The perception of the Semmering landscape between 1830 and 1880

摘要

Semmering is a region covering the eastern foothills of the Austrian Alps, approximately 70 km south of Vienna. When in the mid-nineteenth century, railways were built from Vienna heading to all parts of the empire, the Semmering region was a challenge to be overcome. While the railway lines between Vienna and Gloggnitz were completed as early as 1842 and the line between Graz and Miirzzuschlag in 1844, the line across the Semmering Pass was the missing link on the Sudbalm line from Vienna to Graz, which was soon extended down to Trieste on the Adriatic (1857) (Figure 1). It was in 1848—1854 that the railway line across the Semmering mountains was built by engineer Carl Ritter von Ghega, a pioneering achievement in its day. Its tracks cross the Alps with the help of 16 major viaducts and 15 tunnels. The routing of the railway went to the limits of what was technically feasible and left behind huge scars and piles of scree in the landscape. The Semmering Railway is known as the first high mountainrailway in the world. The design of both the civil engineering structures and the trackside buildings is of a very high quality. Most of the buildings have survived to this day,1 and the railway is still operating as one of Austria's main lines. In 1998,the Semmering Railway was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. 'The wide variety of aesthetically outstanding buildings can be seen as a Gesamtkunstwerk whose technology and architecture are subtly and harmoniously integrated into an important mountain landscape. Hence this 19th century masterpiece of Austrian engineering can be regarded as a synthesis between nature and architecture that was entirely new to the period'."