerland. The waters are warm and sulphureous, having a temperature of 38 Reaum., and are good for rheumatism, etc.

The Great Baths, on the 1. bank of the river, are frequented by the upper classes-those on the opposite side by the lower orders.

The Swiss Baden, though not equal in beauty to some of its namesakes in other parts of Europe, has considerable attractions in the country around it, which is particularly interesting to the geologist, as affording proofs of some great convulsion of nature, by which the Limmat and other rivers descending from the Alps forced their way through the opposing barrier of the Jura, to join the Rhine and the sea. The rocky heights on each side of the river- the one surmounted by the ruined castle, the other partly covered by vineyards-form the portal through which this great eruption of waters was poured out. Before this gorge was formed, Baden and the country above it must have been a vast lake.

Agreeable walks are formed for invalids by the side of the Limmat, and many pleasant excursions may be made in the country around-the most interesting being that described above, to Schintznach (8 miles), by Windisch, Königsfelden, and Habsburg.

Roman relics are constantly discovered in this district. Gambling appears to have been a prevailing vice among the visitors to the baths, and the Roman Legions stationed here, since a neighbouring field has obtained the name of Dice Meadow (Würfel Wiese), from the quantity of dice dug up in it.

The pleasantest road to Zurich from Baden is said to be that along the rt. bank of the Limmat. It passes at the distance of about two miles the convent of Wettingen, situated in an angle formed by a bend of the river. Its church, founded in 1227, contains tombs of some early Counts of Habsburg and Kyburg, painted glass, carved stalls, etc.

The route taken by the diligence follows the 1. bank of the Limmat to

21/4 Dietikon. Near this village the French, under Massena, crossed the river, Sept. 24,1799- a masterly movement, which led to the defeat of the Russians and the capture of Zurich.

1 3/4 ZURICH. In Route 8.

ROUTE 7.

SCHAFFHAUSEN TO CONSTANCE.

SCHAFFHAUSEN.-(Inns: Faucon, best; Couronne, not recommended. There is a good inn close to the Rhine fall, about 2 miles out of the town.) The Baden post-house is near the Faucon, but the innkeepers will do their utmost to prevent the traveller availing himself of this mode of travelling.

Schaffhausen, a town of 7,500 inhabitants, stands on the right bank of the Rhine, just above the spot where the rapids and falls commence, which render that river unnavigable as far as Basle. It was originally a landing-place and magazine, at which the portage of goods began and ended, and owes its origin and name to the boat or skiff houses, here erected. It is distinguished above almost every other town in Switzerland by the antique architecture of its houses, whose fronts and projecting oriel windows are decorated with carvings and stucco work. Many of them were originally entirely covered externally with fresco paintings, but of these there are now few examples; the house called Zum Ritter, nearly opposite the Couronne, is one of the most remarkable of those that remain. The houses or halls of the ancient Guilds, or Zünfts, are worthy of attention on account of their quaint inscriptions and allusive ornaments. The wall and turreted gateways of the town have been preserved, and furnish very picturesque subjects for the pencil.

It is almost exclusively on account of its vicinity to the celebrated Falls of the Rhine that Schaffhausen is visited. It has little resort, except from the influx of travellers, it being one of the portals of Switzerland, and there is little within the town to deserve notice. On the height above it rises the curious and perfect feudal castle called Unnoth, or Munnoth. Its towers have walls of great thickness (18 feet), said to be of Roman (?) construction; the building, however, was not finished in its present state till 1564. It is provided with bomb-proof casemates, capable of sheltering many hundred persons. Many subterranean passages lead from it.

The Minster-originally the Abbey of All Saints - was founded 1052. It is a building in the Romanesque, or round arched style, remarkable for its antiquity, the solidity of its construction, and as exhibiting an unaltered specimen of that style. The arches of the nave are supported by single circular columns, and those in the centre of the transept by square piers of the most massive kind. The cloister attached to the church contains a profusion of monuments of the magistrates and patrician families.

« ForrigeFortsæt »