Page 13 - Lienz Treasure Chest
P. 13

The “Hotel Lienzerhof” around 1912.

                                        7  Former post office, Bozener   – who came in from New York with
                                      Platz 1 – In place of the Town Tennis   his wife, his driver and his staff –
                                      Court, the luxury hotel “Lienzerhof”,   and the famous American inventor
                                      with 100 beds, was built between   Thomas Alva Edison.
                                      1908-1910. The local newspaper,
                                      “Lienzer Zeitung”, mentioned that   8  Barbarahof (Barbara Court),
                                      the hotel was furnished to satisfy   Bozener Platz 2 – The tower-like
                                      even the most spoiled guests and   building with its round arch passage
                                      was first-rank not only in the Pus-  to the right of the St.-Antonius-Park
                                      ter Valley, but in all of Tyrol. Many   is part of the original mediaeval fort-
                                      prominent guests stayed at the   ifications, called “Barbarahof” ever
                                      “Lienzerhof”. Among those were   since the renovation in 1994/95.
                                      the multi-billionaire H.W. Vanderbilt                                      “Antoniuskirchl” (St Anthony’s little church) and the park. A small oasis in the centre.


                                                                                                          St.-Antonius-Park (St Anthony’s   forms an important point of closu-
                                                                                                          Park)  with  the  old  city  wall  –  This   re of the main square at its eastern
                                                                                                          small park near the clearly visible   edge. The main altar from 1702
                                                                                                          mediaeval city wall from the 13th   came from the Liebburg chapel,
                                                                                                          century forms a small oasis in the   with images of St Anthony of Pa-
                                                                                                          city centre.               dua and St John of Nepomuk. The
                                                                                                                                     right-hand altar with the images “St
                                                                                                            9  Church  of  St  Anthony  of   Sylvester baptizing Emperor Cons-
                                                                                                          Padua – This church most like-  tantine” and “St Sylvester defeating
                                                                                                          ly used to be part of the formerly   the dragon” – by the painter J. Hof-
                                                                                                          nearby “Gorizian House”, the town   mann the Older from Lienz – was
                                                                                                          seat of the last Gorizian count   inaugurated in 1660. It is flanked
                                                                                                          Leonhard. After 1500, it was con-  by statues of two bishops. The left-
                                                                                                          verted into a storage for miners’   hand altar from 1660/1670 shows
                                                                           Andrä-Kranz-Gasse.
                                                                                                          ore tithes to the territorial lord. After   a copy of Lucas Cranach’s painting
                                         Lienz and electric lighting have a long shared history. And not   mining receded in the area of Lienz,   of the Virgin Mary in the Innsbruck
                                         only because even the American inventor and electricity specialist   this storage was no longer needed,   Cathedral as well as the Trinity. In
                                         Thomas Alva Edison is said to have stayed at the “Lienzerhof”,   and thus, between 1660 and 1668,   1946, the Church of St Anthony
                                         the former post office at the main square entrance, in 1912.     it was converted into a church. The   was given to the town’s Greek Or-
                                                                                                          visual  of the  onion-domed  tower   thodox community.

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