LETTER XIII.
Munich. Visit to a Royal Palace. Statue of Bavaria. Imperial Wedding. Vienna. The Arsenal. Summer Palace. The Great Exhibition. Berlin. Royal Palace. Banquet Hall. Monuments. U. S. Minister. Parliament. Soldiers. Moral condition of Berlin. Hamburg. In London.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA, MAY GTH, 1873. Editor Deseret News :
We spent a few days very pleasantly, and I hope profitably, in Munich, the capital of Bavaria. Our hotel accommodations, politeness of host, and the attention of servants, have been nowhere excelled. The general appearance of the people in respect to style of dress, their moral character and education, will bear comparison with that of the first cities in other European countries. The streets, public gardens, parks and squares pos- sess many attractions, but unfortunately the weather was unpropitious for the full appreciation of sight-seeing.
Munich is situated in a barren plain, upon both sides of the river Iser. It contains about one hundred and seventy-five thousand inhabitants, and is considered the fourth city in Germany in point of population. Many of its parks, squares and public gardens are adorned with fountains, lawns, shrubbery, cascades, grottoes, equestrian figures and colossal statues. In one of these squares is a large obelisk, erected in honor of the Bavarians who were slain in the Russian campaign of 1812, bearing the inscription: "To the thirty thousand Bavarians who perished in the Russian war; erected by Louis First, King of Bavaria, completed Oct. 18, 1833. They died for the deliverance of the country." The park, called the English Garden, nearly five miles long by a half mile in width, is ornamented at vast labor and expense. We visited the Royal Palace, and spent some two
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hours in walking through the imperial apartments, inspecting the numer-
ous objects of interest and curiosity the Audience Hall, embellished with
twelve portraits of Roman Emperors; the Green Gallery, with a great num-
ber of Dutch and Italian paintings; The Bedchamber, containing curtains
of gold brocade, valued at the enormous sum of four hundred thousand
dollars; and the Mirror Room, adorned with precious vases of gold and sil-
ver, together with chandeliers of immense value. Also the Hall of Mar-
riages, appropriately decorated with fresco work; the Hall of the Emperors, adorned with paintings by the most celebrated masters; the Hall of Charle- magne, with numerous pictures of gigantic size, commemorative of the most remarkable events in his life. The Throne Hall is one hundred and sixty feet long, and seventy-three wide, ornamented on either side by twelve Corinthian columns of white marble, supporting galleries. Between these columns are twelve statues of princes in gilded bronze, each of which weighs nearly one and a half tons; the simple cost of gilding was about twelve hundred dollars each.
The Royal Library is a very beautiful building, comprising seventy-
seven rooms, in which are contained more than eight hundred
thousand volumes. The Royal Bronze Foundry is much celebrated; monu-
ments have been cast in this foundry for nearly all parts of the world.
In the southwest of the city, on an eminence, in a large meadow, stands the colossal statue of Bavaria. It is placed upon a basement, which is ascended by a flight of forty-eight steps; the height of the statue itself is thirty-two and a half feet, and pedestal twenty-eight and a half. This female statue represents the Protectress of Bavaria, with a lion at her side. In her right hand she holds a sword, and in her left a chaplet. This immense statue was cast at the Royal Foundry. The interior of the figure contains a staircase of sixty-six steps, which ascend through the pedestal to the height of the knees, and from thence by a spiral stair to the head, within which eight persons can be seated.