Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/103

EoMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE. 73 it had reached its culminating point — are admirable illustrations of its development. Three great German buildings of this epoch, in which we see the flat roof superseded by the vault, are the cathedrals of Mainz, Worms, and Spires. The first was begun in the tenth, and finished in the eleventh century. Little of the original building remains except the eastern apse, with its two round towers. The second — that of Worms — was begun in 996, and finished in 1015, but part of it fell down in 1018, and as it is known to have been subsequently reconsecrated (1110), it is sup- posed that it was entirely rebuilt. The eastern end is all that remains of the building consecrated in 1110. Its chief peculiarity is that the apse is circular inside and square out. The third cathedral — that of Spires — is the largest and finest of the three great rivals. It is a solid, massive building, of a simple grandeur unknown to later times. It has a narthex, or porch — a feature seldom met with in Germany; the nave is 45 feet wide between the piers, and 105 feet high to the centre of the dome. The outside is remarkable for its simple beauty ; it has no ornament but the small windows, and an arcade running under the roofs ; but its massive square towers and rounded dome harmonise admirably together, and present an imposing appearance, rising as they do far above the groups of insignificant houses which form the town. The church of Swartz Rheindorf (Fig. 38), opposite Bonn, on the Rhine, — erected by an Archbishop of Cologne in 1151, — is an excellent example of the style of church building of this time. The church of Limburg, on the Lahn, belongs to the early part of the thirteenth century, and that at