Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/25

Rh in the year 816, and therefore this event took place just before the rebuilding of St. Gall commenced.



453. Elevation of West End of Church at Reichenau. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 452) the dimensions of the two churches are nearly the same; on the St. Gall plan they are written 200 ft. by 80. This church is 230 by 83 English feet, but the eastern apse has been rebuilt on a more extended scale, and if we restore its original circular form, we bring its dimensions so nearly to those of the St. Gall plan, that, if its author used what we now know as French feet, the dimensions of the two maybe considered as identical. The pier-arches of the nave are plain, and the whole arrangement is not unlike that of the nave of Mortier en Der (Woodcut No. 376). One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the Reichenau church is the door behind the altar in the western apse, and the great window looking into it, with double stairs which lead up to it, as though the bishop's throne was placed there above the heads of all. The two principal entrances were, as shown in Woodcut No. 453, on each side of the western apse, and the whole of the elevation—in so far as it is preserved—retains the original design of the 9th century. Although retaining the wooden roof, and never apparently intended to be vaulted, this church is essentially Gothic in all its details. There is not a classical feature about it, and we are rather startled to find the Barbarian style so complete at so early an age, and so far removed from anything that could with propriety be called Romanesque.

There are other churches in this neighborhood scarcely less ancient in date than this one at Reichenau, and almost as interesting