entrances, were built in Gothic style during the Romantic and neo-Romantic periods. Printing popular imagery The popular image of the romantic Rhine in the first half of the 19th century was not derived from paintings, but almost exclusively from the prints. Aquatints, lithographs and engravings illustrated travel books and were published as series of postcards. Between 1820 and 1830 at least 12 companies published their own series of postcards, each with separately produced imagery. The British were leaders in the field, with their steel engraving process, which was patented in London in 1826, which replaced the older copper engraving technology and enabled accurate representations and long print runs. At the time, William Tombleson provided the best templates, and 50 engravers turned these into 68 representations of the Middle Rhine in "Views of the Rhine", first published in 1832. A year later "Traveling Sketches" by Clarkson Stanfield was published. The steel engraving with a view on Bingen and the Rhine-Nahe corner from the other side of the Rhine first appeared in this publication. The English artist skillfully reinforces the effect of the view on the city with the backlit Basilica and the reflecting surface of the water. The geographic reality was, however, largely sacrificed on the altar of the Rhine romanticism. The viewer is looking due south and at this latitude, one rarely sees a low sun or a sunset in this direction. Despite these flaws, this attractive view is one of the best known and most copied vistas of Bingen in the 19th century. Among the artistically and technically very sophisticated publications of this time is the Verdute series, depicted the whole course of the Rhine, published by the Swiss publisher and painter Johann Ludwig Bleuler around 1827. Bleuler's major work, "Voyage aux bords du Rhin pittoresque et de la Suisse", appeared in 1845. In 2002, UNESCO declared the Upper Middle Rhine Valley a World Heritage Site. The pictures 4–7 are old colored engravings by Christian Meichelt based on works by Johann Adolf von Lasinsky. References and sources Carl Trog: Rheinlands Wunderhorn. Sagen Geschichten und Legenden, auch Ränke und Schwänke aus den alten Ritterburgen, Klöstern und Städten der Rheinufer und des Rheingebietes, von den Quellen bis zur Mündung des Stromes, dedicated to the German People by Carl Trog, 15 vols, Alfred Silbermann, Essen and Leipzig, 1882–83, reprinted: Mikado, Atzbach 1980, (vol 1) Karsten Keune (Hrsg.): Sehnsucht Rhein. Rheinlandschaften in der