DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0239
bk. y. Ch. ii.
GRANSON.
219
a tower at the intersection, and nearly all the arrangements found at
a much later age, and with scarcely any more reminiscence of the
early Christian style than is observable at- Mittelzell.
The external mode of decoration is very much that of the two
churches of San Apollinare at Ravenna, but is carried one step further,
inasmuch as in the upper storey of the nave each compartment is
divided into two arches, the centre one carried on a corbel ; in the
tower there are three such little arches in each bay, and in the narthex
five. This design afterwarcls became in Germany and Italy 1 the
favourite string-course moulding.
The church of Granson, on the borders of the lake of Neufchatel,
though much smaller, is scarcely less interesting. It belongs to the
Carlovingian era, and like many churches of that age, has borrowed its
pillars and many of its ornaments from earlier monuments. Its most
remarkable peculiarity is the vault of the nave, which shows how
timidly at that early period the
architects undertook to vault
even the narrowest spans, the
whole nave with its side-aisles
being only 30 ft. wide. It is
the earliest specimen we pos-
sess of a mode of vaulting
which subsequently became
very common in the South of
Rrance, and which, as has
been pointed out above, lecl to
most of the forms of vaulting
afterwards introduced.
The church of Notre Dame de Neufchatel, part of which is as old
as from 927 to 954, presents also forms of beauty and interest. The
same may be said of the tower of the cathedral of Sion, which is of
the same age, and of parts also of the cathedral of Geneva.
The church at Payerne is very similar in size and in all its arrange-
ments to that of Rnmain-Motier ; but being two centuries more rnodern,
the transition is complete, and it shows all the peculiarities of a round-
arched Gothic style as completely as San Michele at Pavia, or any
other church of the same age.
If there are any examples of basilican churches in Germany as old
as these Swiss examples, they have not yet been described, nor their age
satisfactorily ascertained. The olclest known example, so far as I am
aware, is the old Dom at Ratisbon, 2 originally apparently about 45 ft.
Section of Church at Granson. (From Blavignac.)
1 The earliest example is found in the i Garibald, 740-752. It is the chapel on
Baptistery at Ravenna, 396 a.d. the north sicle of cloisters of Cathedral
2 Kallenbach, (‘Deutsche Baukunst,’) ; (see ‘ King’s Study Book,’ vol. ii. p. 81).
statcs that it was built by Bisliop I
GRANSON.
219
a tower at the intersection, and nearly all the arrangements found at
a much later age, and with scarcely any more reminiscence of the
early Christian style than is observable at- Mittelzell.
The external mode of decoration is very much that of the two
churches of San Apollinare at Ravenna, but is carried one step further,
inasmuch as in the upper storey of the nave each compartment is
divided into two arches, the centre one carried on a corbel ; in the
tower there are three such little arches in each bay, and in the narthex
five. This design afterwarcls became in Germany and Italy 1 the
favourite string-course moulding.
The church of Granson, on the borders of the lake of Neufchatel,
though much smaller, is scarcely less interesting. It belongs to the
Carlovingian era, and like many churches of that age, has borrowed its
pillars and many of its ornaments from earlier monuments. Its most
remarkable peculiarity is the vault of the nave, which shows how
timidly at that early period the
architects undertook to vault
even the narrowest spans, the
whole nave with its side-aisles
being only 30 ft. wide. It is
the earliest specimen we pos-
sess of a mode of vaulting
which subsequently became
very common in the South of
Rrance, and which, as has
been pointed out above, lecl to
most of the forms of vaulting
afterwards introduced.
The church of Notre Dame de Neufchatel, part of which is as old
as from 927 to 954, presents also forms of beauty and interest. The
same may be said of the tower of the cathedral of Sion, which is of
the same age, and of parts also of the cathedral of Geneva.
The church at Payerne is very similar in size and in all its arrange-
ments to that of Rnmain-Motier ; but being two centuries more rnodern,
the transition is complete, and it shows all the peculiarities of a round-
arched Gothic style as completely as San Michele at Pavia, or any
other church of the same age.
If there are any examples of basilican churches in Germany as old
as these Swiss examples, they have not yet been described, nor their age
satisfactorily ascertained. The olclest known example, so far as I am
aware, is the old Dom at Ratisbon, 2 originally apparently about 45 ft.
Section of Church at Granson. (From Blavignac.)
1 The earliest example is found in the i Garibald, 740-752. It is the chapel on
Baptistery at Ravenna, 396 a.d. the north sicle of cloisters of Cathedral
2 Kallenbach, (‘Deutsche Baukunst,’) ; (see ‘ King’s Study Book,’ vol. ii. p. 81).
statcs that it was built by Bisliop I