The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine Part 20

In the year 1227 when St. Gereon's at Cologne, one of the earliest examples of ogival vaulting in Germany, was just finished, there was commenced the church of Notre Dame at Treves. It was the first church edifice in Germany to consistently carry out the Gothic motive from the foundation stones upward.

For fifty years the well-defined Gothic had been knocking at the gateway which led from France into Germany, and at last it was to enter at a period when the cathedrals at Soissons and Laon had already established themselves as well-nigh perfect examples of the new style.

The first foundation stone was laid in 1227, and the work was completed in less than twenty years. The general plan is grandiose and it has a central cupola--replacing a tower which was in danger of subsiding--held aloft by twelve hardy columns, on which are ranged in symmetrical order statues of the apostles.

The plan is unusual and resembles no Gothic structure elsewhere, hence may be considered as a type standing by itself.

The exterior shows little or nothing of the highly developed Gothic which awaits one when viewing the interior. There are no flying b.u.t.tresses, the walls seemingly supporting themselves, and yet they are not clumsy. The piers of the chapel somewhat perform the functions of b.u.t.tresses, and that perhaps makes possible the unusual arrangement.

The church of St. Gangolphe, on the market-place, has a singularly beautiful and very lofty tower, which gives to whoever has the courage to make its rather perilous ascent one of the most charming prospects of the valley of the Moselle possible to imagine.

The chief of Treves's other churches are: the church of the Jesuits, since ceded to the Protestants; St. Gervais, which has a tomb to Bishop Hontheim, a most learned man and a great benefactor of Treves in days gone by; St. Antoine; and St. Paul.

The country around Treves, on the Moselle,--the famous Treves Circle,--ranks high as a wine-growing region, though your true German wine-drinker calls all Moselle wine "_Unnosel Wein_."

These wines of the Moselle are, to be sure, secondary to those of the vineyards of the Rhine and the Main, but the varieties are very numerous.

A Dutch burgomaster once bought of the Abbey of Maximinus--a famous wine-growing establishment as well as a religious community--a variety known as Gruenhauser, in 1793, for eleven hundred and forty-four florins a vat of something less than three hundred gallons. It was known as the nectar of Moselle, and "made men cheerful, and did good the next day, leaving the bosom and head without disorder." Such was the old-time monkish estimate and endors.e.m.e.nt of its virtues.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

XXIII

BONN

Bonn in the popular mind is noteworthy chiefly for its famous university, and for being the birthplace of Beethoven.

The city was one of the fifty fortresses built by Drusus on the Rhine, and the only Rhenish city, with the exception of Cologne, which has kept its Roman appellation. It is mentioned by Tacitus both as _Bonna_ and _Bonensia castra_.

The cathedral is as famous as the university. It was funded by the mother of Constantine the Great, who, according to tradition, consecrated the primitive church here in 319.

Really, it is not a very stupendous pile, the present cathedral, but it looks far more imposing than it really is by reason of its ma.s.sive central tower and steeple.

It is one of the most ancient and most remarkable of the cathedrals on the banks of the Rhine.

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

The effect of its five towers is that of a great pyramid rising skyward from a broad base.

In the main, it is a construction of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but it is known beyond doubt that the choir and the crypt were built in 1157. To-day there are visible no traces of even the foundations of the primitive church.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

There are two polygonal apsides, more noticeable from without than within.

The main portal, or the most elaborate at least, is that of the north facade.

The interior is not as sombre and sad as is often the case with a very early church. To enter, one ascends eight steps to the pavement, when the rather shallow vista of the nave and choir opens out broadly.

There are a series of white marble statues representing the birth and baptism of Christ, and some paintings of notable merit, including an "Adoration."

In the crypt, already mentioned, are the bones of the martyrs, Ca.s.sius, Florentinus, and Malusius.

The chief interest of the interior, outside of the constructive elements of the fabric, centres in a great statue of St. Helene in bronze, which is placed in the middle of the grand nave. It is a fine monument, and was cast in the seventeenth century as a somewhat tardy recognition of the founder of the church at Bonn.

At the western extremity of the nave is the Gothic tomb of Archbishop Englebert, and another of Archbishop Robert.

The choir is somewhat raised above the pavement of the nave, being placed upon the vaulting of the crypt. The walls of the choir are hung with gilded Cordovan leather, which is certainly rich and beautiful, though it has been criticized as being more suitable to a boudoir than a great church.

At the foot of the choir, to the right, is a tabernacle, a feature frequently met with in German churches. It is of Renaissance design and workmans.h.i.+p, and is ungainly and not in the best of taste.

Behind the great pillars of the choir are found, back to back, two imposing altars, to which access is had by mounting a dozen more steps, far above the pavement of the nave. They are most peculiarly disposed, and are again a Renaissance interpolation which might well have been omitted.

In this dimly lighted cathedral, as well as in many other churches of Germany, you may at times hear that hymn known as "Ratisbon," the words of which begin:

"_Jesus meine Zuversicht Lebt, und ich soll mit ihm leben._"

There is a legend--or it may be a true tale--connecting these verses with a German soldier who died at the fateful battle of Jena.

Fleeing from the French, he had fallen into the waters of the Saale.

Recovering himself, he crawled out, only to find his pursuers on the bank, their firearms levelled at his head. His first thought was to thank G.o.d for his safety from the flood, and, kneeling, he played upon his bugle the familiar air to which the hymn, "_Jesus meine Zuversicht_," is sung. Deeply moved, his pursuers dropped their guns, but, just as the last notes of the tune were dying away, another detachment came up, and one of its members fired a shot which ended the life of the devout Prussian.

There is heard here also a legend, of the time of the Crusades, concerning the Siebengebergen,--the Seven Mountains,--which lie just back of Bonn.

Stimulated by religious fervour, the overlord of a castle perched upon one of the Seven Mountains, enlisted in the army of the Crusaders, and fought gallantly in the very forefront of those who sought to plant the Cross upon the walls of the Holy City. After a prolonged absence, he returned to find that a rival had won the love of his lady, who, to escape his wrath, had fled to a convent.

The usurper of affections escaped, but the injured husband met near G.o.desberg, in his old age, a youth in whom he thought he recognized the likeness of his wife. Questioning the boy, he visited the sin of the mother upon the child, and slew him on the highroad, on the spot where the Hoch Kreuz now stands,--a monument which tradition says was erected to warn weak wives and faithless friends.

Drachenfels, whose fame to English ears has mostly been made by Byron's verses, lies not far south of Bonn. Byron's "peasant girls with deep blue eyes" are mostly engaged in husbandry to-day, instead of poetically and leisurely gathering "early flowers."

"The castled crag of Drachenfels Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine,"

and is still one of the tourist sights of the Rhine, and as such it must be accorded its place.

Bonn was formerly the residence of the Electors of Cologne, after their removal from that city in 1268, at which time it was also the shelter of Archbishop Englebert, who had fled from Cologne.

XXIV

G.o.dESBERG AND ROLANDSECK

_G.o.desberg_