Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/54

38 CmCULAR CHURCHES. Part II. As will be seen from tiie annexed plan, the church is externally a polygon of sixteen sides, and is about 105 ft. in diameter ; internally, eight compound piers support a dome 47 ft. 6 in. in diameter. The height is almost exactly equal to the external diameter of the building. Internally this height is divided into four stories ; the two lower, running: over the side-aisles, are covered with bold intersecting vaults. The third gallery, like the triforium of more modern churches, is open to the roof, and above that are eight Avindows giving light to the central dome. To the west was a bold tower-like build- ing, flanked, as is usual in this style, by two circular towers containing staircases. To the east was a semicircular niche con- taining the altar, which Avas removed in 1353, when the present choir was built to 489. Plan of the Cliuich at Aix- re})lace it. la-Chapelle. (From J. von Nol- ^ . . ten.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. There IS a tradition that Otlio 111. re- built this minster, though it is more prob- able that he built for himself a tomb-house behind the altar of that of his illustrious predecessor, where his bones were laid, and where his tomb till lately stood at the spot marked X in the centre of the new choir. What the architect seems to have done in the 14th century was to throw the two buildings into one, retaining the outline of Otho's tomb-house, which may still be detected in the unusual form shown in the plan of the new building. The tradition is that this building is a copy of the church of San Vitale at Ravenna, and on comparing its plan with that repre- sented in Woodcut No. 301, it must be admitted that there is a con- siderable resemblance. But there is a bold originality in the Ger- man edifice, and a purpose in its design, that would lead us rather to consider it as one of a long series of similar buildings which there is every reason to believe existed in Germany in that age. At the same time the design of this one was no doubt considerably influenced by the knowledge of the Italian examples of its class which its builders had acquired at Rome and Ravenna. Its being designed by its founder for his tomb is quite sufticient to account for its circular plan — that, as has been frequently remarked, being the form always adopted for this purpose. It may be considered to have been also a baptistery — the coronation of kings in those days being regarded as a re-baptism on the entrance of the king upon a new sphere of life. It was in fact a ceremonial church, as distinct in its uses as in its form