Three men in a car ...

s Interior of Chaplutta Sogn Pieder Three brothers Ems have taken a voyage back in time. It is the year 800 AD, precisely when our Sovereign, Charles King of the Franks, is being crowned Emperor in Rome. We are standing in a newly built chapel, or "Chaplutta" – as our monstrator (guide) calls it. This little marvel of a building is situated on a small hill overlooking the Rhenus Alpense (Alpine Rhine), some 2,7 milliarii (4 km) upstream from Curia Raetorum (Chur). The monstrator explains all this to us in Latin with a very strange accent, which I barely understand, despite being fluent in the language since my study days in Vienna. As he tells us further, just 35 years earlier, a monk was sitting in the scriptorium of Episcopi Vitto's residentia in Curia Raetorum (Chur), taking care to sharpen his goose feather, tip it in a small pot of ink made of gall nut, vitriol and wine, and painfully printing five minuscule letters on a parchment containing a numerous

Decisions taken in the Synode in Constance of 1567 Source: Konstantin Maier Sometimes it is a pleasure to look at documents of yore. The above page relates to Declarations and Regulations issued by a Bishopric Synode in Constance in 1567. Those legal acts represent in turn the implementation of acts agreed upon at the Council of Trent . This 19th Ecumenical Council had convened to reform the Catholic Church so as to counter the expansion of Protestantism. What has this to do with the Emser, you may well ask? Quite a lot, has to be the answer. The second son of Wolf Dietrich (and brother of Jakob Hannibal I) was the Pope's representative, as Cardinal , at the Council. Once the Council had finished its deliberations, it was his task, as Prince Bishop of Constance , to implement the Council agreements within his Diocese. So there! Merk Sittich II von Ems (1533-1595) spent his childhood, like his brother Jakob Hannibal I, under the wings of his uncle, the fierce mercenary lead

Model of Fortress Alt-Ems We are looking here at a fierce fortification, on top of an unsurmountable precipice. This used to be the invincible fortress of Alta Amisa, in German Alt-Ems or, better, Hohenems. "Alta" means "on the top", which is appropriate, given the location. I am saying "used to be" with purpose, since only ruins remain of this once impressive edifice. I saw this picture through the display window of the small town museum of Hohenems and have manipulated it somewhat to convey to you a view you could have had in the sixteenth century. Then, it was still the residence of the Emser, until the Renaissance Palace was ready to move into, around 1570. After the latter building had been finished and the surrounds been landscaped pari passu, the whole centre of Hohenems looked like in the painting below. On the top of the hill in the middle lay the fortress, with bulwarks stretching to and including the second ridge to its left. Further to

Three brothers Ems are looking at themselves in a mirror that is at least 400 years old. It is Monday, April 29, in the afternoon. We are standing in one of the parade halls of Palace Hohenems, built some 450 years ago as one of the first renaissance palaces in the Holy Roman Empire, North of the Alps. Indeed, this monument would become famous as the only palace built in the truly Italian Renaissance style in those parts of the world. The Palace became the residence of the Emser, after their elevation to Imperial Counts of Hohenems back in 1560. But they had held the lien, as Knights, on the Hohenems domain long before that, since they are documented as residents there since the early twelfth century. It is only right that we appear somewhat hazy within the mirror frame. We are not on a journey of self-discovery after all. No! As should be clear by now, our goal is to bring clarity to the fate of the Ems Dynasty of yore . The night before was spent in our separées on iron w