Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/29

Rh of the two towers, which is so distinguishing a characteristic of German churches. A still bolder example of this gallery remains in the façade of the once famous abbey of Corvey, on the eastern frontier of Westphalia (Woodcut No. 459), 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 Strasburg and in many other examples.



At Gernrode, as at Reichenau, 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 13 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 well 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 down in the 13th century, to make way for the present church of St. Mary, erected on its site, and most probably of the same dimensions. Of the other, or square building, enough still remains