"Rare photo taken in 1860..." Topic

Innauguration day (1860)

The statue of Archduke Charles of Austria, modelled on a popular painting by Johann Peter Krafft, was inaugurated in 1860. It was meant to glorify the Habsburg dynasty as great Austrian military leaders, though they just had suffered a defeat at the bloody Battle of Solferino (the main battle of the Franco-Austrian War of 1859). This equestrian statue was erected to his memory on the Heldenplatz in Vienna.

As we all know, Charles defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Aspern-Essling in 1809.

Taking a close look, we can see many Austrian officers: infantry officers, artillery officers, hussars, uhlans, dragoons and a few mounted cavalrymen. Some Austrian veterans of the Napoleonic Era also attended the ceremony.

Giant size image… Click on the image to enlarge it: link

Very cool, thanks for posting!

That is a really incredible photo. What is so remarkable is that when you zoom in on it, you can really pick out the details of the people. In the foreground, there are a lot of military personnel.

Thanks for posting!

I love the people watching from the roof and windows. Great stuff!

Beautiful!

That detail is truly amazing

Wonderful pic!

I am not sure I have used the word "cool" since 1972, but my 19 year old lads do occasionally (and then feel embarrassed, as it is definitely no longer acceptable to their generation)

What an amazing photo. This is just pre ACW and you cannot expect folk to be motionless. OK, it is a bright sunny day, but yet the depth of focus is great. As others have said, this does take some magnification as well!

If only. Imagine any such images on 18th June, before the artillery spoilt the view….we can dream.

Hi deadhead,

It was late, and after seven years of somewhat frequent posting it may very well have been the first time I ever used the word "cool" to describe something here on TMP, but here in the USA the word itself is by no means even close to being out of constant use.

This may be one of those proverbial examples of two peoples separated by a common language. In 1972 I was seven, and went on to use the word "cool" all through high school and college from the late Seventies to the mid-Eighties, and kept on using it -- when appropriate -- through the Nineties and on into 21st Century! My 17 year-old lad and 14 and 12 year-old lasses all use the word "cool" on a pretty regular basis, as do their friends, so I think it's safe to say it is very much acceptable to their generation in the USA, or at least where we live in Southern California.

Which is not to say that despite being a middle-age/old guy I somehow speak with a "contemporary" voice, because I definitely don't, as that would entail me chopping any word with more than one syllable (note: "cool" has only one) down to a stumpy fragment, such as: "nast" for nasty, "fave" for favorite, "pathe" for pathetic (retaining the "e" pronounced "eh" at the end), "jelly" for jealous, "hilar" for hilarious, and most popular of all, "cray" for crazy -- which is the state all of this reductive vocabulary drives me to (it's more commonly used by my daughters than my 17 year-old son).

That's probably far more than you wanted to know about teen vernacular in the USA, so please forgive me, and together we can look forward to the next "sweet" French Second Empire photo that Cuirassier posts for our edification!

Brilliant reply………..totally outasight, far out man! (speaking as a 60 year old Deadhead, who never inhaled……….ever……..not even in 1970 at that first UK Grateful Dead concert)

Loved this response.

I wonder how many were dead or dying by the 4th July 1866

This is the correct link now, my friends… Click on the image to enlarge it: link

Enjoy this amazing photo once again.

Wow, that's an incredible pic!

+1 Lion in the Stars, and thank you once again, Cuirassier!

Splendid. I can spot officers of the following types; Hussars (still in shako), Cuirassiers, Dragoons – including the two splendid mounted men – Lancers, Artillery, foot and horse, Infantry, Staff officers, civilian commissioners in their bicornes and frock coats (Baron Von Trotta perhaps) – but I can't spot any Jaeger officers unless the dress uniform didn't include the soft hat with the capercaillie feathers but a shako instead. If the latter then there are a group that might fit the bill front centre.