37-41. Mount Rigi, Switzerland - 16 Sept 1900 | Glass Plates
Jutting out of verdurous Swiss farmland, reflected in the three lakes of Lucerne, Zug, and Laurez, is the indominable Mount Rigi – “Queen of the Mountains.” Rising to an elevation of 1,797.5m at its peak of Rigi Kulm, this pinnacle was a popular continental destination in the 19th and early 20th century for its stunning views and natural beauty. Its admirers included J.M.W. Turner, who in 1842 was inspired to paint three views of the mountain including The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, and Mark Twain who wrote of his visit there in A Tramp Abroad (1880).
The Blue Rigi, Sunrise (1842) by J.M.W. Turner
Glass plate 37 is of a waterfall misting on the side of the mountain.
Glass Plate 38 is taken from the top of Rigi, and pictured is the Hotel du Rigi Kulm.
Glass Plate 39 is missing but listed as a “View from Rigi”.
Glass plate 40 captures the view from Rigi top station.
And Glass plate 41 captures clouds crawling up the side of the mountain towards the summit.
Rigi Reaching its Peak
Through artistic representations and prominent positions in many of the guidebooks of the era, Rigi was a must-see sight on the continent, and it was at the Rigi Kulm hotel where visitors would stay to take in the sunrise or sunset.
Robert Allbut, in The Tourist Guide to Switzerland (1884), gave this advice to visitors:
“If the weather is clear, the traveller should remain over night on the Rigi, in order to enjoy the effect of sunrise seen here. Visitors are roused half an hour previously, by the sounding of an Alpine horn, and, after a hasty toilet, assemble on the summit platform, watching the golden flush in the eastern sky which foretells the advent of the sun” (p. 83)
The hotel opened on the 6th of August 1816, the first wooden lodge sheltering merely six beds. In 1856, due to popular demand, it expanded to accommodate 130 guests; it gained the appearance seen in glass plate 38 in another expansion in 1876 with the opening of the Grand Hotel Schreiber with an additional 300 rooms.
In 1900, when these glass plate photos were taken, Mount Rigi was reaching its peak in popularity, which is recorded on the Rigi Kulm website thus:
“The peak day is 8th August [1903] with 237 arrivals. 72 Germans, 47 Frenchmen, 30 Americans, 21 Russians, 11 Swiss and 5 Englishmen are welcome to the hotel. The total income for August (only income from rooms and guesthouses, excluding the revenue in the two restaurants) mounts to CHF 99,208.15.” Rigi Kulm Webstie
It remained a fashionable destination until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, when visitor numbers slumped as Grand Campaigns replaced Grand Tours. Although it recovered and expanded in the 1950s – and rooms can still be booked here – its Golden Age was the arcadian era before the two World Wars spread across Europe and the globe.
By Rail to Rigi
With the service opening to the public on the 21st of May 1871, the Vitznau–Rigi railway route was the first public mountain railway in Europe. When opened, the line from Vitznau to Rigi Staffelhöhe was 3.1 miles long and climbed a total of 3,658 ft to reach a height of 5,085ft at its summit, the maximum gradient being 25%.
Rigi Railways remains the highest standard gauge railway in Europe.
The next glass plate shows the start of this route at Vitznau, and offers another glimpse at who was taking this Grand Tour across Europe in the late summer of 1900.
References
Allbut, Robert, The Tourist's Handbook to Switzerland (London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1884)
‘Mount Rigi Through the Ages’, Rigi <https://www.rigi.ch/en/experience/mount-rigi-experience/mount-rigi-through-the-ages>
‘The Rigi Kulm Story: Hospitality Since 1816’, Rigi Kulm <https://www.rigikulm.ch/en/panoramic-mountain/journey-through-time/>
1900 Glass Plates: This project explores a series of glass plates from the year 1900 with the eventual goal of travelling the same route as the photographer. It will be a varied journey that will stretch from simple blog posts examining each photo to videos and more. This project is in collaboration with photographer Aleksandar Nenad Zecevic, who’ll be restoring the photographs to bring out details dimmed by time. More to follow.
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