Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/189

 ARCHITECTURE 177 God, architects endeavoured to serve the cause of public good and freedom, and one result was the erec- tion of those wondrous towers, portcullises, and fort- alices, wonders of strength, for the destruction of which modern mechanical appliances have scarcely proved adequate. They built halls of justice, arsenals, assembly-halls, and guildhalls for social gatherings. The city towers and gates were often built by the most eminent architects. While the different towns vied with each other in raising structures to the honour and glory of the Lord of heaven and earth, care was also taken to have public buildings which would be testi- monials to posterity of the power, prosperity, and culture of this period. It was not only in times of peace, but often amid the clash of arms, that these monuments grew up. 1 Germany was equally well supplied with sacred and with secular buildings. The houses of the nobles and well-to-do citizens, with their high-reaching gables, their artistic and appropriate windows, cornices, and innumerable projections, as well as the plain wooden cottages of the peasants, were all alike witnesses to the love of the beautiful which was so common amoner the people of the fifteenth century. In order to form an idea of the architectural dis- tinction of Germany in former times we recommend the study of Merian's illustrations to Zeiler's ' Topo- graphy.' 1 Justus Moser says : ' It must be acknowledged that in former times houses were not as well lighted, but this may be in some measure accounted for by the necessity then existing of fortifying cities. See Reichensperger, Christ, germanische Bauhunst, pp. 20, 30, 32, 37. VOL. I. N