Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1906)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, NOVEMBER 1906. v Vienna's Claim for First Place Vigor ously Disputed by Paris and by Budapest V. A -t K I J X. 4 f - "" Munich, Dresden and Brussels Complete the Half Dozen Most Often Mentioned. SI' III iftac.H il - ." --s-r-s' 1 .. t V , J1 mi SHOWING P5 EXAGGERATED UNJFORrfl jty or BUILDINGS IH SOME TAR1S Of THf FRENCH CAPITAL 1 4-v f mi 3T. TniGJiAErL CHUR( MUNICH - f PT DEXTER MAH6HAT.I,. PARIS. Oct. 23. (Special Corr apondence of The Sunday Oregon lan.) Seated at tne eastern baae of the Tyrolean Alpa, Juat where the Danube eacapea Impetuously .. from be tween tortuous rock walls to wind peacefully acroas the mountain-circled plain of Austria, Vienna, capital and home of the moat exclusive aristocracy In existence, now lays claim to be held the most beautiful city in the world. hut Vienna's claim Is disputed vigor ously, first by Paris and then by Buda Festh, farther down the Danube and chief city of Austria s twin state, Hun gary. For many years the claim of Paris as the most beautiful city was almost universally uccepted And the French capital would probably set a majority of beauty votes to this day. Certainly each of the three cities named is warranted in being; proud of its looks, but to say that any one of them is the most beautiful in the world would be to chance an endless discussion. Munich, In Bavajla, which is out stripping; Paris as an art center; Dres den, wnere ihey make ihe cnina, Brus sels, the royal city of Leopold, the ec centric Belgian monarch; each of these has many famous beauty spots, which In their way excel all others. The a'x cities named are certainly more often mentioned when municipal comeliness is under discussion than any other. But Florence must not be left out of consideration altogether, nor must Antwerp, remarkable combi nation of the old and the new. with Its great cathedral tucked In between business streets and facing a pitifully mean little triangular market "square," nor Venice, city of canals and bridges, though it is more pic turesque than beautiful. Antwerp, by .the way, boasts one of the most ambitious fountains to be found anywhere, but it is hard to find, either with or without a guidebook. It is In bronxe and represents the hero who delivered the city from the fabled giant that tyrannised over it in folk lore days, standing npon the monster's prostrate, decapitated corpse and in the act of throwing its right hand into the sea. From the severed hand and the grewsome. headless neck streams the water of the fountain, in lieu of blood, while the whole is as tiorribls in conception as its execution Is strong and realistic. Rome, the Holy City, has many beau ties, while Copenhagen, the butter me tropolis, where the two daughters of the late King of Denmark, Alexandra of England and Russia's Dowager Em press, are builJIng for themselves a Summer house of rare beauty, is svirely entitled to some consideration. Copen "nageners. by the way, are especially and Justly proud of their new City Hall. It is a really beautiful and im pressive structure, though not of Itself sufficient to give the city special dis tinction. But the great park, part forest and part open, rolling sward, which lies to th west of the town and where the King's deer roam like pet lambs every day in the year but the one on which royalty goes out to butcher them, would lend distinction to any city, in the world. Every day except the one mentioned the gates of the great semi wooded tract are open to whoever will enter them, and the deer, of which mere are thousands, are treated so well that they have no fear whatever of man. 1 have known a coachman to be obliged to shoo them out of the drive way bofore he could proceed. Though Hamburg's chief distinction is commercial, its lakes and canals present extremely agreeable views and it has much good architecture. ItsjCity Hall, for instance, is a structure to which tho headquarters of no munici pal government in the United States can even remotely be compared for beauly. But Hamburg also has a colossal statue .of Bismarck, higher than many of the city's houses, which has been more laughed at by the world's sight seers than any other work of alleged art on the Continent. It is placed in an open space in a park, where it may be seen (or miles, and on Sundays and 5 i si sr i T t FV if - H If mm T - . - t z JT - I Mi 1 5- i r, it r -. 4 & x 11 'yyt sn- THE MOST DISTINGUISHING FEATURE OF- S VENICE J3 JTS PJCJVRE5QPWE5JJ I V CITY HALL . OR KATHHAVS JNWCH SHOWING- v acULPTURLP ORNAMENTATION- i.' NAN ' As s4 '":-:; ": v..-.v.y. : CHUiecH Of JiOTRL KAME, Ui5K0LWDJNGS holidays, when the people flock by thousands to the great breathing space around it, they look from a distance more like a convention of black and gaily colored ants at the feet of a statue made of pure white sugar than anything else. It must be admitted, however, that the great effigy of the man of blood and iron presents a certain dignity when the observer is not too near. The people of Hamburg, who objected seri ously to it at first, are gradually be coming proud of it as the Danes are of the City Hall at Copenhagen. Milan, another city which sightseers, especially those of European birth, often speak of slightingly as "merely a com mercial city, with little beauty,' has many charming vistas if you know where to look for them. They do not include all of lt famous churches, however. Soma of them are as ugly as architects well could plan them. Defective though its front which Napoleon spoiled in the fin ishing, according to some beauty experts may be, however, the Cathedral of St. Mark's warrants a few extravagant phrases, especially when you view it in the moonlight, under a sky as blue as if It were broad day. its azure relieved by drifting cloud fleeces of immaculate white. Deadly Uniformity of Streets. Nearly every European city possesses as much or more beauty in reserve than It presents to the visitor's view. Every one of them has miles of thoroughfares that are dull and uninteresting as you driva or walk through them. Many of these streets are narrow, some times with the sidewalks level with the roadway,' showing no trace of green. whHe the walls of the buildings stand flush and are all of one height, pierced at wide Intervals with grim arched door ways and windows in interminable, uni form rows. They are even more uninter esting that some of the so-called 'monu mental" streets on the upper part of Manhattan Island or the bare, bleak streets of Philadelhpia. the house fronts of which are relieved only by little flights of white marble steps. But if you peer through the massive archways as you pass you will perceive that beautiful vista of green trees, smooth lawns, brilliant flower beds and flashing, plashing fountains lurk behind the frown ing walls. In the Italian cities some of the most forbidding, narrowest, crooked est streets sometimes ill smelling, and. In the Summer time, always sissling un der a- truly unmerciful sun run between the walls of old-time palaces whose court yards are laid out with the rarest artistic skill and discrimination. Formerly these palaces were the homes of Princes and nobles. Some of them still are, but others are now the abodes of money kings, the "industrialists," who are slowly becoming as important In the Old World as in the New, and whose dis tinction has been won in the fields of trade, manufacturing and transportation. Mixed up with these palaces are build ings devoted to the meanest uses; while many of the palaces themselves have been given over to dealers In stove wood and Junk, to butcher shops .and bakeries and what not beside. Beautiful Paris itself Is one of the greatest sticklers in Europe for a uni formity of height in its buildings, which seema deadly In the eyes of some of us Americans. The buildings are not only of the same height, but mostly of the same color as well, gray, a rather dirty gray at that, being the prevailing tone. Some of the new buildings are white, but they soon become gray like the oth ers. To find a red brick house in Paris, or a yellow or green structure of any kind would be like finding a white black bird. There are some green roofs, to be sure; that of -the wonderful Madeleine Church te one. It furnishes welcome re lief to the Jaded eye when you can see it, but you have to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower for that, and the sight is not worth the effort, though the pano rama of Paris Is, and richly. Perhaps the most complete and paralyz ing example of the Parisian Idea that uni formity is essential to beauty is to be seen in the Place Vendome, where the fa mous bronze pillar commemorating many of Napoleon'e victories is surrounded by a circle of gray buildings all exactly alike. They were used by the government ( in the days of the First Empire, but now are devoted to business. Interiorly they have undergone many alterations, but the city's authorities have declared that their exterior aspect may never be (.hanged. To many American eyes tliey seem like great, gray cardboard houses, rather barn-like than otherwise in appearance. Liondon, which doesn't even claim beau ty, shows more Interesting variety In its architecture on half a. dozen "blocks" than a whole mile on some of the most famous thoroughfares of Paris. But Paris Is beautiful. Its interminable rows of trees, its great open spaces. Its graceful bridges. Its boulevards wheye can. they be matched? But Paris Is no longer entitled to be termed a "finished city"-; even now great patches of pave- (Concluded on Page 43.)
