Antique & Vintage Postcards

Tucked into the dramatic gorge of the Dietlhölle ravine near Hinterstoder in Upper Austria's Totes Gebirge range, a small white chapel with a steep pyramidal roof gleams like a beacon amid dark conifers and sheer limestone cliffs — a scene of sublime Alpine isolation that has drawn hikers and pilgrims alike for generations. This genuine silver-gelatin RPPC, numbered 14 in a local series by photographer Franz Dachleitner of Hinterstoder, was mailed on 20 August 1955 from a holidaymaker (writing as "Hinterstoder, 20.8.55") to Herr Josef in Vienna, the message in Austrian German cursive describing mountain walks and weather with the easy warmth of a summer holiday. Two Austrian Republic 50-Groschen regional costume stamps — depicting figures in Vorarlberg Bregenzerwald folk dress — frank the card from the Hinterstoder post office.