Written from Bonn-on-Rhine on July 23, 1913 — just a year before the world shattered — an unnamed traveler fills every centimeter of this card's reverse with a breathless explanation of one of Germany's most sacred Catholic pilgrimage sites: the Heilige Stiege, or Holy Staircase, at the Kreuzberg Franciscan monastery chapel above Bonn. The photograph on the front is stunning — a steep stone staircase of 28 steps plunging toward the viewer, its barrel-vaulted ceiling alive with Baroque fresco angels and a distant crucifix altar glowing at the far end, all rendered in dramatic silver gelatin tones. The writer explains that the stairs are an exact marble reproduction of those before Pontius Pilate's house in Jerusalem, that drops of Christ's blood can be seen on several steps, and that on Good Friday the faithful climb on their knees reciting stations. Built in 1728 by an archbishop to promote devotion to Christ's Passion, the chapel housed "several hundred monks," the writer notes, adding they were "all preserved and up to several years ago could be seen." Published by Kunstverlag Wilhelm Köhler, Bonn, No. 57.