Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/48

32 32 KIIENISH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. and the Scotch cliurch at Ratisbon is one of the best specimens in Germany of a simple basilica Avithout transepts or towers. Its principal entrance is a bold and elegant piece of design, covered with grotesque figures whose meaning it is diflBcult to understand. Had it been placed at the end of the church, it might have formed the basis of a magnificent facade ; but stuck unsymmetrically on one side — as is so usual in Germany — it loses half its effect, and can only be considered as a detached piece of ornamentation, which is here — as it generally is — 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 these the typical example is the church of ISclnvartz Rheindorf,^ dedi- cated in the year 1151. It is in itself a pleasing speci- men of the style, irrespective of its peculiarity. It is, liow- ever, simply a church in two stories. At first sight, the lower one looks like an ex- tensive crypt, but this does 4><3. Section of Church of Schwartz UheiiRlorf. Scale 50 Ijt. to 1 in. not seem to have been its ])urpose so much as to afford an increase of accommodation, to eiuible 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 suflicient 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 story seems to have been occupied by the noblesse, the lower by their retainers, which makes the arrangement intelligible enough. The church at Schwartz Rheindorf is not large, being only 112 ft. long, over all, by 53 ft. wide across the transepts ; and the tM-o western bays appear to have been added afterwards. The walls of the lower story 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 oi'iginal a design as can well be found of the purely German style of its age. 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 1 "Die Doppelkirche zu S. R. D.," by Andreas Simons. Bonn, 1846.