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98 THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT’S JOURNAL. [April 1,1868. fore be greater. Still there is nothing that a little energy might not overcome. It is not absolutely necessary that the electrical apparatus should, be the same if the couplings are similar. The guards of these trains would be instructed to stop after receiving a signal only under certain defined con ditions, and at appointed places, unless it was a visible case of fire, or a carriage was off the rails, in which cases, of course, the train would have to be stopped at once at all hazards. An act of Parliament could authorise the railway companies to punish severely any missuse of the signals. So far it would appear we might safely go. It is evident that on our existing lines we cannot do all that would be desirable, but at the same time, the legislature might enforce the application of some means of intercommunication on all express trains. We should not reap all the advantages that such a means of communica tion would afford under more favourable circumstances, but still we should give to those travellers who are most in need of it, a certain amount of extra security, that would check many of the evils which we experience in the working of our great railway system. THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE OE CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN GERMANY.# By H. W. Brewer. Leaving the Rhine at Mayence, and proceeding in an easterly direction, one passes through a very unpicturesque country. The first place of any importance is Darmstadt, which will not long detain the antiquarian or architect; and, in fact, no place of any interest is to be seen until the spires of Aschaffenburg come in sight. Here is a fine large church with a nave and western transepts of very early Romanesque work, said to have been erected in 974. The west end of the church and the transepts are surrounded by a kind of open cloister, and there is also a large cloister surrounding a court on the north side; they are both transitional in character, and consist of narrow semi-circular arches supported upon coupled shafts. The interior of the nave is remarkably plain. The choir, which is very short and square- ended, is good first-pointed work, remarkably French in appear ance. The church contains two fine bronze monuments by Peter Vischer, and a curious kind of “ Baldacchino” supporting a shrine, also of bronze, and probably a work of the earlier part of the sixteenth century. There is a large and rather noble looking palace with five lofty towers, built in a style strongly resembling our Jacobean, and two or three not uninteresting churches, one of which has a very pretty “ first-pointed” spire of stone. Leaving Aschaffenburg, the traveller passes through the beau tiful forest of the Spessart, and following the river Maine, we come first to Gemunden, which is conspicuous on account of the four lofty towers crowned with extinguisher roofs at the angles of the ancient walls which still surround this little town, and the pretty slate spire of the church. The next place worthy of notice is Karlstadt, a most picturesque little town, with walls, lofty towers, and a fine Romanesque church. A few miles further on are the two desecrated abbeys of “ Ober” and “ Unter” Zell, the one converted into a farmhouse and the other into a printing office ; neither are very interesting buildings, though one of them possesses a good late Romanesque gateway. Proceed ing along the river for about a mile, we pass the charmingly situated and pretty little Carmelite convent of “ Himmelspforte” or “Gate of Heaven.” The present building dates from the year 1497 ; portions of the church are earlier. It is an interest ing specimen of a small religious house of that period, and has fortunately escaped modernisation. The whole is in a very good condition, and still inhabited by a small community of nuns. Immediately upon passing the “ Himmelspforte,” Wurz burg comes in sight. I know of no town in Germany except Prague which presents such a charming appearance from a dis tance as Wurzburg. Situated upon both sides of the Maine, which is here pretty broad, on the left bank no less than twenty towers and spires, nine of which seem to be close together in the centre, are seen in a group. On the right bank of the river, upon an escarped rock, rises the castle, a large quad rangular building, with square towers at each corner, and a lofty ♦ Bead before the Royal Institute of British Architects. circular one in the centre. At the foot of the rock are a num ber of gabled houses, with three or four churches, and a pic turesque fourteenth-century bridge connecting this portion of the town with that on the opposite side of the river. The whole forms such a picture of Medieevalism that it is difficult at first to realise the fact that one is not looking at the back-ground of one of Albrecht Durer’s pictures instead of a busy town in the nineteenth century. Upon entering the town and more nar rowly inspecting it, one is disappointed. Whitewash and Munich architects have done much to destroy this picturesque city. The buildings erected in what is called “ the Munich style,” are simply detestable. In addition to this most of the churches have suffered terribly from seventeenth and eighteenth century modernisations. The cathedral has been a fine Ro manesque church of grand dimensions, nearly 400 feet long, with deep transepts and four spires, two at the west end, and two at the angles of the choir and transepts. The last-named towers or spires are very remarkable, as they are the loftiest Romanesque towers in Germany. They rise square from the ground to the height of the transept walls, and are then “broached” into an octagon. Square pierced buttresses are carried up two stories higher, and then there are two more stories simply octagon. These terminate with gables to each of the eight sides, and a short slate spire. The sides of the octa gonal portions of the towers are pierced with numerous windows. The whole is built in alternate courses of red and white stone, a mode of construction very uncommon in Germany. Internally this great church has been so modernised as to retain scarcely a single feature of its original architecture ; it contains, however, a fine series of monuments of the ancient prince bishops who ruled Wurzberg for 800 years and more. These monuments are placed in upright positions against the piers of the nave. They consist of boldly-carved effigies standing under canopies ; each effigy represents a bishop holding a crosier in his left hand and a sword in his right; the earliest dates from the eleventh century. Those of Bishops Scherenberg and Von Bibra are the work of Tilman Riemenschneider, a native of Wurzburg; the date of the former is 1495, of the latter 1512 ; both are of red marble, and are amongst the finest works of the period in Ger many. There is a remarkable bronze font, bearing the date 1275, and curious cloisters with windows filled with clumsy per pendicular tracery. Close to the cathedral stands the church of St. Killian, or the “Neu Munster,” celebrated as the burial place of Walter von Vogelweide, and the scene of Longfellow’s poem “ Minniesanger.” It is a very late Romanesque building, terribly modernised, but still retaining a very pretty octagonal tower, like those of the cathedral, built in alternate courses of red and white stone, and an apse with some remarkably classical- looking detail; the probable date of this portion of the church is not earlier than 1230 or 1240. The church contains two fine pictures by Lucas Cranach, some very early stall-work, probably coeval with the building, and a pair of noble elevation candle sticks bearing the date 1540. The “ Marien Kapelle,” in the Market-place, is a good example of German second-pointed work, very rich and rather graceful. On one of the buttresses is an inscription recording the com mencement of the building of the church in the year 1377. This church is exceedingly rich in sculpture ; the three doorways, the buttresses, and internally the columns are filled and surrounded with fine statues of saints ; they are all the work of Tilman Riemenschneider, and are far less mannered than most German sculpture of the period. On the opposite side of the river is the church of St. Burkard, and its nave erected between 1033 and 1042, of most singular Romanesque work ; the columns have a decided “ entasis,” and very classical-looking bases. The two late Romanesque stone spires of this church are very remarkable, and show a singular and very early use of the crochet. There are some fine stalls, and an old fifteenth-century altar with a large triptych reredos. The “ Deutsch Haus ” church is a charming specimen of fourteenth-century work, with a very beautiful doorway. In the castle is a circular church, which is probably a work of the tenth or eleventh century; the floor is entirely covered with effigies of bishops and priests ; they are all of a late date, and not particularly interesting. In the sacristy is a fifteenth-century reliquary of fine workmanship. The neighbourhood of Wurzburg abounds in interesting little towns. Ascending the Maine from Wiirsburg for about two miles we come to Heidingsfeldt, which possesses a large church, consisting of an early Romanesque nave and tower,