Part 20 (1/2)

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.