Bled [antikvár]

Bled, so warmly praised in the era of the romantic re-tum to natúre, might well have become no more than a hackneyed excursion piacé a hundered years later a tasteless picture postcard resort for tourists taking a hurried weekend off. But its very real beauty disarms criticism. It is seldom that one finds such perfect harmony of light and shadow as on the alpine lakes and Bled is one of these. &nd it is near enough to the wide plains and open spaces leading to Ljubljana as to dispel the harsh mountain solitude. In winter this introspective world lies in the embrace of picturesque hills, and here at Bled the boats rock on the laké like gondolás gondolás transferred from their proper sphere and on holiday among pines9 firs and oaks.In this civilized world however, the true beauty of a landscape lies not only in its seclusion but in its character, and in the aspect which unobtrusive humán endeavour gives it; and at Bled the old castle on the top of a gray cliff domi-nates the crowded houses of the village below. Now the village has grown into a holiday resort; but it has not lost the intimacy of the countryside. An island rises from the middle of the laké and is reflected in its calm mirror. An oar disturbs the surface of the water and breaks up the silhou-ette of the white baroque tower with its red roof into ab-stract forms, from which combinations of colour arise from a ground prepared by the Sun Painter with his palette of gold-en tones.In the depths of the laké lies the statue of the old Slav deity Ziva, which the inhabitants threw into it when they were baptised by Crtomir on the eve of the Middle Ages. Ziva has experienced a universal metamorphosis in the church on the Island reigns her descendant the Madonna.Bled, so warmly praised in the era of the romantic re-tum to natúre, might well have become no more than a hackneyed excursion piacé a hundered years later a tasteless picture postcard resort for tourists taking a hurried weekend off. But its very real beauty disarms criticism. It is seldom that one finds such perfect harmony of light and shadow as on the alpine lakes and Bled is one of these. nd it is near enough to the wide plains and open spaces leading to Ljubljana as to dispel the harsh mountain solitude. In winter this introspective world lies in the embrace of picturesque hills, and here at Bled the boats rock on the laké like gondolás gondolás transferred from their proper sphere and on holiday among pines9 firs and oaks.In this civilized world however, the true beauty of a landscape lies not only in its seclusion but in its character, and in the aspect which unobtrusive humán endeavour gives it; and at Bled the old castle on the top of a gray cliff domi-nates the crowded houses of the village below. Now the village has grown into a holiday resort; but it has not lost the intimacy of the countryside. An island rises from the middle of the laké and is reflected in its calm mirror. An oar disturbs the surface of the water and breaks up the silhou-ette of the white baroque tower with its red roof into ab-stract forms, from which combinations of colour arise from a ground prepared by the Sun Painter with his palette of gold-en tones.In the depths of the laké lies the statue of the old Slav deity Ziva, which the inhabitants threw into it when they were baptised by Crtomir on the eve of the Middle Ages. Ziva has experienced a universal metamorphosis in the church on the Island reigns her descendant the Madonna.