Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-07-24
FROM ERMANY.
Highly Interesting accounts of German
CSthedTRls, Museums. DC, by Knox.
vile BOY.

Highly Interesting Accounts of German
CathedTIts, Museums. .Tc., by u Knox.
vile BOY.
We have had the pleasure of reading
very well written and interesting letter
from young gentleman of this city, now
travelling and taking q special course of
study in Germany, from which we make
the following extracts. He is travelling in
company with friend from Nashville.
He writes from Munich under date of June
9th:
Dresden is the handsomest city in Ger
many. We remained there a week, during
which we saw all that was to be seen,
The city is situated in valley, through
which the river Elbe flows, dividing it in
to two almost equal parts-the old and the
new town. The two parts of the city are
connected by an old stone bridge which
was built with the money raised by the
sale of dispensations from the Pope TO eat
butter and eggs during Lent The lion of
! Dresden is its picture gallery, which is the
most celebrated in Germany. 1t contains
more than twenty-three hundred pictures,
the most remarkable of which are the two
| pictures by Raphael and Hans Hoblin
The Madonna and child,n and "Jacob
Meyer and family kneeling before the Ma
donna and Christi Each has q separate
room set apart for it. a great many pic
lures from Correggo, Titan, Murillo,
! Snyder Bol, Van Dyck, Rubens, Rem
brandt and others are very handsome,
| They are considered "a a precious inheri-
tance by the gallery. Three days of our
week Were protitably spent in this gallery.
feel well repaid.
! The Catholic Church is large building
of the pure gothic style besides many pic
| lures and statues it contains for an altar
| picture, "The Ascension by Raphael
Mengs The vaults of this church contain the
| bodies of the royal family. The music, on
! Sundays is celebrated. The choir of fifty
| boys and men, accompanied by the organ
and large orchestra, produced grand eff
| feet. Our churches in America are very
small when compared with European
| Cathedrals. Very few of them are so small
as Trinity Church, New York, our largest
! church.
IT'S MUSEUM, LIBRARY AND JEWELS.
Dresden boasts of one of the best His
torical Museums in the world, though the
! greater part is taken up with the history of
| SaXony. Here we saw the statues of all
the Kings of SaXony since the fourteenth
century-their horses, clothes, &c, besides
the kinds of arrow used by them, in many
cases, it being the same lance or sword
with which they killed another King or
high noble in battle. Here, also we saw
the saddle and boots used by Napoleon at
the battle Of Dresden in 1913 the shoes of
| Maria Theresa (No.1) the shoes of Kant
and the boots of MelanchtOn the sword
drinking cup and writing table of Luther
the pistols of Gustavus Adolphus of Swe-
den, of Charles NIL &C., &c. Such collec-
tions make it . very interesting place to
visit.
In the japanese Palace are the museums
ofmedals and brOnZes and the Royal Libra
ry. The library is very large. 1t contains
many old and precious MSS. OF the differ
ent languages, some of which have never
1 II III
cost thirty thousand dollars. The picture
book of August II, in nine volumes, each
volume of which cost two thousand dol
lars. Only one other copy Of this work eX-
| lists. The painting in it is almost as bright
now as it was when it was first painted,
though more than two hundred years old.
We found the museums of casts and anti
| quities instructive. One Of the institutions
of Dresden is the Acoustic Hall. Here all
kinds of musical instruments are played by
mechanical power.
We visited the celebrated Green Room
in the Royal Palace. In this room all the
jewels of the Royal Family OF Saxony are
kept. They amount to more than three
thousand, and consist OF brOnzes, ivory
carvings, mosaics, shells, cOrals, objects of
gold and silver, engraved wood and stones,
jewels, pearls and sculptures and the
crowns and regalia used at the coronation.
| There are more than one hundred carved
in ebony and ivory a pearl OF the size of a
hens egg representing the dwarf OF Charles
III. of Spain pearls transformed into gro
tesque personages; agolden egg enclosing a
golden fowl "a crown, a signet ring and q
diamond ring; basket OF flowers in enam-
ell an automaton spider; pure vases OF
onyx; two braceltes ornamented with shell
canoes pictures in enamel; objects in
alabaster and wood; arms with diamond
handles and the works in gold and silver
of Dinglinger." In one room above the
| jewels are valued at more than fifteen mill
| lions of dollars. l have never seen such a
collection of wealth in my life they far
surpass those in the tower of London.