DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0242
222
RHENISH ARCHITECTURE.
Part II.
of the once famous abbej of Corvey, on the eastern frontier of West-
phalia (Woodcut No. 694), where we find the feature developed to its
fullest extent, so that it must originally have entirely hidden the
church placed behind it, as it did afterwards at Strasbourg and in many
other examples.
At Gernrode, as at Mittelzell, the roof was originally intended to
have been of wood, the crypts under the two apses being alone vaulted.
Indeed at that age the German architects hardly felt themselves
skilled enough to undertake a stone roof of any great extent. The
old Dom at Ratisbon is only 22 ft. in width, and that they could
accomplish, but not apparently one like Gernrode, where the span was
twice that in extent.
If the church at Gernrode is a satisfactory specimen of a complete
German design carried out in its integrity, the cathedral at Trèves is
both more interesting as weli as instructive from a very different cause.
It is one of those aggregated buildings of all ages and styles which let
us into the secrets of the art, and contain a whole history within
themselves ; and as the dates of the successive building eras can be
ascertained with very tolerable accuracy, it may be as well to describe
it next in the series, to explain how and when the various changes took
place.
As is well known, the original cathedral at Trèves was built by the
pious Helena, mother of Constantine, and seems, like the contemporary
church at Jerusalem, to have consisted of two distinct edifices, one
rectangular, the other circular. The original circular building was
pulled clown in the 13th century, to make way for the present Lieb-
frauen church erected on its site, and most probably of the same
dimensions. Of the other, or square building, enough still remains
encased in the walls of the present basilica to enable us to determine
its size and plan with very tolerable accuracy. The plan of it in the
woodcut (JSTo. 696) is taken from Schmidt’s most valuable work on the
Antiquities of Trèves. The atrium has been added by myself, because
it was an almost universal feature in churches of the date in which this
was erected, and because there is every reason to believe that the
present church occupied as nearly as possible the exact site of the
older one, and is of the same dimensions. The circular church is
restored from the Roman examples of the same age (Woodcuts 227, and
422 to 436). From their relative positions it will be seen how
indispensable the atrium must have been.
This Romanesque church seems to have remained pretty much in its
original state till the beginning of the llth century, when the
Archbishop Poppo found it so ruinous from age, that it required to be
almost entirely rebuilt. He first encased the pillars of the Romans in
masonry, making them into piers. He then took in and roofed over
the atrium, and added an apse at the western end, thus converting it
RHENISH ARCHITECTURE.
Part II.
of the once famous abbej of Corvey, on the eastern frontier of West-
phalia (Woodcut No. 694), where we find the feature developed to its
fullest extent, so that it must originally have entirely hidden the
church placed behind it, as it did afterwards at Strasbourg and in many
other examples.
At Gernrode, as at Mittelzell, the roof was originally intended to
have been of wood, the crypts under the two apses being alone vaulted.
Indeed at that age the German architects hardly felt themselves
skilled enough to undertake a stone roof of any great extent. The
old Dom at Ratisbon is only 22 ft. in width, and that they could
accomplish, but not apparently one like Gernrode, where the span was
twice that in extent.
If the church at Gernrode is a satisfactory specimen of a complete
German design carried out in its integrity, the cathedral at Trèves is
both more interesting as weli as instructive from a very different cause.
It is one of those aggregated buildings of all ages and styles which let
us into the secrets of the art, and contain a whole history within
themselves ; and as the dates of the successive building eras can be
ascertained with very tolerable accuracy, it may be as well to describe
it next in the series, to explain how and when the various changes took
place.
As is well known, the original cathedral at Trèves was built by the
pious Helena, mother of Constantine, and seems, like the contemporary
church at Jerusalem, to have consisted of two distinct edifices, one
rectangular, the other circular. The original circular building was
pulled clown in the 13th century, to make way for the present Lieb-
frauen church erected on its site, and most probably of the same
dimensions. Of the other, or square building, enough still remains
encased in the walls of the present basilica to enable us to determine
its size and plan with very tolerable accuracy. The plan of it in the
woodcut (JSTo. 696) is taken from Schmidt’s most valuable work on the
Antiquities of Trèves. The atrium has been added by myself, because
it was an almost universal feature in churches of the date in which this
was erected, and because there is every reason to believe that the
present church occupied as nearly as possible the exact site of the
older one, and is of the same dimensions. The circular church is
restored from the Roman examples of the same age (Woodcuts 227, and
422 to 436). From their relative positions it will be seen how
indispensable the atrium must have been.
This Romanesque church seems to have remained pretty much in its
original state till the beginning of the llth century, when the
Archbishop Poppo found it so ruinous from age, that it required to be
almost entirely rebuilt. He first encased the pillars of the Romans in
masonry, making them into piers. He then took in and roofed over
the atrium, and added an apse at the western end, thus converting it