The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine Part 17

With regard to furnis.h.i.+ngs and accessories, this great cathedral is singularly complete.

There is a highly ornate pulpit in sculptured wood which some will consider the peer of any seen elsewhere. It is decorated further by a series of painted wooden statues of the saints, Nicholas, Ambrose, Augustin, Gregory, and Jerome.

There is a fine _custode_ covering a pyx, which is surmounted by a fifteenth-century _baldaquin_, and a tomb of a former canon, ornamented in bas-relief.

There is also a pair of baptismal fonts, enormous in size and said to be contemporaneous with the foundation of the cathedral.

A tomb of Daniel of Mutersbach, a knight who died in 1475, is placed in one of the chapels at the crossing, and near by is a mausoleum to that Conrad who, by virtue of a charter given by Louis in 909, founded the church which preceded the present edifice on this site.

It bears the following inscription in the barbarous Latin of the time:

CLAUDITUR HOC TUMULO PER QUEM NUNC SERVITUS ISTO FIT CELEBRIS TEMPLO, LAUS, VIRTUS, GLORIA CHRISTO.

XIX

COBLENZ AND BOPPART

_Coblenz_

It is an open question as to whether the charming little city of Coblenz is more delightful because of itself, or because of its proximity to the famous fortress of Ehrenbreitstein,--"the broad stone of honour."

"Here Ehrenbreitstein with her shatter'd wall Black with the miner's blast upon her height, Yet shows of what she was, when sh.e.l.l and ball Rebounding idly on her strength did light."

The city occupies a most romantically and historically endowed situation at the junction of the Moselle and the Rhine.

At Coblenz the sons of Charlemagne met to divide their father's empire into France, Germany, and Italy; there also Edward III. in 1338 met the Emperor Louis, and was by him appointed vicar of the empire; and at Coblenz the French raised a monument to commemorate the subjugation of Russia. Soon after the inscription was finished, the Russian commander entered Coblenz in pursuit of Napoleon. With memorable and caustic wit he left the inscription as it stood, just adding, "Vu et approuve par nous, Commandant Russe de la Ville de Coblence, Janvier 1er, 1814." Here also is the monument to the young and gallant General Marceau, killed at the battle of Altenkirchen, 1796.

"By Coblenz, on a rise of gentle ground, There is a small and simple pyramid, Crowning the summit of the verdant mound: Beneath its base are hero's ashes hid."

The Moselle, which joins the Rhine at Coblenz, was, like the Rhine itself, referred to by Caesar.

The pleasant valley of the Moselle--indeed it is one of the _pleasantest_ (which is a vague term, but one easily understood by all) in all Europe--was celebrated by one of the longer poems of Ausonius, who wrote in the fourth century.

For those who would translate the original, his description will not be found inapropos to-day:

"_Qua sublimis apex longo super ardua tractu Et rupes et aprica jugi, flexusque sinusque Vitibus adsurgunt naturalique theatro._"

Vines then, as now, clothed the slopes of the hills and cliffs which sheltered the deep-cut stream.

A Roman governor of Gaul once proposed to unite the Moselle with the Saone (as it is to-day, by means of the Ca.n.a.l de l'Est), and thus effect a waterway across Europe from the North Sea to the Mediterranean.

The church of St. Castor stands on the spot of the famous conference between the sons of Charlemagne. It is one of the most ancient of the Rhine churches, and was founded by Louis the Pious in 836.

Of this early church but little remains to-day except some distinct features to be noted in the choir.

The four towers form a remarkable outline, and two of them, at least as to their lower ranges, are undoubtedly of the eleventh century.

In this church are a series of remarkable decorations, one on the wall above the spring of the nave arches, another above the entrance of the choir aisle, and yet another in the semicircular roofing of the apse.

It may be a question as to how far such decorations are in really good taste, but they certainly lend a warmth and brilliancy to an edifice that might otherwise be cold and unfeeling.

Many are the historic incidents connected with this venerable building.

The notification of the sons of Louis the Pious took place in 870; the reconciliation of Henri IV. of Germany with his sons occurred in 1105; St. Bernard preached the Crusades here before a vast congregation, recruiting for the army for the East over one thousand citizens of Coblenz alone.

Near the church of St. Castor is the house of the Teutonic Order, of fine Gothic design, but to-day turned into a military magazine.

On a hill overlooking the city was the famous Chartreuse convent, the ruins of which are now swallowed up by Forts Constantine and Alexander.

The bridge which crosses the Moselle at this point is in itself a wonderful old relic. It spans the river on fourteen arches, and dates from 1344, save that its watch-tower was built at a later day.

The bridge of boats which crosses the Rhine, on thirty-six pontoons, partakes of the same characteristics as its brother at Mayence, though by no means is it so celebrated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COBLENZ _and Its BRIDGE_]

Above Coblenz the Rhine narrows considerably, and the mountains and hilltops draw in until one's progress, by water, is almost as if it were through a canon.

Niederlahnstein has a fine ruined church in St. John's, whence it is but a short distance to Boppart.

_Boppart_

Boppart was the ancient _Bandobriga_ of the Romans, and, like many another place along the Rhine, is closely linked with the memory of Drusus.

Boppart was made an imperial city, and many Diets were held within its walls.

The Hauptkirche, with its twin-jointed spires, was built about the year 1200.

It is thoroughly Romanesque, if we except the spires which are linked together by a sort of galleried vestibule, after a manner that is neither Romanesque nor anything else.

The inside galleries over the aisles (_mannerch.o.r.e_) are interesting, though by no means a unique feature in Rhine churches.

There is a queer intermixture of pointed and round-headed arches in both the nave and choir, but nothing to indicate that it was anything but a Romanesque influence that inspired the builders of this not very appealing church.

The vestibule which joins the spires, and the most unusual groining of the vaulting of the body of the church, are two features which the expert will linger over and marvel at, but they have not much interest for the lay observer who will prefer to stroll along the river-bank and pick out charming vistas for his camera.

The convent of Marienburg, which rises high on the hillside back of the town, has an ancient history and was a vast foundation to which references are continually met with in history. To-day it is a hydropathic establishment for semi-invalids and devotees of bridge and tea parties.

The Carmelite church contains some richly carved sixteenth-century monuments, now somewhat mutilated, but very beautiful.

The _Templehof_ perpetuates the fact that it was the Knights Templars of Boppart who first mounted the breach at the storming of Ptolemais in the third crusade.

This completes the list of Boppart's ecclesiastical monuments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL VIEW _of BOPPART_]