DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62134#0078
70
AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
in old times., near Munich,—perhaps upon the shores of
the Wurm-See ? This Wurm, hying over Munich, is
said to have caused, by its venomous breath, the earliest of
the great plagues which have at various epochs ravaged
the city. The author of the “ Hundert und Eins ” avers
that the legend told to his childish ears was, that upon the
Schrannen Platz this terrible Wurm alighted, and was
shut dead by one of the cannon planted there /
I have also discovered that one of the tall red towers of
the Frauen Kirche, which, with their dome-like termina-
tion, give a character so peculiar to distant Munich, is
haunted ; and that from the other a love-lorn damsel flung
herself at the end of the last century! I read also of
terrible persecutions of the Jews, of old customs, of
which the Metzger Sprung and the Schaffer Tanz are
remnants; of gateways and towers, similar to the Fa then-
Turm—one of which was the Torture-Tower—having been
destroyed within the memory of man. I read of the
Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian’s Munich, traces of
which may still be discovered by earnest seekers •, of
Munich of the Middle Ages I read; of Munich in the
desolation of the Thirty Years’ War, when Gustavus
Adolphus pronounced her “the golden saddle upon the
lean horseand of Munich in the age of Prince Eugene.
But diving down into the oldest portions of the town,
where frescoes, bleached by the sun, winds, and rains of
centuries, are fading on the walls—where heavy browed
archways reveal mouldering stairs leading up into the tall,
many-storied houses—where the walls, and tall roofs, and
desolate towers, are black with age—and w’here, beneath
low arches, rush dismal, rapid streams; of all these I find no
detailed chronicle. And when, as the other day, visiting the
Mint, I found myself standing within the old court-yard,
encircled with a double gallery of noble rounded arches, and
AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
in old times., near Munich,—perhaps upon the shores of
the Wurm-See ? This Wurm, hying over Munich, is
said to have caused, by its venomous breath, the earliest of
the great plagues which have at various epochs ravaged
the city. The author of the “ Hundert und Eins ” avers
that the legend told to his childish ears was, that upon the
Schrannen Platz this terrible Wurm alighted, and was
shut dead by one of the cannon planted there /
I have also discovered that one of the tall red towers of
the Frauen Kirche, which, with their dome-like termina-
tion, give a character so peculiar to distant Munich, is
haunted ; and that from the other a love-lorn damsel flung
herself at the end of the last century! I read also of
terrible persecutions of the Jews, of old customs, of
which the Metzger Sprung and the Schaffer Tanz are
remnants; of gateways and towers, similar to the Fa then-
Turm—one of which was the Torture-Tower—having been
destroyed within the memory of man. I read of the
Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian’s Munich, traces of
which may still be discovered by earnest seekers •, of
Munich of the Middle Ages I read; of Munich in the
desolation of the Thirty Years’ War, when Gustavus
Adolphus pronounced her “the golden saddle upon the
lean horseand of Munich in the age of Prince Eugene.
But diving down into the oldest portions of the town,
where frescoes, bleached by the sun, winds, and rains of
centuries, are fading on the walls—where heavy browed
archways reveal mouldering stairs leading up into the tall,
many-storied houses—where the walls, and tall roofs, and
desolate towers, are black with age—and w’here, beneath
low arches, rush dismal, rapid streams; of all these I find no
detailed chronicle. And when, as the other day, visiting the
Mint, I found myself standing within the old court-yard,
encircled with a double gallery of noble rounded arches, and