DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62133#0241
THE BUTCHERS* LEAP IN THE FOUNTAIN.
225
The roofs are steep, red-tiled, and perforated with rows of
little penthouse windows. The fronts of the houses are of
all imaginable pale tints,—stone colours, pinks, greens, greys,
and tawnies. Three of the four corners of the market-place
are adorned with tall pepper-box towers, with domed roofs
and innumerable narrow windows. At one end is the
fountain; and in the centre a heavy, but quaint shrine,—a
column supporting a gilt figure of the Madonna. The eye
wanders down various picturesque streets which open into
the market-place ; and on one hand, above steep roofs, gaze
down the two striking red-brick towers of the Frauen
Kirche—the cathedral of Munich: those two red towers
which are seen in all views of this city, and which belong
as much to Munich as the dome of St. Paul’s does to the
City of London,—those towers which in the haze of sunset
are frequently transformed into violet-tinted columns, or
about which, in autumn and winter, mists cling with a
strange dreariness as if they were desolate mountain peaks !
But the quaintest feature of all in the Schrannen Platz
is a sort of arcade which runs around it. Here, beneath the
low and massive arches, are crowded thick upon each other a
host of small shops. What strange, dark cells they are,—
yet how picturesque ! Here is a dealer in crucifixes •, next
to him a woollen-draper, displaying bright striped woollen
goods for the peasants; then a general dealer, with heaps
and bundles, and tubs, and chests, containing everything
most heterogeneous •, and next to him a dealer in pipes.
There are bustle and gloom always beneath these heavy low
archesj but they present a glorious bit of picturesque life.
There are queer wooden booths, too, along one portion of
the Schrannen Platz, where it rather narrows, losing its
character of market-place, and descending to that of an
ordinary street. But the booths do not degenerate in their
picturesque character. The earthenware booths, of which
there are several, are truly delicious. Such rows and piles
VOL. I. Q
225
The roofs are steep, red-tiled, and perforated with rows of
little penthouse windows. The fronts of the houses are of
all imaginable pale tints,—stone colours, pinks, greens, greys,
and tawnies. Three of the four corners of the market-place
are adorned with tall pepper-box towers, with domed roofs
and innumerable narrow windows. At one end is the
fountain; and in the centre a heavy, but quaint shrine,—a
column supporting a gilt figure of the Madonna. The eye
wanders down various picturesque streets which open into
the market-place ; and on one hand, above steep roofs, gaze
down the two striking red-brick towers of the Frauen
Kirche—the cathedral of Munich: those two red towers
which are seen in all views of this city, and which belong
as much to Munich as the dome of St. Paul’s does to the
City of London,—those towers which in the haze of sunset
are frequently transformed into violet-tinted columns, or
about which, in autumn and winter, mists cling with a
strange dreariness as if they were desolate mountain peaks !
But the quaintest feature of all in the Schrannen Platz
is a sort of arcade which runs around it. Here, beneath the
low and massive arches, are crowded thick upon each other a
host of small shops. What strange, dark cells they are,—
yet how picturesque ! Here is a dealer in crucifixes •, next
to him a woollen-draper, displaying bright striped woollen
goods for the peasants; then a general dealer, with heaps
and bundles, and tubs, and chests, containing everything
most heterogeneous •, and next to him a dealer in pipes.
There are bustle and gloom always beneath these heavy low
archesj but they present a glorious bit of picturesque life.
There are queer wooden booths, too, along one portion of
the Schrannen Platz, where it rather narrows, losing its
character of market-place, and descending to that of an
ordinary street. But the booths do not degenerate in their
picturesque character. The earthenware booths, of which
there are several, are truly delicious. Such rows and piles
VOL. I. Q