Photos of Europe

This is Altdorf, Switzerland where the famous story of William Tell took place.  William Tell, who originally hailed from Bürglen, was known as an expert marksman with the crossbow. At the time, the Habsburg emperors of Austria were seeking to dominate Uri. Hermann Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf, raised a pole in the village's central square, hanged his hat on top of it, and demanded that all the local townsfolk bow before the hat. But Tell passed by the hat without bowing to it, and he was arrested. He received the punishment of being forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son, Walter, or else both would be executed. Tell had been promised freedom if he successfully shot the apple.
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