|
|
|
Innsbruck - History |
|
You can see three armouries, as
well as a chamber for art and "curiosities". In the "Hochschloss"
you can find the portrait gallery of the "Habsburger" with the
portraits beginning from Duke Albrecht III (1349-1395) up to Emperor Franz
I (1768-1835) and those of their relatives of the European dynasties. On
the ground floor is situated the collection of late mediaeval images
(sculptures, paintings etc.), of which the most important and the
showpiece is the Georgsaltar of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519).
Many of these snails are so small
(about 1 - 3 mm) that we call them microshells. They live well hidden in
leaf mould and earth among the roots of ivy. So when we want to collect
them to integrate them into a collection, we can't collect them as normal
sized shells but only by hand or by using tweezers. We have to take a lot
of this leaf mould and earth to check it at home using magnifiers, as a
lens or microscope. This is sometimes quite hard and time-consuming work,
as we have first to sieve the leaf mould and earth with a sieve (riddle)
at the place where we found it, to separate it from rougher material, such
as stones, roots, leaves etc. This so called "Gesiebe"
(in German) we bring home to sieve it again from one to three scales, from
rough to very fine using sieves with different wire-nettings to sort out
later our beloved microshells. If the leaf mould is too moist, we have to
let it dry near a window or at a not too shadowy place. In the rougher
material you can just sort out Clausiliidae as: Clausilia
dubia dubia (Draparnaud, 1805) In the finer material you can
find the other tiny shells: Vertiginidae, Valloniidae and Punctidae (Punctum
pygmaeum (Draparnaud, 1801), is our smallest European landshell). Visitors to Innsbruck's cyclorama
stand, so to speak, on Bergisel and observe the events taking place around
them. Thanks Andreas Hofer was born into a family which had for generations owned the Sandhof Inn in the Passeier Valley. As an innkeeper, a livestock trader and wine merchant, he travelled extensively through the region and made many friends and connections, including Archduke Johann. In January of 1809, Hofer and many like-minded comrades were invited to Vienna to discuss the imminent revolt. In April he mobilized the Passeier militia and marched through the Jaufen Pass to Sterzing, where they seized the town and took the Bavarian occupation forces prisoner. The militia then pursued General Bisson's troops through the Wipp Valley, inflicting substantial casualties. After the Austrian defeat at the hands of Chasteler in Woergl and the partial withdrawal of Austrian troops, Hofer mobilized the militia once again. Hofer and his general staff during the third battle of Bergisel on August 13, 1809. Hofer was elected from among all the officers to the rank of supreme commander. The first battle of Bergisel on May 25, 1809 failed to result in the conclusive victory the militia had hoped for, so four days later they once again attacked Deroy's division, which was camped in Innsbruck. The number of troops under Hofer's command had swelled as patriots from the far corners of the province answered the call to arms. He did everything in his power to rally militiamen from all over Tyrol for the third, decisive battle of Bergisel. Hofer was elected from among all the officers to the rank of supreme commander. The first battle of Bergisel on May 25, 1809 failed to result in the conclusive victory the militia had hoped for, so four days later they once again attacked Deroy's division, which was camped in Innsbruck. The number of troops under Hofer's command had swelled as patriots from the far corners of the province answered the call to arms. He did everything in his power to rally militiamen from all over Tyrol for the third, decisive battle of Bergisel.
|
|
|
|
|
©
Copyright 2000 - 2004
Eurotravelling.net POWERED BY
wORLDTRAVELGATE.NET |
 Back to WTG |
That's
what you can admire, when you are visiting the Castle Ambras. But
nevertheless you can find a lot of things, which initially are not to be
discovered with the unaided eye. You don't believe me? I am speaking of
several nice and interesting creations by Nature and not by human beings,
which are living on an ivy-covered wall of this park, which Archduke Karl
Ludwig had built in the 19th century: some landshells. 
to the special spatial situation, observers feel like they are in the
middle of the action. The figures in the upper part of the painting are
life sized and seem to be looking directly at the viewer, creating a
connection and a feeling of closeness. The view of Innsbruck - the city
they are fighting to defend - in the distance is created by using a
technique of layers and atmospheric perspective on the horizon.
After
his defeat in the fourth battle of Bergisel, Andreas Hofer was forced to
flee, a reward of 1500 guilders on his head. He and Kajetan Sweth, the
last of his faithful followers, went into exile in a hut high up on the
Pfandler Alm, a mountain pasture in his native Passeier Valley. They
stayed there from late November until Hofer, betrayed by Raffl, was taken
prisoner and transported to Mantua. In the meantime, Napoleon had given
the order for Hofer to be put before a firing squad immediately after a
formal war crimes tribunal. Just hours before his death, Hofer wrote to a
friend, "Goodbye cruel world. Death comes so easily to me that there
will be no tears in my eyes." Hofer was executed in Mantua on
February 20, 1810.