Part 1 (1/2)
Historical Sketch of the Cathedral of Strasburg.
by Anonymous.
I. HISTORY
Among the wonderful monuments to which the religious art of the middle ages has given rise and which will for ever excite the admiration of men, the church of _Notre-Dame_ or Cathedral of Strasburg occupies one of the first ranks. By its dimensions, the richness of the ornaments and figures that adorn its exterior, by the majesty of its nave, and by its light steeple, which towers towards Heaven with as much grace as boldness, this house of G.o.d proclaims afar its destination and leaves a deep and indelible impression on the soul of any one who gazes on it.
Exhibiting in all its different parts models of every epoch of christian architecture, this Cathedral is for the artist a subject of serious study and for the inhabitant of Strasburg a venerable monument, which recalls to his mind the princ.i.p.al events of the ancient history of our city.
According to some old traditions, the Cathedral is built on a spot, which, from the remotest times, had been devoted to wors.h.i.+p. Originally this spot formed a hill sloping westward into a cavity, which was filled up many centuries ago. Around it, the Celts, the first inhabitants of our country, built their huts: its summit was covered by the sacred wood, in the midst of which rose the druidical _dolmen_. It was there that those barbarians offered sacrifices to Esus, their G.o.d of war, sacrifices which, in times of public calamity, were human victims.
After the conquest of Gaul by the Romans, a regular and fortified town was very soon founded on the place hitherto occupied by the scattered habitations of the Celts. The old name of _Argentorat_ was alone preserved; it signified a town where the river is crossed over. It was there, according to tradition, that a temple dedicated to Hercules and Mars succeeded the druidical forest.
There is nothing unlikely in these traditions; the high ground on which the Cathedral stands speaks as much in their favour as the pagan statues found in the neighbourhood[1].
[1] A bra.s.s statue of Hercules, called _Krutzmann_, was found among the christian statues that decorated the Cathedral; it was taken down in 1525 and is no longer extant. A Hercules of stone, found no doubt when digging the foundations, is yet seen in a niche of the northward tower, where it juts out into the nave. A small stone figure of Mars, coming also from the Cathedral, was preserved in the town-library, but it appeared to be modern.
With respect to the first erection of a christian church in this place, history is dest.i.tute of authentic facts. Some old chronicles report that about the middle of the fourth century, saint Amand built a church on the ruins of a Roman temple, but the existence of this supposed first bishop of Strasburg is even very doubtful. During the first years of the fifth century, the invasion of barbarians filled the provinces of Gaul with terror and devastation; the German tribes that crossed the Rhine plundered the Roman city of Argentorat and its temples. n.o.body knows whether from that time new inhabitants settled in the midst of these ruins, or whether they served but as temporary abodes to the hordes successively coming into Gaul.
It was only after the conquest of that extensive country by the Franks that, about 510, Clovis had a church built at Argentorat, no doubt on the spot where the Cathedral now stands. The architecture of that church was as coa.r.s.e and barbarous as the spirit of those times; it was built of wood and supported by earthen walls, extending from East to West; on this latter end was the front-gate and before it a portico; besides the princ.i.p.al nave it had two aisles; the western side opening into a yard that served as a pa.s.sage to the priest's house.
In proportion as the town, the name of which was by the Franks changed into Strasburg, increased in importance and population, the Merovegian kings granted greater favours to the church founded by one of their predecessors. The valuable donations they bestowed on the bishopric of Strasburg, enabled the inhabitants to embellish and enlarge the Cathedral. In 675 Dagobert II granted to bishop Arbogast the town of Ruffach with the castle of Isenburg and a vaste domain that he freed from tax and royal jurisdiction and which on that account was called superior _Mundat_. A no less important gift was that from Count Rudhart, who made over to the church of Strasburg, in 748, Ettenheim with several neighbouring villages on the right bank of the Rhine.
Many other eminent personages of this country increased successively by their liberality the wealth of the episcopal see.
A great advantage was granted by Charlemain in 775, which was to exempt the subjects of the bishopric from all tolls and taxes imposed upon the traders travelling through the empire. At that time considerable sums had already been employed to adorn the interior of the Cathedral. In the year 826, the abbot Ermold the Black, living in exile at Strasburg, speaks with enthusiasm of the _beautiful temple of the Virgin_ and of the other altars that decorate it. This ecclesiastic, with great ardour changed the metal of the antique statues he could yet find into sacred vases; a bronze Hercules, two cubits high, alone escaped the pursuit of his pious zeal; after preserving it several centuries in the Cathedral, it was at last sold, and is now at Issy near Paris.
A fire, which in 873 destroyed a portion of the church and all its archives, occasioned, no doubt, important repairs, and this event was the cause of a new royal confirmation of all the possessions of the church. In 1002 it was plundered, profaned and set on fire by the soldiers of Hermann, duke of Suabia and Alsacia, who was then contending with Henry of Bavaria for the imperial crown, Strasburg and its bishop Wernher having declared for the latter. Subdued by Henry II, Hermann was compelled to repair the damage caused to the church by placing at bishop Wernher's disposal the income of the abbey of Saint-Stephen of which he was the patron. With these funds, which the bishop increased by means of a new levy of taxes and by indulgences, he was preparing to restore his Cathedral, when in 1007 a thunderbolt achieved its destruction.
He then formed the project of rebuilding the church on a plan of much larger dimensions and after the style of architecture that was then making its first appearance. The revenues of the bishopric, contributions furnished by the clergy of Alsacia and large sums of money granted by the head of the empire, afforded Wernher the necessary resources for the execution of his plan.
This was examined and discussed in the presence of several master-architects whom he had sent for. The plan once fixed upon, stones were brought from the fine quarries of free-stone in the Kronthal. The peasants and bondsmen of the country brought them to the town where they were cut in the square then called _Frohnhof_, between the Cathedral and the present palace. It was during these labours that in 1042 the emperor Henry II came to Strasburg; the dignified and austere deportment of the clergy of the high chapter, the tranquillity prevailing under the roof of the episcopal church, made such an impression on this prince, that he for a moment resolved to resign the crown and solicit his admittance among the canons of the Cathedral. The bishop appeared at first to accede to this wish; but it was only to prescribe to Henry, henceforth his subordinate, to resume the imperial authority which Providence had bestowed on him; the emperor acquiesced and perpetuated the remembrance of his pious wish by the foundation of a royal prebend.
When, in 1015, a sufficient quant.i.ty of materials was collected, they set to work by digging the ground. At the depth of more than five fathoms they drove down stakes, filled the s.p.a.ce between them with clay mixed with lime, fragments of bricks and coal; and on this solid base were laid the foundation stones.
Tradition gives an account of a hundred and even two hundred thousand men being employed in the construction of this church, which work, thanks to the religious enthusiasm of that epoch and the labours performed by va.s.sals and workmen _for the salvation of their souls_, advanced very rapidly.
In the year 1027 bishop Wernher set out for Constantinople, and never returned to his native land. From that time we have but imperfect and uncertain accounts touching the progress of the building. All we know is, that in 1028 they had built up to the roof. It seems likely from that account that this monument, built in the byzantine style, at once so elegant and so simple, was soon after completed by the erection of a tower, and that it remained in the same state till, owing to sundry circ.u.mstances and, perhaps, to bad construction, it began to need important repair. It is impossible to determine the time when repairing the church took place; however, this happened probably not before the middle of the thirteenth century and in the then new style, since called the Gothic order. This opinion is confirmed by the ancient seal of our city, which likely enough and according to the custom of those times, represents the front of the Cathedral.
That it had a tower in 1130 is a certain fact; for K[oe]nigscoven speaks of its destruction by fire in the course of that year; successive fires, in 1140, 1150, 1176 also materially injured the beautiful edifice; besides, the continual wars and tumultuous commotions of the time prevented the bishops from undertaking essential repairs. It appears that these causes, by degrees, brought on the complete ruin of bishop Wernher's constructions; for unquestionably the part included between the nave and the two towers dates but from the thirteenth century, and cannot have been begun before the middle of it. What remained of the old church was pulled down at that time and a new and more s.p.a.cious edifice was erected, built in the style then spreading over all Europe. Considering the immense size of this monument, it is easy to imagine that the work went on but slowly, and an old chronicle mentions that on the 7th September 1275 they finished the middle part of the superior arch-roofs, with the exception of the towers in front. By whom these labours were directed is altogether unknown.
It was bishop Conrad of Lichtenberg who undertook to rebuild the parts that were still in a state of ruin and thus at last to accomplish this great work of the Cathedral[1].
[1] ... _Ipsa ecclesia in meliorum statuum reedificetur_ ...
(See a charter of bishop Conrad of Lichtenberg, published by M.
L. s.p.a.cE 1841, p. 6).
In order to execute this design, he published indulgences all over the country; and after collecting large sums of money in the town, he applied to the ecclesiastics of his diocese, asking their own gifts and offerings as well as those of the faithful under their direction; in a synod held in the diocese, the clergy agreed to give up, during four years, a fourth part of their revenues. Conrad entrusted the direction of this work to Master Erwin of Steinbach, who, according to some old doc.u.ments, was a native of Mayence. This great architect began by rebuilding the nave, the arch-roofs of which were completed in 1275. Then he commenced the facade of the church and its towers from a plan so bold and sublime that the conception of it places Erwin for ever at the head of the architects of the middle age[1]. In 1276 they laid the foundation of the northern tower; to consecrate the spot, the bishop walked solemnly round it, then took a trowel in his hand and thrust it into the ground, as a sign for beginning the work. They relate that a quarrel having occured between two workmen who both wished to work with the trowel the bishop had held in his hand, one of them was killed. This murder was considered as a very bad omen; Conrad ordered their labour to be suspended for nine days; they were only resumed after he had consecrated the place anew. The following year, on saint Urban's day (25th May), Conrad himself laid the first stone of the tower.
In the midst of his warfares, this bishop always entertained much affection for his Cathedral, as he beheld the gradual rising of this _glorious work_, as an old inscription terms it[2]; in his heartfelt joy he used to compare it to the flowers of May that bloom in the sun[3]. To the very end of his life Conrad of Lichtenberg neglected nothing to urge on the progress of his work of predilection; after his death, in 1299, he received in it a sepulchre worthy of him; his statue is still to be seen in saint John's chapel. Yet, during the life of Conrad, the Cathedral was shaken by several earthquakes in 1279, 1289, 1291; that of 1289 was so violent that the columns in the interior of the building threatened for a moment to fall down. But a very favourable circ.u.mstance happened in 1292, which was the surrender of the _[OE]uvre-Notre-Dame_ to the magistrate of the city, who was henceforth charged with the management of the revenues allotted to the keeping in repair of the Church and consequently also to the completion of it. A few years after, in 1298, a new misfortune happened to the Cathedral. A fire, caused by the imprudence of a cavalier of Albert I, during the sojourn of that prince at Strasburg, consumed all the timberwork and threatened even the pillars and walls. However the damage was promptly repaired. In 1302 a b.l.o.o.d.y conflict between two citizens of the town, which took place in the very chancel of the church, required again a new consecration of it.
[1] They still preserve in the records of the convent of the _[OE]uvre Notre-Dame_ several old drawings on parchment of the facade and towers; these curious designs belong to different epochs; according to the opinion of the _connaisseurs_, the oldest would most likely be that of Erwin himself.