Recueil de paysages Suisses dessinés d'après nature, dans une course par la vallée d'Ober-Hasly et les cantons de Schweitz et d'Ury, 1797

"When a painter wants to treat a subject that unites all the charms of our Swiss landscape with the great Italian style, he climbs the hill crowned by the ruins of Goltzweil church. There, his eye dips into the basin of its small lake and wanders over the lovely landscape of Rinkenberg and the enchanting shores of Lake Brientz: Everything that the most fertile imagination can conceive of that is graceful and beautiful is to be found at this vantage point, magnificent trees in the foreground, the best-chosen middle ground and backgrounds whose forms vary infinitely; if he does not feel his heart beat at this sight, if he is not inspired by the genius of nature, he throws away his brushes and paints and gives up forever the hope of successfully pursuing the career of the arts."

"Not far from Brienz on the south side, the Giess stream, which flows from the Schwarzen-Horn, forms a beautiful waterfall that you have to climb up to if you want to admire its beauty up close. The painting of this waterfall by Mr. Rieter in Bern is unsurpassable; here the traveller who does not want to climb the Alps can see and pick the beautiful alpine rose (Rhododendron hirsutum), for it descends to the lake."

Johann Gottfried Ebel (1764-1830) described the Giessbach Falls in 1809 as the only attraction at this location. In the travel guide published in 1844 by Karl Baedeker (1801-1859), we learn that tourists could also experience other things here:

"At the Giessbach lives the schoolmaster of Brienz, a man of some 70 years of age, who for a long time has sung Swiss songs with great skill to visitors to the Giessbach, first with his wife, then with his children, now with his children and grandchildren, and blows the alphorn, for a not inconsiderable remuneration, from which the neat house which he inhabits has gradually arisen. You can also have refreshments with him. A large selection of wood carvings is also on display for sale."

"The road from Brientz to the place called Unter der Heid, not far from Meiringue, is the most pleasant and uniform; serene, picturesque and varied places make it very interesting, as well as various waterfalls [...] A mile away appears the solitary Wandelbach, less watery but more pleasant by its varied circumstances. [...] Everything in the surroundings is conducive to the study of art: the beech follows the sad fir; the climate becomes milder; the forms become more pleasing; everywhere cheerful faces bearing the expression of happiness; above all that naive politeness, that cordial good-naturedness which makes the society of the mountain people so interesting, which inspires confidence and makes one recognize friends in everyone one meets. -- We were equally enchanted by the country and its people [...]."

The Restiturm is the most striking castle ruin in the Haslital. Measuring around 8 x 8 m on the outside, the tower stands on a single block of rock. It was built around 1250 and its function was to control the Brünig, Grimsel, Grosser Scheidegg and Susten pass roads that converged in Meiringen. After Bern gained control of the Haslital, the previous residential tower was converted into a defensive structure around 1400 - the officials now lived in the village. By the 17th century at the latest, however, the tower began to fall into disrepair and its grounds became the property of the municipality, which erected the gallows there. Around 1840, Melchior Rytz von Stein allegedly tried to make the tower habitable again, but he is unlikely to have succeeded. The ruins served as a popular subject for small-scale painters.

"Today we walked through the opposite side of this valley, where there was another good drawing. I definitely saw that the people here are no less active than nature. Close to the village, a stream falls from a mountain, often swells to an unusual size and often causes terrible devastation. The inhabitants have therefore built a thick, long wall to keep it away from the village, and even this is not always sufficient."

"Yesterday we wandered around the valley for a long time, enjoying ourselves along the banks of the Aar, until we camped at a waterfall that Schütz drew. The locals call this water the Reichenbach. It rises high up on the mountains from the so-called Rosenlaui glacier and plunges down from a steep mountain, on the slopes of which it makes three beautiful falls, the lowest of which is the largest because several streams have gradually merged with it. [...] You can see another fall of this stream on Aberlis Meiringen at a considerable height of the mountain."

"This small picturesque lake lies very close to Schweitz, behind the rocks belonging to the Republic of Gersau, and at the foot of the Rigiberg, famous for its fertility, the beautiful view that can be enjoyed from its summit, and various landslides, one of which plunged an entire village into the lake two years ago. This mountain, which rises here in the distance, shows very clearly its inclined layers, made up of pebbles rolled from the debris of the high Alps. The lake is embellished by two small islands, the larger of which, in addition to the ruins of the village of Schwanau, contains a hermitage and a chapel; they are inhabited by hermit brothers who spend their lives there performing their usual prayers and making their stay as pleasant as it is useful. The nearest mountain is the Steinenberg, at the foot of which Werner Stauffacher lived. The village in Lowertz; and the most distant mountains are the Inmiseerberge on Lake Zug."

"Schwytz, the village, capital of the canton of the same name, contains, with the hamlets and scattered houses belonging to it, 5000 inhabitants (in 1805, 1453 citizens had reached the age of 20). Inns: Hirsch (good and cheap), Roßli. It lies very charmingly, at the foot of the majestic, wonderful rock cones of the Hacken, in beautiful, green meadows rich in flowers and trees, on a mountain slope where three valleys meet; the valley towards Lauerz and Arth, towards Brunnen and Lake Lucerne and the Muottathal. Among several beautiful buildings one notices: the large parish church built in 1769, more ornamental than tasteful, with an excellent organ; the town hall, and the school building with a small theater; also the nunnery and Capuchin monastery look good."

"One of the most beautiful views is undoubtedly that of Wylen, where from a pleasant hill the eye overlooks Lake Lucerne and the magnificent mountains by which it is framed; The majestic Alps, boldly bearing their snow-capped peaks and their eternal ice up to the sky, spread so much grandeur and nobility over the region that the soul is seized with astonishment and loses itself in admiration of these wonders; it costs to avert one's gaze from them and to spare a single moment of such a spectacle. If this sight enchants the sensitive artist so much, what effect must it have on the Swiss, who unites in his heart the feeling for beauty with the love of his fatherland?"

"Flüelen, parish village of 91 houses and 560 inhabitants, in the canton of Uri. Inns: Zollhaus and Adler. It is very secluded and charming, at the foot of the Rohrstock mountain, on Lake Lucerne, is the port of Altorf and one of the best landing places. All goods that cross the Gotthard are loaded or unloaded here; in addition to shipping and fishing, this mainly employs the inhabitants, who are praised as good sailors."

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"A quarter of a mile from Altorf lies the small hamlet of Bürglen, situated on a pleasant hill. William Tell was born here, and the house in which he lived has been replaced by a chapel in which his sacred memory is associated with the veneration of three Christian heroes. Crude paintings, refreshed in the last century, adorn this chapel far less than the memories it contains; and a host of obscure names daubed on the walls also adorn this simple monument to a hero only by the brilliance of the name that bears them. Whichever way you look at it, it is impossible to doubt the existence of William Tell when you visit the places where he lived. You can't take a step there without reinforcing your belief when you see the monuments that confirm it; it seems that even in the air you breathe there is something that predisposes to credulity; and, by the way, it is a very legitimate superstition to believe in a great man. The many heaps of stones that can be seen from Altorf are the remains of a flood in the Schächen, in which William Tell supposedly lost his life in old age when he tried to save a drowning child. Is that, my friend, still an invention of the modern mind? And could the chroniclers of the 15th century or the historians of our century have imagined killing the founder of a nation's freedom by wringing the life of a poor child from the waters of a torrent?"

"Amstäg, in the canton of Uri, 3 hours from Altorf, at the foot of the Bristen and the Windgälle, at the entrance to the Maderan valley and on the pass to the Gotthard. Inns: Kreutz, Engel. It lies 300 F. above Lake Lucerne. Near Amstäg you can see the remains of an old castle, which some believe to be the Twing Uri, which was built by the bailiff Gesler, others believe it to be the ancestral seat of the Silenen family."

"The road meanders steadily along the mountains to Wassen, sometimes over poles and fir roundels, sometimes through huge granite blocks on a very well-made pavement. The vegetation, so beautiful elsewhere, diminishes so much here that the stunted fir barely exceeds the size of an ordinary shrub. The traveler still follows the rushing course of the Reuss and crosses it on eight stone bridges, three of which are true masterpieces: The Reuss rages sometimes to his right, sometimes to his left; its roaring floods beat seething against the stone and disintegrate into dust or into shining foam that rises and disappears into thin air. The Devil's Bridge soon reveals itself in its entirety; it is a unique masonry structure: Its vault, rising sixty feet above the level of its span, is superbly constructed; and any one who, with an unprejudiced eye, and with the attention it deserves, beholds this singular roadway from Altdorf to the Urserenloch, an opening seventy paces long, hewn in a huge rock; any one who maturely reflects on the difficulties of such an undertaking, and the immense labor it required, will be forced to agree that it is worthy of the ancient Romans."