It was divided into two towns, the
upper and the lower. The upper town and that part which lay on
the shores of the Werter See was the modern and fashionable
district. It was here that the king and the archbishop had their
palaces and the wealthy their brick and stone. The public park
skirted the lake, and was patterned after those fine gardens
which add so much to the picturesqueness of Vienna and Berlin.
There were wide gravel paths and long avenues of lofty chestnuts
and lindens, iron benches, fountains and winding flower beds.
The park, the palaces, and the Continental Hotel enclosed a
public square, paved with asphalt, called the Hohenstaufenplatz,
in the center of which rose a large marble fountain of several
streams, guarded by huge bronze wolves. Here, too, were iron
benches which were, for the most part, the meeting-place of the
nursemaids. Carriages were allowed to make the circuit, but not
to obstruct the way.
The Konigstrasse began at the Platz, divided the city, and wound
away southward, merging into the highway which continued to the
Thalian Alps, some thirty miles distant. The palaces were at the
southeast corner of the Platz, first the king's, then the
archbishop's.
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