'Tyrolese Architecture 
THE MARKET PLACE 
HALL, TYROL 
A STREET IN SARNTHEIN 
towns have always managed to thrive upon 
it. The dominant characteristics of the 
surrounding landscape, as we find them, give 
half the beauty to the towns. The great 
mountains reduce the people in the streets to 
pigmies, and the high, calcareous crests rise 
above toppling gables and bulbous towers, 
an eternal and sublime background to every 
city scene. 
T he cities which may properly be called 
such are few in number. The largest is 
Innsbruck the present capital. It received 
the privileges of a town from Duke Otto I. 
ot Meran in 1234, and has steadily risen in 
prosperity and importance. The scene of 
armed struggles, the favorite refuge of per¬ 
secuted monarchs and a seat of considerable 
learning, it contains many memorials ot a 
turbulent history. The old wooden bridge, 
from which the city derived its name, and 
where the Tyrolese fiercely fought Bavarian 
invaders, has long since been replaced by an 
ugly iron structure; but the old section of 
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