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April 1, 1868.] THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT’S JOURNAL. 101 Architectural Association, that I think it is quite unnecessary for me to say anything more about it, so I shall pass on to Ratisbon. The Cathedral of Ratisbon is one of the most noble churches in Germany, and also one of the largest. Perhaps no church of its size in Europe is so remarkably simple in plan and arrangement; it consists of a short nave and aisles, with five bays only; the western bay is flanked by two square towers. The transepts do not project beyond the walls ot the aisles ; the choir consists of three bays, and a three- sided apse. The aisles of the choir are terminated with three- sided apses, and to the east of them are sacristies. Some idea may be formed of the large scale of the building from the fact that the bays of the nave and choir are 30 feet from centre to centre. The nave is more than 40 feet in the clear and 120 feet high ; the aisles are nearly 30 feet wide, and 65 feet high ; each of the western towers are 42 feet square—so that the aisles are as large as the nave of many of oui - English cathedrals. The building, however, is shoit for such gigantic proportions in other respects. The west front is very im posing, and. reminds one of the facades of the French cathe drals. It is of various dates ; the south tower was begun in 1404, but is in the style of a century earlier; the north tower, which is the same in general arrangement, but totally different in detail, was completed to the height of the nave roof in 1482. The gable of the nave bears the date of 1486. The beautiful and highly original triangular porch, which forms so striking a feature of this front, is a work of the earlier period of the fifteenth century. The sculpture with which it is adorned is uncommonly fine. This front remained unfinished for - nearly 400 years, but is now being completed by the carrying up of the spires; they will reach the height of 400 feet when finished. The effect upon entering the church is strikingly magnificent; the great height and width, the beautiful pro portions, the general harmony of design throughout the whole building, the magnificent old stained glass with which nearly all the windows are filled, and the rich orange colour of the stone, form a combination to be met with in no other German church ; to add to this, all the fittings are ancient, except the high altar, which is a work of the seventeenth century, very inoffensive in design, and entirly of silver, partly gilt. It is difficult to conceive the value of this most costly article of church furniture; but when I state that the altar is more than 20 feet long, is the same in height to the top of the canopy over the throne, and that the silver is nearly a quarter of an inch thick, some notion may be formed of its value. The earliest portions of the Cathedral are the lowest parts of the three eastern apses; they are thirteenth-century work, and were commenced in the year 1275 ; the detail is very in teresting and beautiful; the capitals of the arcade round the apse of the southern aisle is very original in design, and nearly Romanesque in character. The upper portions of these apses are rather later, but very pure and good. The great eastern apse is beautifully designed; it has two tiers of four-light windows, with an open triforium between them, the tracery of which is double. AH these windows are fHled with early stained glass of the most brilliant and magnificent description. I have certainly never seen any glass so rich in colour. The nave and transepts are rather later than the choir, very simple and dignified. The vaulting is good, and early in arrangement, although not constructed until the close of the fourteenth cen tury. The triforium is not pierced over the nave and transepts, but forms a simple passage with an arcade in front of it, as in our English cathedrals. There is a passage through the waHs in front of the aisle windows, below which is a very bold ar cade of trefoil arches, supported upon finely-carved corbels. There is an ancient draw well, with a stone canopy over it, in the south transept; and five of the altars have lofty stone ciboria over them. The ciboria are ornamented with statues under canopies, and are supported upon pillars ; they retain their ancient coloured decorations. There is also a stone pulpit and a tabernacle of the fifteenth century. The church is not rich in monuments; the most remarkable is a small bronze tablet, by P. Vischer, and the large “ cinque-cento ” monument of Car dinal von Wittelsbach, which stands in the centre of the nave, upon an altar tomb of red marble. The Cardinal is represented kneeling before a crucifix, larger than life, and executed in gilt bronze. The cloisters of this Cathedral, which are very exten sive, are not entered from the church, but are quite isolated iu the north-east of the church. They surround an oblong space, and are bisected by a large hall which is vaulted, and entirely covered with ancient monuments of every description. It is difficult to walk over the floor, as every stone is deeply carved with the effigy of a priest or bishop. “ Some of these carved slabs have been let into the walls in an oblique direction, and others stand upright against the walls. The windows of this singular hall are curious specimens of the late third pointed work, with a strange mixture of Italian detail. A small door way on the east side leads into a singular Romanesque chapel, dedicated to All Saints ; it is square at the base, but becomes octagonal above ; internally it is quite devoid of detail, but has been entirely covered with fresco; it has small apses to the north, south, and east. In the last stands the original altar. It consists of a slab of green marble six inches thick, four feet ■wide, and four feet long, supported upon a square pilaster in the centre and four small columns with cushion caps at the angles. Externally this chapel is roofed with a short stone conical spire. A Romanesque doorway at the north end of this hall gives access to another chapel of still earlier date. It consists of a nave about 50 feet by 25 ; the vaulting is quad ripartite without ribs ; on each side are four small semi-circular apses, and there is one of larger dimensions at the east end which contains the original altar, the lower portion of which is perforated with circular openings. The chapel is dedicated to bt. Stephen, and is said to have been the original cathedral; it is evidently very early, and may date from the end of the tenth century.* The walls are covered with plaster both within and without. The sacristy of the Cathedral is well worth seeing, and is full of fine works of Mediajval art. The following arc some of the most interesting :— One processional cross of bronze with figure, of the twelfth century. One processional cross of sflver-gflt, set with real stones, of the fifteenth century. One processional cross, copper-gflt, with imitation stones (no figure), of the fifteenth century. One large altar cross of solid gold, the front adorned with fillagree work and large bosses, figure solid gold, back orna mented with the evangelic symbols in enamel, and the front set with uncut rubies. This is also of the thirteenth century. One altar cross of silver, with figure in “ maiello,” of the fifteenth century. Two small shrines in Limoges work, of the thirteenth cen tury. Three chalices, of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. One crosier, of the fourteenth century. Six large silver altar candlesticks, late in the sixteenth century. Six large silver altar candlesticks, of bad design of the eighteenth century. Nearly touching the Cathedral to the south-east is a very beautiful and interesting little first-pointed church. This re markable building is called the “ Alte Pfarr,” or St. Ulrich’s Church. It is nearly square in plan, about 70 feet by 55 feet. It consists of a nave of six bays, with a deep vaulted gallery projecting over the two first; there are also galleries over the aisles and covering the whole of the eastern bay, except a smaH square space over the altar ; so that above two-thirds of the entire area of the church is covered with galleries. These galleries are supported upon very solid octagon columns, with finely carved caps ; they are vaulted above and below. The arrangement of the western gallery is strikingly picturesque. There is a fine double west doorway, with a rose window over it. At the east end of the south aisle is a large and very solid Romanesque tower. The architecture of this church is so French in appearance, that one would be led to believe that it was the work of some French architect, were it not that there is so much architecture of a very similar character in Ratisbon. Close to this church are two large large and much modernized Romanesque churches—the Neider Munster and St. Mary’s Chapel. The Neider Munster contains three old altars under ciboria, very similar to those in the Cathedral. The frontals of the altar are pierced with tracery, and show recumbent figures under the altar slabs ; it is probable, therefore, that they served the purposes of monuments as well as of altars. There are many other interesting churches in Ratisbon, but time will only allow * In Germany, during the middle ages, rubble work was always covered with plaster, and in many instances brickwork also. 25