Tyrolese Architecture 
latter the houses of the prosperous, which 
circumstance, added to several centuries’ 
difference in age, makes the contrast between 
the two kinds of districts absolutely com¬ 
plete. The old faubourgs resemble the 
centers of the towns, but the new outskirts are 
thoroughly un-Tyrolese. Here the advent 
of the railroad has made a new state of things. 
An open platz, lined with modern buildings, 
lies before the station. A row of expectant 
carriages stands by the curb, and hotels of a 
new generation welcome arriving trains. 
Perhaps a planted park provides an agreeable 
entrance to the city—as at Botzen,—but 
whether that ornamental feature exists or not, 
it is here that the everlasting bahnhofstrasse , 
—so common to all German towns,—takes 
its start and considerately prepares the 
traveler by its own monotony to picturesque 
diversity ahead in approaching the interior of 
the town. The railroad station has been taken 
as a base, and new streets have been laid out 
in baleful regularity paralleling the railroad. 
These thoroughfares, spacious, well-paved 
and often planted with trees, lead to neat 
suburbs of well-sounding names, but in spite 
of the new comforts which arrive with these 
signs of a modern spirit slowly penetrating the 
centers of the Tyrol, few visitors will content 
themselves in these pretentious sections. 
At Trent, also, a modern section has arisen 
beside the railroad, and fountains refresh the 
dusty square. Wide promenades, bordered 
with trees, advance into the city, but they 
soon become the narrow stone-paved streets 
the Italians delight in. The whole aspect 
of things differs from that of the towns we 
have been considering. Facades in the 
gloomy thoroughfares are of cut-stone, wear¬ 
ing a venerable coating of gray dust. Here 
and there a Renaissance palace, with rich 
stone detail and well-wrought grilles, breaks 
the monotonous sky-line of the houses. 
Light window and door hangings strive for 
shade against a hot sun, made hotter by 
southern winds. Above the red tile roofs, 
rise old towers, fleches of ancient churches, 
the remains of the old chateau and the forti¬ 
fications built by the Austrians where stood 
walls the Romans reared to protect their city 
of Tridentum. 
Herbert C. Wise. 
MERAN 
From a pen drawing by A. Burnley Bibb 
340 
