2-982-263 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Building erected at Zurich for the Celebration of the Swiss National Musical Festival, 1858. 'They have erected a magnificent building, all of Swiss wood, to contain 13,000 people. Tho hotels are insufficient for accommodation, and the normal schools are fitted up for travellers. Each canton contributes its singers, altogether about 4000. Previous to the three days' grand festival the singers contend for prizes, divided into the cantons they represent, in choruses of about sixty each, and the conquerors carry to their mountain chalets beautiful gold cups and medals, which are handed down for ever in the family'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.