Identifier: cathedralschurch00mans (find matches)
Title: Cathedrals and churches of the Rhine
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: (Mansfield, Milburg Francisco), 1871- (from old catalog)
Subjects: Cathedrals. (from old catalog)
Publisher: Boston, L. C. Page and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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. Gereons have disap-peared, but there is yet an extensive structureof a more modern date which enfolds the cen-tral pile. The easterly apse is low and rec-tangular, while the fagade of the west isflanked by two Romanesque unspired towers. St. Gereons is one of the most curiouslyconstructed churches of the middle ages. Itwas founded by the Empress Helene in honourof the Theban martyrs, who, to the numberof three hundred and ninety-five, died fortheir faith, with their captains, Gereon andGregory, toward the end of the third century,in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. One enters by a rectangular porch, whereare disposed some fragments of Roman re-mains. The rotunda, or decagon, so reminis-cent of Aix-la-Chapelle, dates from a periodcontemporary therewith, so far as its lowerwalls are concerned, but the upper portionsare of the twelfth century, at least. Below the arches are the chapels which sur-round the decagon in symmetrical fashion.Above is the organ and the adjoining choir 272
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Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine walls. In the latter are walled up innumer-able skulls of the companions of St. Gereon,and in each of the chapels is a great sarcoph-agus, also containing the bones of the martyrs.Altogether the thought which arises is nota pleasant one, no matter how worthy theobject of preserving such a vast quantity ofhuman remains. The high altar is quite isolated, and thepavement of the choir itself, which is aisleless,rises behind it to a height of a dozen or moresteps, — a frequent occurrence in the Rhinechurches. The apse has an insertion of Gothic win-dows, but the eleventh-century Romanesquefeatures are still prominent. In the choir are a series of flamboyantGothic stalls, above which are monumentaltablets let into the wall. At the entrance of the choir are two colossalstatues of the martyred saints, then seven oth-ers, behind which, at the base of the apside,is another altar. The tapestries which surround the choir areof the haut-lisse weaving, and rep

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