Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/316

 GERMAN ROMANESQUE. " Both the Castell and the Toure And eke the hall and every boure Without peeces or joynings, But many subtle compassings As babeuries and pinnacles Imageries and tabernacles I saw, and eke full of windows As flakes fallen in great snowes." — Chaucer. I. INFLUENCES. i. Geographical. — On the banks of the Rhine, and in the south, cities have been established during the Roinan occupation, and it was in these parts that Christianity took root, while, in the north and east, paganism still existed. ii. Geological. — The existence of stone in the Rhine valley facilitated the erection in this material of churches, rendered permanent and fireproof by the early introduction of vaulting. No stone being found on the sandy plains of Northern Germany, brick was there employed, and the style of that district is conse- quently varied from that of the Rhine valley. iii. Climate. — The average temperature of Central Germany may be said to be the same as Southern England, but with wider extremes, as the heat in the summer is ten degrees higher, and in the winter correspondingly lower, so that carriages in Berlin are converted into sledges. iv. Religion. — In the early period the Germans looked much to Rome, and Charlemagne, being a strong supporter of Chris- tianity, forced the people of Saxony to embrace that religion. The plan of a typical church of this period is peculiar in having eastern and western apses. There are also a number of impor- tant circular churches, built as tombs, or more especially as baptisteries, the conversion of the tribes giving great importance to that ceremony. V. Social and Political. — Germany united under Charle- magne afterwards split up into small principalities, whereas France, originally dixided into many distinct nationalities, became fused into an absolute monarchy and has remained, in