Identifier: cathedralschurch01mans (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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in church-building inItaly was as great as his desire of conquest. The church at Aix-la-Chapelle was franklydesigned as the tomb of Charlemagne, andthat perhaps accounts for the combining ofthe rotunda of a ceremonial edifice with thatof a basilica intended solely for worship. Partof it was undoubtedly the work of the Coma-cine builders whom Charlemagne broughtfrom Italy, and part is nothing more than animportation or adaptation of classical andByzantine adornments. Charlemagnes architects studied geographyand climate well when they erected this linkbetween the Romanesque-Lombardic style ofthe south and the Gothic of the north. That portion of the present cathedral atAix-la-Chapelle which was built by Charle-magne is the octagonal projection toward theeast. It forms a truly regal mausoleum, andfor twelve hundred years has well stood themarch of time. ^ It is supposed to have been the most mag-nificent church edifice of Charlemagnes erathroughout all Europe, though it was seriously 290
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A IX - LA - CHAPELLECATHEDRAL Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine injured by an earthquake a few years afterits completion. Later it was plundered by the Normans,and it suffered disastrous fires in 1146, 1234,1236, and 1656, having in consequence under-gone many material changes. Its external features have been considerablyadded to, but the prototype of the round andoctagonal churches, subsequently erected inGermany, is here visible to-day in all its com-parative novelty. The granite and porphyry columns whichsupport the arches giving upon the^ interiorof the octagon were once taken and carriedto Paris, but fortunately they were returnedand again put into position. The choir of the church, as it now is, wasnot begun until 1353, and was finished in thecentury following. It is pure Gothic of themost approved variety, whereas the octagonchurch is as pure Romanesque; and the twocomponents do not blend or mingle in theleast. In the roof of the octagon is a remarkablespecimen of modern wal

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