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 GOTHIC STYLE IN CRACOW ART In the above account of the Gothic churches the features they have in common have already been dwelt upon; a few general remarks only need, therefore, be added here. The bays of the vaultings are peculiarly broad, the proportion of the breadth of the compartment to the width of the middle aisle being 2:3, nay even 3:4, in some cases. The considerable height of the interior gives to the whole a tall and imposing aspect. As for the pillars, it is in the Cathedral only that they are richly carved: everywhere else they are quite plain, and it is only above the arcades that a richer moulding begins. As regards the outward side, the brick buttresses, projecting very far, terminate either in tabernacle-like structures of stone (with which,

however, they are not organically connected) or in mere bevel weatherings. Flying-buttresses do not appear. All these characteristics combine to give to the Cracow School of Gothic Art in its first period a certain originality, something of a local colouring.

Besides the great churches, numerous smaller chapels were built at Cracow at this time. Just behind the choir of St. Mary's Church the building of St. Barbara's was begun in 1394. A legend, known in other cities also, tells us how the masons occupied in the larger building employed their leisure hours in gratuitously erecting, in the then churchyard round St. Mary's,