The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine Part 29

x.x.x

ESSEN AND DORTMUND

_Essen_

Lying just to the eastward of the Rhine are Essen and Dortmund.

The former was once the site of a powerful abbey of Benedictine nuns, which was dissolved in 1803. The abbess of Essen was always a t.i.tled person, and was a member of the Westphalian circle of the Imperial Estates, in which capacity she held a governing right over a large tract of country immediately surrounding the abbey.

There are the spires of five churches hidden away in the forest of chimneys of the manufactories of Essen which rise skyward from the Rhineland plain. It is not a very beautiful picture that one sees from across the railway viaduct, but a remarkable one, and one that has undeniable elements of the picturesque.

The cathedral at Essen is a conglomerate group of buildings of many epochs. The church proper consists of a three-aisled nave, with the usual choir appendage in what must pa.s.s for acceptable Gothic.

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

There are Romanesque features which date back as far as 874, when the original edifice was built by Bishop Alfred of Hildesheim. The crypt, the transept, and possibly a part of the choir foundation, are of the eleventh century, and are of Romanesque motive; but the Gothic fabric superimposes itself upon these early works in the style in vogue in the fourteenth century.

There are evidences of a central octagon, like that at Aix-la-Chapelle, and St. Gereon's at Cologne, but the fourteenth-century rebuilding has practically covered this up, though three of the original faces are left, and bear aloft a series of tall Corinthian columns.

The nave, for some reason, inexplicable on first sight, is low and unimpressive, caused doubtless by the grandeur of the supporting pillars of the roof and the shallowness of the groining above.

The pillars are single cylinders with curiously plain capitals.

The choir rises a few steps above the nave pavement, in order to give height to the crypt ambulatory, as is frequently the custom in German churches.

The windows of the south aisle are good in their design and gla.s.s, which, though modern, reflects the Gothic mediaeval spirit far better than is usual.

There is an elevated gallery along the aisle walls, which forms a sort of tribune or _mannerch.o.r.e_. In one of the recesses beneath the gallery is a highly coloured sculpture group of an "Entombment."

The easterly portion of the cathedral is by far the most pleasing, and partakes of the best Gothic features, and indeed is far superior to the nave. The supporting columns of the vaulting have foliaged capitals, while the vaulting itself is even more elaborate.

The aisles, as they approach the choir, are rectangular-ended, and extend quite to the end of the choir termination, showing a very singular cross-section of this portion of the church.

The screen is a modern stone work after the Gothic manner. It sits beneath a not unbeautiful Gothic window, rather richly traceried with four lights. The gla.s.s of this window is modern, but, like that in the nave aisles, is excellent.

The crypt is entered from the south transept, and also from the nave by an entrance which pa.s.ses between the steps which rise to the choir pavement.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

There is an elaborate seven-branched candlestick at the juncture of the nave and choir, modelled on one known to have existed in the Temple at Jerusalem. It is of the conventional form, but is a rare piece of church furniture in that it dates from 1003, when it was presented by the Abbess Matilda, sister of the Emperor Otho II. Since it stands six or eight feet in height, this candlestick is a notable and conspicuous object.

Before the steps leading to the crypt is the tomb of Bishop Alfred of Hildesheim. The crypt is all that a crypt should be,--a dim-lighted, solemn chamber of five aisles, the pavement of the church above being supported on stubby square pillars. It is used also for devotional purposes, the altar at the easterly end of the central aisle bearing the inscription, "_Heilige Maria, Trosterin der Betrubten, bitt fur uns_."

The cloisters of this interesting edifice are, in part, of the primitive style of early Gothic, while the southern and western sides are an approach to the full-blown Gothic of a later epoch, with foliaged capitals.

_Dortmund_

Dortmund is the largest town of the province of Westphalia, and possesses four mediaeval churches of more than usual interest.

St. Reinhold's is the chief, and is a cruciform edifice of more than ordinary proportions. It is a picturesque melange of many parts. Its western tower is of no style in particular, and is hideous, but most curious considering its environment. The nave and transepts are supposedly of the thirteenth century, but they are certainly not good Gothic as we know it elsewhere.

The choir is of the early fifteenth century, and is much more gracefully conceived than is any other portion of this nondescript edifice.

The transepts are square boxlike protuberances, which link the choir with the nave in most unappealing fashion.

In the interior the most astonishing features are the low truncated nave of three bays, the grimness of the walls of the entire fabric,--excepting the well-lighted and aspiring choir,--and the straight-backed pews.

The clerestory windows of the nave are semicircular, but the aisles are lighted by Gothic openings.

There are two altars, one at the choir entrance and the other in the apse, each surmounted by a triptych.

The windows of the choir-apse, tall, ample, and of admirable framing, are the chief glory of this not very beautiful, though interesting, church.

St. Mary's is a late twelfth-century Romanesque structure, without transepts, but possessed of a towering apsidal choir.

The nave is an attenuated affair with no triforium, leaving a vast blank wall s.p.a.ce, as though it were intended to have been decorated.

Dortmund's "Pfarr Kirche" was a former Dominican foundation. Its general proportions are far greater than those of any other of the city's churches. The nave is ample, and the great choir of four bays, with s.p.a.cious, lofty windows, is of the same generous proportions.

The church dates only from the mid-fourteenth century, and its three-bayed nave is even later. The aisles of the nave are curious in that they are not of similar dimensions. That on the street side is separated from the nave proper by square piers, with a slender shaft running to the vaulting. The other aisle is more ample, and has its arched openings to the nave composed of four shafts superimposed upon a central cylinder.

The nave lighting is amply provided for by a series of four light windows, bare, however, of any gla.s.s worthy of remark.

The south wall, which has no windows, has two large frescoes, a "Descent of the Holy Ghost" and an "a.s.sumption." There is also a series of paintings by two native artists, Heinrich and Victor Dunwege.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

x.x.xI

EMMERICH, CLeVES, AND XANTEN

_Emmerich and Cleves_

Just below Emmerich, which is the last of the German Rhenish cities, the Rhine divides itself, and, branching to the north, takes the Dutch name of Oud Rijn, which name, with the variation Neder Rijn, it retains until it reaches the sea. The branch to the west takes the name of the Waal and pa.s.ses on through Nymegen, bounding Brabant on the north, and enters the sea beyond Dordrecht.

Emmerich has, in its church of St. Martin, a tenth-century church of no great architectural worth, but charming to contemplate, nevertheless.

Four kilometres away is Cleves, which, under the Romans, was known as Clivia and attained considerable prominence and prosperity. The Normans sacked it in the ninth century, but it was shortly rebuilt, and became the chief town of the County, afterward the Duchy, of Cleves.

Under the Empire the city belonged to France. The town's princ.i.p.al church is quite attractive, but, beyond the distinction which it has in its twin spires, terminating a singularly long line of roof-top of nave and choir, there are no architectural features of note.