Double Churches.

710. East End of Church at Bonn. (From Rosengarten.)

711. Plan of Church at Laach. (From Geier and GÃ¶rz.)

As is the case with almost all MediÃ¦val buildings, the greater number of churches of this age have been erected at different periods of time, and the designs altered as the work proceeded, to suit the taste of the day. This circumstance makes them particularly interesting to the architectural historian, though the artist and architect must always regret the incompleteness and want of harmony which this produces. An exception to this rule is found in the beautiful abbey church at Laach, erected between the years 1093 and 1156, therefore rather early in the style. Its dimensions are small, only 215 ft. internally by 62; but this is compensated for by its completeness. It is one of the few churches that still possess the western paradise or parvise, as shown in the remarkable ancient plan found atSt. Gall. The western apse is applied to its proper use of a tomb-house, and on each side of it, as at Mittelzell, are the principal entrances. Externally this church has two central and four lateral towers, two of the latter being square, and two circular. It is impossible to fancy anything more picturesquely pleasing than this group of towers of various heights and shapes, or a church producing a more striking effect with such diminutive dimensions as this one possesses, the highest point being only 140 ft. from the ground-line. No church, however, of the pointed Gothic style has its sky-line so pleasingly broken, while the cornices and eaves still retain all the unbroken simplicity of classic examples, showing how easily the two forms might have been combined by following the path here indicated. This church, the Liebfrauen Kirche at Halberstadt, and the Abbey of Maulbronn[68]in Wurtemburg, the most perfect Cistercian abbey existing, are perhaps the finest and most typical buildings in this style, and sufficient to characterisethe form of architecture in vogue in Germany in the great Hohenstaufen period (1138-1284), and in the century immediately preceding the accession to power of that house; but they are not nearly all the really important buildings which during the epoch of true German greatness were erected in almost every considerable city of the empire. In Cologne itself there is the church of St. Gereon, the nave of which, with its crypt, belongs to the 11th century, the apse to the 12th, and the decagonal domed part to the 13th. This is a most interesting specimen of transition architecture, and as such will be mentioned hereafter. So is the church of St. Cunibert, dedicated in 1248, and hardly more advanced in style than the abbey of St. Denis near Paris, built at least a century earlier. The churchesof St. George and of Sion in the same city afford interesting examples of the style; but even more important, however, than these are the noble church at Andernach, the remains of the abbey church of Heisterbach, and that of St. Quirinus in Neuss. In the same neighbourhood the little church of Sinzig is a pleasing specimen of the age when the Germans had laid aside the bold simplicity of their earlier forms to adopt the more elegant and sparkling contours of pointed architecture. A little farther up the Rhine the church of St. Castor at Coblentz agreeably exemplifies the later work (1157-1208), its apse being one of the widest and boldest of its class, though deficient in height, and the style may be said to have reached its zenith in the cathedrals of Limburg on the Lahn and Bamberg.

712. View of Church at Laach. (From Geier and GÃ¶rz.)

713. Church at Sinzig. (From BoisserÃ©e.)

714. Rood-Screen at Wechselburg. (From Puttrich.)

The neighbourhood of TrÃ¨ves has also some excellent specimens of Romanesque work, among which may be mentioned the abbey of Echternach, the church of St. Mathias, and the interesting and elegant church of Merzig.

715. Crypt at GÃ¶llingen. (From Puttrich.)

In Saxony there are many beautiful though no very extensive examples of the German style. Among these the two ruined abbeys of Paulinzelle and BÃ¼rgelin, neither of them vaulted churches, are remarkable for the simple elegance of their forms and details, showing how graceful the stylewas becoming before the pointed arch was introduced. The church at Wechselburg is also interesting, though somewhat gloomy, and retains a rood-screen of the 12th century (Woodcut No.714), which is a rare and pleasing example of its class. The church at Hechlingen also deserves mention, and the fragment of the abbey at GÃ¶llingen is a pleasing instance of the pure Italian class of design sometimes found in Germany at this age. Its crypt, too (Woodcut No.715), affords an example of vaulting of great elegance and lightness, obtained by introducing the horse-shoe arch, or an arch more than half a circle in extent, which takes off the appearance of great pressure upon the capital of the pillar, and gives the vault that height and lightness which were afterwards sought for and obtained by the introduction of the pointed arch. It is still a question whether this was not the more pleasing expedient of the two. There was one objection to the use of this horse-shoe shape, that considerable difficulty arose in using arches of different spans in the same roof, which with pointed arches became perfectly easy.

716. FaÃ§ade of the Church at Rosheim. (From Chapuy.)

Another example, of more Lombardic design however, is found in the church of Rosheim in Alsace, the faÃ§ade of which (Woodcut No.716) belongs as much to Verona as to this side of the Alps. Its interior is of pleasing design, though bolder and more massive than the exterior would lead us to expect.

The faÃ§ade of the church of Marmoutier in the same province, and of the cathedral of Gebweiler, are two examplesâ€”very similar to one anotherâ€”of a compromise between the purely German and purely Italian styles of design. The small openings in the former look almost like those of a southern clime, but in its present locality give to the church an appearance of gloom by no means usual. Still it has the merit of vigorous and purpose-like character.

717. Church at Marmoutier (MaarmÃ¼nster). (From Chapuy.)

At Bamberg the church of St. Jacob is well worthy of attention, and the Scotch church at Ratisbon is one of the best specimens in Germany of a simple basilica without transepts or towers. Its principal entrance is a bold and elegant piece of design, covered with grotesque figures whose meaning it is difficult to understand. Had it been placed at the end of the church, it might have formed the basis of a magnificent faÃ§ade; but stuck unsymmetrically on one sideâ€”as is so usual in Germanyâ€”it loses half its effect, and can only be considered as a detached piece of ornamentation, which is hereâ€”as it generally isâ€”fatal to its effect as an architectural composition.

Double Churches.

Before leaving ecclesiastical buildings, it is necessary to allude to a class of double churches and double chapels. Of the former the typical example is the church of Schwartz Rheindorf, erected by Arnold von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne, on his return from Constantinople in 1148, and dedicated in the year 1151. It is in itself a pleasing specimen of the style, irrespective of its peculiarity. It is, however, simply a church in two storeys, and was originally built as a mausoleum, and in the form of a Greek cross without a tower at the intersection. After the death of the Archbishop, his sister Hedwig (Abbess of Essen) extended the nave two bays towards the west in order to form a junction with a nunnery which she had built on the west side. It is probable that the Byzantine plan first carried out exercised much influence on the churches at Cologne and the Rhine generally. At first sight, the lower church looks like an extensive crypt, but this does not seem to have been its purpose so much as to afford an increase of accommodation, to enable two congregations to hear the same service at the same time, there being always in the centre of the floor of the upper church an opening sufficient for those above to hear the service, and for some of them at least to see the altar below. In castle chapels, where this method is most common, the upper storey seems to have been occupied by the noblesse, the lower by their retainers, which makes the arrangement intelligible enough.[69]

718. Section of Church of Schwartz Rheindorf. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

The church at Schwartz Rheindorf is not large, being only 112 ft. long, over all, by 53 ft. wide across the transepts; and the two westernbays appear to have been added afterwards. The walls of the lower storey are built of sufficient thickness to admit of a gallery being carried all round the church externally on the level of the floor of the upper church. This gives it a very peculiar but pleasing character; and as the details are good and appropriately designed, it is altogether as characteristic and as original a design as can well be found of the purely German style of its age.

719. View of the Church of Schwartz Rheindorf. (From Simon.)

In the castle at Nuremberg there is an old double chapel of this sort, but it does not appear in this instance that there was an opening between the two; if it existed, it has been stopped up. There is another at Eger, and two are described by Puttrich in his beautifulwork on Saxony: one of these, the chapel at Landsberg near Halle, is given in plan and section in Woodcuts Nos.720and721; and though small, being only 40 ft. by 28 internally, presents some beautiful combinations, and the details are finished with a degree of elegance not generally found in larger edifices; the other, that at Freiburg on the Unstrutt, measuring 21 ft. by 28, is altogether the best of the class, from the beauty of its capitals and the finish of every part of it. It belongs in time to the very end of the 12th, or rather perhaps to the 13th century, and from the form of its vaults and the foliation of their principal ribs, one is almost inclined to ascribe to it a later period; for it would be by no means wonderful if in a gem like this the lords of the castle should revert to their old German style instead of adopting foreign innovations. The windows are of pointed Gothic, and do not appear like insertions. Other examples exist at Goslar, where, however, there is no opening between lower and upper chapel; at Coburg, Lohra, Steinfurt in Westphalia, and Vianden in Luxemburg.

720. Plan of Chapel at Landsberg. (From Puttrich.)

721. Section of Chapel at Landsberg. (From Puttrich.)

722. View and Plan of the Cathedral at Zurich. (From Voselin.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

Returning again to Switzerland, with which this chapter began, we find several interesting buildings in that country during the whole round-arched Gothic period, many combining the boldness of the Northern examples with a certain amount of Southern elegance of feeling in the details, which together make a very charming combination.Among these, none are more remarkable than the cathedral at Zurich (Woodcut No.722). Its date is not correctly known; for though it seems that a church was founded here in the time of Otho the Great, it is very uncertain whether any part of that building is incorporated in the present edifice, the bulk of which is evidently of the 11th or 12th century. The arrangement and details of the nave are so absolutely identical with those of San Michele at Pavia, that both must certainly belong to the same epoch. But in this church we meet with several German peculiarities to which attention cannot be too frequently drawn by those who would characterise correctly the peculiarities of German Gothic.

723. Doorway at Basle. (From Chapuy.)

The first of these is the absence of any entrance in the west front.Where there is an apse at either end, as is frequently the case in the German churches, the cause is perfectly intelligible; but the cathedral of Zurich has not, and never had, an apse at the west end, nor is it easy to suggest any motive for so unusual an arrangement, unless it is that the prevalence of the plan of two apses had rendered it more usual to enter churches in Germany at the side, and it was consequently adopted even where the true motive was wanting. In an architectural point of view, it certainly is a mistake, and destroys half the effect of the church, both internally and externally; but it was very common in Germany before they learnt from the French to make a more artistic arrangement of the several parts.

Another peculiarity is the distinct preparation for two towers at the west end, as proved by the two great piers, evidently intended to support their inner angles. Frequently in Germany the whole west end was carried up to a considerable height above the roof of the nave, and either two or three small spires were placed on this frontal screen. This, however, does not appear to have been the case here; for though the two towers that now adorn it are modern, the intention seems originally to have been the same. Had they been intended to flank the portal, and give dignity to the principal entrance, their motive would have been clear; but where no portal was intended, it is curious that the Germans should so universally have used them, while the Italians, whose portals were almost as universally on their west fronts, should hardly ever have resorted to this arrangement.

The east end, as will be observed, is square, an arrangement not unusual in Switzerland, though nearly unknown in the Gothic churches of Italy and Germany. The lateral chapels have apses, especially the southern one, which I believe to be either the oldest part of the cathedral, or to have been built on the foundations of that of Otho the Great.

The most beautiful and interesting parts of this church are the northern doorway and the cloisters, both of nearly the same age, their date certainly extending some way at least into the 12th century. As specimens of the sculpture of their age, they are almost unrivalled, and strike even the traveller coming from Italy as superior to any of the contemporary sculpture of that country.

One of the doorways of the cathedral of Basle (Woodcut No.723) is in the same style, and perhaps even more elegant than that of Zurich. Both in the simplicity of its form and in the appropriateness of its details it is quite equal to anything to be found in Italy of the 11th or 12th century. Its one defect, as compared with Northern examples, is the want of richness in the archivolts that surmount the doorway. But, on the other hand, nothing can exceed the elegance of the shafts on either side, the niches of the buttresses, or of the cornice which surmounts the whole composition.

These details of the Swiss buildings are well worthy of the most attentive consideration, inasmuch as they equal those of Provence or the North of Italy in elegance of feeling and design, while they are free from the classical trammels which so frequently mar their appropriateness in those provinces. In Switzerland they are as original as in Northern Germany, and as picturesque, while they are free from the grotesqueness that so frequently mars the beauty of even the best examples in that country.

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