A stone wayside chapel crowned with a corpus-bearing crucifix stands sentinel at 2,021 metres above sea level, the vast mirror of the Silvretta Stausee reservoir stretching behind it toward the glaciated flanks of Piz Buin — the highest peak shared by Austria and Switzerland — in this breathtaking real-photo postcard sent in September 1954. The Silvretta High Alpine Road was a marvel of mid-century engineering, and the reservoir, completed in 1954, was brand-new when Erich, Berta, and their companions climbed to the Madlenerhaus hut and penned this card to a couple in Vienna, noting that the alpine weather — "Die letzten Tage" — had finally turned fine. The purple hut stamp of the Madlenerhaus (1986m, DAV Section Wiesbaden) authenticates the sending location. Photographer Risch-Lau of Bregenz, the preeminent Vorarlberg postcard house, produced this image with characteristic high-contrast drama.