Our final glass plate on this European grand tour, glass plate 50, captures the view from Devil’s Bridge looking up Schöllenen Gorge. A torrent of water carves its way through the rock and disappears beneath the bridge.

Glass plate 49 is a portrait photo of a waterfall along St. Gotthard Pass.

Glass plate 48 was taken on the road to Andermatt. In the photograph is a gentleman resting on a rock, gazing down on the foaming Reuss river.

Glass plate 47 captures the moment when a steam train, white plume bursting from its chimney, disappears into the St. Gotthard Tunnel…

Göschenen is a picturesque Swiss village surrounded by forest covered mountains…

Standing proudly in the market square of Altdorf is the William Tell Monument. Built by Richard Kissling between 1882 and 1895, this statue depicts the famed folk hero, William Tell, standing upright with his trusty crossbow rested on his shoulder.

Perched on the edge of Lake Lucerne is the Tellskapelle – Tell’s Chapel. Built in 1879, this small chapel commemorates the alleged spot where Swiss folk hero William Tell leaped from his captor’s boat to safety on the shore.

As the first mountain rack railway in Europe, opening on the 21st of May 1871, the Vitznau-Rigi Railway has been carrying tourists up and down Rigi for over a century and a half.

Jutting out of verdurous Swiss farmland, reflected in the three lakes of Lucerne, Zug, and Laurez, is Mount Rigi – “Queen of the Mountains.”

The half-timbered Kammerzell House sits on the corner of Place de la Cathédrale, Strasbourg, its wooden sculptures gazing across at their stone carved brethren on the Cathedral…

These views of the Cathedral of our Lady of Strasbourg de Notre Dame are each deftly composed photographic studies of its renowned Gothic edifice.

Of all the monuments pictured in the box of glass plates, this was the most challenging to locate. War, defeat and triumph, history unfolding on the streets has left its marks and scars on Metz. Statues have been raised to reflected the altered cultural pantheon, and they have been torn down for the same reason…

Glass plate 19 captures the southern façade of the Cathedral of Saint Stephen, Metz. Construction for the cathedral took three centuries, from its first stones laid in the 1220s to its consecration in 1552.

The first three photos in the second box of glass plates display various views of Luxembourg.

Seemingly growing barnacle-like up the side of St. Paul’s Church, Antwerp, this sculpture garden representing Christ’s crucifixion serves the city as a kind of miniature pilgrimage for Christian meditation on the sacrifice and resurrection.

Although one of the most faded of the glass plates, this photo captures a striking silhouette of Quentin Massys’ ironwork outside of the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp. Forged in the late-fifteenth to early-sixteenth century, this ironwork crowns one of the city’s wells.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) remains one of the most renowned Flemish artists, known for his highly detailed Baroque portraits and spectacular mythological scenes. As he spent much of his later life living in Antwerp, and had close family and business connections there, he is remembered in the city as one of their most prominent luminaries.

I was a tad confused when first trying to find the location of these images. While most of the glass plates on the unknown photographer’s list were diligently noted down with both dates and locations, I could not find any reference to a “Palais Royal” in Antwerp…

The above photograph, taken on the 9th of September 1900, shows sparse groups of people milling about the city square. On the right on the frame, in the shadow of the building, is a horse and carriage waiting for passengers. It seems a quiet Sunday scene in the city.

Today known as the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, construction for this monumental Brabantine Gothic church began in 1226 under Henry I, Duke of Brabant (1165-1235). Due to its ambitious size and intricate masonry, it took nearly three centuries to complete, with work concluded in 1519.

It is a Monday morning in the summer of 1900; crowds wander down Brussels’s royal thoroughfare, horse-drawn trams glide along the centre of the street, and a tourist sets up his camera…

Captured on 10th September 1900, glass plate 7 depicts the intimidating edifice of the Palais de Justice, Brussels; and make no mistake about this, the Palace of Justice was built with intimidation in mind…

Taken on 12th September 1900, glass plate 6 captures the Swiss-style Chalet Robinson on its lake island in the middle Bois de la Cambre park in Brussels.

Glass plates 4 and 5 are unusual as they both show the same location, and are the first to give some clue as to who exactly is making this journey…

Having travelled to Waterloo in September 1900, the unknown photographer made his pilgrimage to the solemn memorials commemorating the deeds and deaths that occurred during the battle that raged here a little over eighty-five years previous.

Zooming out from the Lion’s Mound examined in our last entry, this second glass plate displays a trio of Seventh Coalition monuments commemorating the Battle of Waterloo.

It has been 206 years to the day since the Battle of Waterloo, but it is not until 85 years after this historic clash that our humble story begins…