43. Tell’s Chapel, Switzerland - 17 Sept 1900 | Glass Plates
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. The interior of Tell’s Chapel contains four frescos by Ernst Stückelberg depicting famous moments in William Tell’s life.
This photograph must have been taken from the deck of a passenger boat and, besides Tell’s Chapel itself, it captures a view of the Axenberg cliffs and three people leaning on the railing overlooking the water.
The Folk Legend of William Tell
In the late 13th or early 14th century, the canton of Uri was being taxed by a cruel agent of the House of Habsburgs, the bailiff Albrecht Gessler. To demonstrate his superiority over the peasants living in Altdorf, Uri’s capital, Gessler mounted his hat on a pole in the market square and commanded all present to bow to it.
He laughed when they obeyed.
But his laughter was about to be cut short.
It so happened that William Tell, a famed marksman, and his son were visiting Altdorf on this day. Tell, being a fierce, proud man, refused to bend the knee to this hat on a pole. Gessler, seeing Tell’s impudence, standing amongst the kneeling crowd, commanded that he and his son be punished.
Gessler’s decision to simply execute them changed when he heard of Tell’s skill with a crossbow, and he demanded a demonstration. He offered Tell the chance to save his and his son’s life if he could simply shoot an apple that had been placed on his son’s head. Tell took two bolts and fired his shot, splitting the apple in two.
The crowd celebrated, but Gessler wished to know why Tell had taken two bolts but only fired one. Tell kept closed lips at first, until Gessler promised he would not renege on the promise to spare their lives whatever the answer may be. With this promise made, Tell told Gessler that if he had hit his son, the other bolt would have been fired at Gessler himself.
Furious at this revelation, Gessler commanded Tell be put in irons and transported to the dungeon of nearby Gesslerburg Castle; Tell’s life would be spared as promised, but spent in a dark cell for the rest of his days. The guards dragged Tell down to the shore of Lake Lucerne and pushed him onto a ship.
Tell’s Chapel
While they sailed the short distance to the castle, a great storm began, and the guards begged Gessler to free Tell as he was a more proficient sailor than their current pilot. Tell was freed from his chains and sailed the ship near the shore of the Axenberg cliffs, where he leapt to escape his captors.
Tell later hunted down Gessler, assassinating him, and helped to ignite the rebellion that would lead to the formation of the Old Swiss Confederacy.
Although there is little to ground him in history, William Tell has become the foremost symbolic figure of Swiss liberty and independence; the construction of Tell’s Chapel an acknowledgment of his significance in the national mythology of modern Switzerland.
More to Tell
Our next glass plate study will be of another site sacred to William Tell: the supposed location of his famed apple shooting. Alongside this, I will also attempt to reconstruct the route the unknown photographer took to capture these photographs in this order.
References
‘Tell’s Chapel’, MySwitzerland <https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-gb/experiences/tells-chapel/>
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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