The Columbus journal., 1908-08-12

A two hours walk from the CAPITAL
Of Corfu. in . southerly direction,
through q very dingy suburb called
San Rocco. and past the little village
of Gasturi. brings the Undiscovered
tourist within sight of one Of the most
glorious architectural creations in ex-
istence. Tricky surrounded BY clumps
Of grayish-green olive-trees and YER
dant orchards, the Achilleion, the
fairy castle Of that restless, unfor-
tunate empress who was to die under
murderer's steel. emerges like .
white phantom of the past. The beau
ty of its outward form-a clever imi-
tation Of the P0mpeian styles only
matched by its lavish and highly artt
fetal INNER decoration, on which
Empress Elizabeth Is said to have
spent 1000. and by the magnifi-
cent views It commands. The Achil-
leion was recently Inhabited by the
German emperor, his consort, daugh.
ter, and q full star of cOurtiers; and
the Affiliations thereby created with
conceptions Of Prussian soberness, cor
rectness, common sense, and other I'M
romantic Brandenburgian attributes.
greatly take away from that castles
bewitching poetry. A thousand pities!
The Achilleion, then. is the forty
ninth addition to the residences of the
German emperor. In ordinary German
parlance, every one of these - struc-
lures, or estates. Is called Kaiser
liches Schloss." an imperial castle;
but the truth is that only few Of
them (amongst them the well-known
and much-depicted residences in Ber-
lin and Potsdam) are real castles In an
architectural sense of the word, and
still fewer in a historic sense. For.
merly built as strongholds. perched
upon peaks, or squatted in the middle
Of marshes. in order to make them i'm
pregnable and to render all approach
difficult, the castles gradually gave
way to ambitious modern residences.
The German emperor's residences
are mostly plain country seats or mere
shooting-boxes, so that the startling
total, 49, loses much of its sensational
character when properly scrutinized.
Among his various Berlin and Pctsdam
palaces the Royal Castle on the Spree
is one of the largest city-residenee
buildings. of a compact mass, in the
whole of Germany.
Quita remarkable for beautiful sur
roundings is Bruhl castle, near Cologne,
which has not been inhabited fer over
100 years. It is q handsome building,
erected in 1928, with a very fine
marble staircase and excellent fresco
paintings by Carlioni. Marshal Da-
voust resided in 1t several years, and
it was afterwards assigned to the
fourth cohort Of the French Legion of
Honor. Napoleon l. dwelt there for a
day in September, 1904. For many
years 1t was abandoned to decay, then
restored in 1912: but even after this
the beautiful palace looked barren and
deserted. Like Bruhl, many royal
residences are being ignored and neg
lected by their owners.
One Of the favorite resorts of EN-
peror William and his family seems
to be his domain of Cadinen, near
Elbing, situated in a most charming
forest landscape. 1t has become wide
ly known through the emperor's
successful experiment as a manufac-
turer and exporter; the handsome
majOlicas produced at Cadinen and
publicly sold all over the world are
highly valued by connoisseurs. VIII
liam II. is also the owner of a steam
brick factory and alcohol distillery at
the same place, and he attends to the
details Of his business with the cir
cumspection Of a trained merchant.
The Taurus district, between the
Rhine and Maine. famous for its ex-
cellent wine. healthful mineral waters,
beautiful scenery, and wealth of his.