House <y Garden 
GARDENS AT MALS 
UPPER VINTSCHGAU, TYROL 
Poor and paltry are the hamlets which 
have not reared their churches. But, never¬ 
theless, there are many such,—a mere hand¬ 
ful of cots tumbled as if by the winter storms 
into an upland crevice,—and the herdsmen 
of these places still repair for worship 
to the chapel of the ancient castle. More 
fortunate villagers point with pride to their 
church, quite unconscious of its usually 
crude outline and undignified rococo detail. 
These buildings are covered outside with 
a lime wash, so nearly white as to dazzle 
in a bright sunlight; but the interiors are 
invariably rich,—though from the point of 
view of good design, they are vulgarly 
so. After viewing a garish exterior one 
is surprised to find rich strong colors 
piercing the gloom within and a wealth 
of twisted altar columns, of multi-colored 
stone, wrought and gilded ironwork, and 
sometimes a tree or a vine led from the soil 
below and trained upon the most important 
pier. Where there are towers, they are 
frequently unsymmetrical, and always fantas¬ 
tic in their shape. A copper roof, in varying 
shades of a literally green old age, invariably 
covers the belfry, from which during the 
terrifying storms of winter the bell peals 
continuously a melancholy warning. 
Thus it is that the Tyrolese villages as we 
find them to-day are ever guarded by the 
venerable castle, a protecting parent rising 
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