XXX
ESSEN AND DORTMUND
Essen
Lying just to the eastward of the Rhine are Essen and Dortmund.
The former was once the site of a powerful abbey of Benedictine nuns, which was dissolved in 1803. The abbess of Essen was always a titled person, and was a member of the Westphalian circle of the Imperial Estates, in which capacity she held a governing right over a large tract of country immediately surrounding the abbey.
There are the spires of five churches hidden away in the forest of chimneys of the manufactories of Essen which rise skyward from the Rhineland plain. It is not a very beautiful picture that one sees from across the railway viaduct, but a remarkable one, and one that has undeniable elements of the picturesque.
The cathedral at Essen is a conglomerate group of buildings of many epochs. The church proper consists of a three-aisled nave, with the usual choir appendage in what must pass for acceptable Gothic.
There are Romanesque features which date back as far as 874, when the original edifice was built by Bishop Alfred of Hildesheim. The crypt, the transept, and possibly a part of the choir foundation, are of the eleventh century, and are of Romanesque motive; but the Gothic fabric superimposes itself upon these early works in the style in vogue in the fourteenth century.
There are evidences of a central octagon, like that at Aix-la-Chapelle, and St. Gérêon's at Cologne, but the fourteenth-century rebuilding has practically covered this up, though three of the original faces are left, and bear aloft a series of tall Corinthian columns.
The nave, for some reason, inexplicable on first sight, is low and unimpressive, caused doubtless by the grandeur of the supporting pillars of the roof and the shallowness of the groining above.
The pillars are single cylinders with curiously plain capitals.
The choir rises a few steps above the nave pavement, in order to give height to the crypt ambulatory, as is frequently the custom in German churches.
The windows of the south aisle are good in their design and glass, which, though modern, reflects the Gothic mediæval spirit far better than is usual.
There is an elevated gallery along the aisle walls, which forms a sort of tribune or männerchöre. In one of the recesses beneath the gallery is a highly coloured sculpture group of an "Entombment."
The easterly portion of the cathedral is by far the most pleasing, and partakes of the best Gothic features, and indeed is far superior to the nave. The supporting columns of the vaulting have foliaged capitals, while the vaulting itself is even more elaborate.
The aisles, as they approach the choir, are rectangular-ended, and extend quite to the end of the choir termination, showing a very singular cross-section of this portion of the church.
The screen is a modern stone work after the Gothic manner. It sits beneath a not unbeautiful Gothic window, rather richly traceried with four lights. The glass of this window is modern, but, like that in the nave aisles, is excellent.
The crypt is entered from the south transept, and also from the nave by an entrance which passes between the steps which rise to the choir pavement.
There is an elaborate seven-branched candlestick at the juncture of the nave and choir, modelled on one known to have existed in the Temple at Jerusalem. It is of the conventional form, but is a rare piece of church furniture in that it dates from 1003, when it was presented by the Abbess Matilda, sister of the Emperor Otho II. Since it stands six or eight feet in height, this candlestick is a notable and conspicuous object.
Before the steps leading to the crypt is the tomb of Bishop Alfred of Hildesheim. The crypt is all that a crypt should be, – a dim-lighted, solemn chamber of five aisles, the pavement of the church above being supported on stubby square pillars. It is used also for devotional purposes, the altar at the easterly end of the central aisle bearing the inscription, "Heilige Maria, Trösterin der Betrubten, bitt fur uns."
The cloisters of this interesting edifice are, in part, of the primitive style of early Gothic, while the southern and western sides are an approach to the full-blown Gothic of a later epoch, with foliaged capitals.
Dortmund
Dortmund is the largest town of the province of Westphalia, and possesses four mediæval churches of more than usual interest.
St. Reinhold's is the chief, and is a cruciform edifice of more than ordinary proportions. It is a picturesque mélange of many parts. Its western tower is of no style in particular, and is hideous, but most curious considering its environment. The nave and transepts are supposedly of the thirteenth century, but they are certainly not good Gothic as we know it elsewhere.
The choir is of the early fifteenth century, and is much more gracefully conceived than is any other portion of this nondescript edifice.
The transepts are square boxlike protuberances, which link the choir with the nave in most unappealing fashion.
In the interior the most astonishing features are the low truncated nave of three bays, the grimness of the walls of the entire fabric, – excepting the well-lighted and aspiring choir, – and the straight-backed pews.
The clerestory windows of the nave are semicircular, but the aisles are lighted by Gothic openings.
There are two altars, one at the choir entrance and the other in the apse, each surmounted by a triptych.
The windows of the choir-apse, tall, ample, and of admirable framing, are the chief glory of this not very beautiful, though interesting, church.
St. Mary's is a late twelfth-century Romanesque structure, without transepts, but possessed of a towering apsidal choir.
The nave is an attenuated affair with no triforium, leaving a vast blank wall space, as though it were intended to have been decorated.
Dortmund's "Pfarr Kirche" was a former Dominican foundation. Its general proportions are far greater than those of any other of the city's churches. The nave is ample, and the great choir of four bays, with spacious, lofty windows, is of the same generous proportions.
The church dates only from the mid-fourteenth century, and its three-bayed nave is even later. The aisles of the nave are curious in that they are not of similar dimensions. That on the street side is separated from the nave proper by square piers, with a slender shaft running to the vaulting. The other aisle is more ample, and has its arched openings to the nave composed of four shafts superimposed upon a central cylinder.
The nave lighting is amply provided for by a series of four light windows, bare, however, of any glass worthy of remark.
The south wall, which has no windows, has two large frescoes, a "Descent of the Holy Ghost" and an "Assumption." There is also a series of paintings by two native artists, Heinrich and Victor Dunwege.
XXXI
EMMERICH, CLÈVES, AND XANTEN
Emmerich and Clèves
Just below Emmerich, which is the last of the German Rhenish cities, the Rhine divides itself, and, branching to the north, takes the Dutch name of Oud Rijn, which name, with the variation Neder Rijn, it retains until it reaches the sea. The branch to the west takes the name of the Waal and passes on through Nymegen, bounding Brabant on the north, and enters the sea beyond Dordrecht.
Emmerich has, in its church of St. Martin, a tenth-century church of no great architectural worth, but charming to contemplate, nevertheless.
Four kilometres away is Clèves, which, under the Romans, was known as Clivia and attained considerable prominence and prosperity. The Normans sacked it in the ninth century, but it was shortly rebuilt, and became the chief town of the County, afterward the Duchy, of Clèves.
Under the Empire the city belonged to France. The town's principal church is quite attractive, but, beyond the distinction which it has in its twin spires, terminating a singularly long line of roof-top of nave and choir, there are no architectural features of note.
Xanten
At a little distance from the Rhine, just before the frontier of Holland is reached, is Xanten, the ancient Ulpia Castra. Near by, in the neighbouring village of Mirten, one sees the remains of an ancient amphitheatre, which denotes a considerable importance for the neighbourhood in Roman times. If more proof were needed, it will be found in the museum at Bonn, where are many Roman antiquities coming from the neighbourhood.
Xanten is celebrated for having given birth to St. Norbert, the founder of the order of Premonstratension monks, and for having been the cradle of Siegfried, the hero of the "Nibelungen Lied."
The city was captured by the French in 1672.
The collegiate church of Xanten is known as St. Victor's, and is truly celebrated for the grace and beauty of its early twelfth-century Gothic.
Without transepts or clerestory, it shows in its one ample chamber, comprising both nave and choir, an exemplification of the art of combining the accessories of the Latin-cross structures of France with the hall-church idea so frequently met with in Germany, and so well recognized as a distinct German type.
This arrangement does not give the church the appearance of being in any way confined or limited; quite the reverse is the case, and the double range of windows in the apse indicates, at least, a loftiness and hardiness of construction which is highly commendable.
There are, moreover, double aisles to both nave and choir which give an ampleness to the interior which even its abundance of furnishings does not overcrowd.
There are few five-aisled churches such as this in Germany, or indeed elsewhere, Cologne being Germany's chief example in this style.
In general, the Gothic of this highly interesting church is of the best, though it dates from various periods. The primitive church, we know, was a Romanesque structure; but, beyond the foundations of the western towers, and possibly other fragmentary works yet hidden, there is nothing but the most acceptable Gothic in evidence.
A distinctly curious feature is the apse-sided termination to the aisles, radiating from the main apse at an angle of forty-five degrees. It is a distinct innovation in the easterly termination of a church; a sort of a compromise between the French, English, and German styles, and wholly a successful one.
In the chancel is a sort of screen before the high altar, worked in brass at Maastricht in 1501.
The windows contain a great deal of beautiful old glass, and some other that is by no means as good.
The clerestory windows are elaborately traceried, and there is much detail of church furnishings, a choir screen, some elaborate stalls, a little tapestry, – which looks well and is certainly old, – and a modern tiled floor which is not offensive.
As is frequently seen in Germany, the pillars and shafts have a series of statues superimposed upon them; always a daring thing to do, but in this case of far better execution and design than is frequently encountered. Before the church is a monument in honour of Cornelius de Pauw, the friend of the great Frederick, a canon of the church and a famous spiritual writer. He was born at Amsterdam in 1739 and died at Xanten in 1799.
XXXII
ARNHEIM, UTRECHT, AND LEYDEN
Arnheim
The Rhine in Holland is a mighty river. It divides itself into many branches, all of which make their way to the sea through that country which Butler in the "Hudibras" calls:
"A land that draws fifty feet of water,
In which men live as in the very hold of nature,
And when the sea does in upon them break,
And drowns a province, does but spring a leak."
The Rhine proper, the Oud Rijn and the Neder Rijn, enfolds three great ecclesiastical centres of other days, Arnheim, Utrecht, and Leyden.
Arnheim is the chief town of the Guelderland, and seats itself proudly on the banks of the Neder Rijn just above its juncture with the Yssel. Of its fifty-five thousand inhabitants, twenty-five thousand are Roman Catholics, which fact makes it one of the most strongly Catholic cities, if not the strongest, in the Netherlands.
Formerly the city was known as the Arenacum of the Romans, and served as the residence of the Dukes of the Guelderland up to 1538. In 1579 it gave adherence to the "Union of Utrecht," and in 1672 was taken by the French, when it became one of the principal fortresses of Holland. To-day the fortifications serve the purpose to which they are so frequently devoted in the cities and towns of Continental Europe, and form a fine series of promenades.
In 1813 the town was taken by the Prussians, but in spite of all this changing of hands, it remains to-day as distinctly Dutch as any of the Low Country cities and towns. Its houses are well built of brick and equally well kept, and its sidewalks are as cleanly and well cared for as the courtyard of a palace.
To-day the aspect of Arnheim is that of a quaint though modern-looking Dutch city. It is a favourite place of residence for "messieurs du sucre," – rich Hollanders and Orientals from the Dutch East Indies. Altogether the atmosphere of its streets and cafés is decidedly cosmopolitan and most interesting.
The Groote Kerk, built in 1452, rises from the market-place with a considerable purity of Gothic style. The church was formerly dedicated to St. Eusebe. Its tower is a landmark for miles around, and rises to a height approximating three hundred feet. It is built of brick and is square for the first two tiers, flanked with sustaining buttresses, then it tapers off into an octagon. It contains a fine set of chimes, so frequently an adjunct to the churches and municipal belfries of the Low Countries.
The interior presents a great ogival example of the best of fourteenth and fifteenth century church-building.
To-day, since the church belongs to the Protestants, much that stood for symbolism in the Roman Church is wanting, and the pulpit, which is an admirable work of art in itself, is placed in the middle of the choir surrounded by numerous tribunes, or seats in tiers, in quite a parliamentary and non-churchly fashion.
Behind the choir is a monument to Charles d'Egmont, Duke of Guelderland, who died in 1538, and whose tomb is at Utrecht. As a work of art this monument in the Groote Kerk at Arnheim is much more worthy than such monuments usually are.
The duke is represented clothed in armour and reclining between six lions, which hold aloft his escutcheon.
The pedestal is ornamented with bas-reliefs representing the Holy Family, the twelve apostles, St. Christopher, and two other saints. On a pillar at the left of the tomb is suspended, in a sort of wooden cage, another figure of the same prince. The effigy is of painted wood and is amazingly lifelike, though smacking decidedly of the figures in a waxworks exhibition.
The chevet of this great church is quite worthy of consideration, though by no means as amply endowed as the French variety by which one comes to judge all others.
Altogether, except for the poverty of deeply religious symbolism in the interior, of which it has doubtless been despoiled since the Catholic religion has waned in its power here, the church is a lovely and lovable example of the appealing church edifices which one now and then comes across in Continental cities of the third rank.
The Catholic cult occupy the church of St. Walburge, a Gothic edifice in brick of the fourteenth century. At the portal are two great symmetrical towers which are worthy of a far more important edifice.
The interior is entirely modern as to its furnishings and fitments.
On four pillars of the nave are placed, back to back, statues of the evangelists, – a species of decorative embellishment which, at all times since the fifteenth century, has been greatly favoured throughout Germany and the Low Countries. In France it is a feature but seldom seen, and, among the smaller parish churches, has almost its only examples at Vetheuil on the Seine below Paris, and at Louviers.
The high altar is modern, as are also the black and white marble baptismal fonts.
The pulpit is quite a grand affair, though modern also. Its sounding-board shows a figure of Moses holding aloft the tables of the law. It is admirably conceived and executed, and is of much artistic merit.
Arnheim possesses several other religious edifices; but, as satisfactory expressions of ecclesiastical art or architecture, they are quite unworthy. The only one worthy of remark – and that only for its unseemliness – is a modern Protestant place of worship in the form of a vast rotunda, which in all respects resembles a great building enclosing a panorama.
Behind the chevet of the Groote Kerk, the ancient cathedral, is a fine old-time house of the sixteenth century. It is known, somewhat sacrilegiously one thinks, as the Maison du Diable, and was formerly the residence of a famous brigand or highwayman, – if there be any subtle distinction between the two. This brigand was moreover of the nobility, and was known as Martens van Rosum, Duke of the Guelderland. In front of the house is a miniature terrace, and, on the walls above, to the right, are three monstrous effigies of devils, as well as one of a woman. In the centre, upon a pillar, is a bust of Van Rosum, and an inscription to the effect that the house was restored in 1830. To-day it is occupied by certain municipal offices.
Utrecht
In many respects Utrecht was, in the past, the most important city in Holland, not commercially, but politically.
To-day it is simply the capital of the province of Utrecht, the seat of a Catholic archbishop, and of a Jansenist archbishop as well.
Of its population of quite a hundred thousand souls, one-third, at least, are of the Catholic profession, which is an astonishing proportion for a city of Holland. For this reason, perhaps, the city remains the metropolis of the Catholic religion in the Netherlands.
The environs of the city are exceedingly picturesque. The Rhine again divides into two branches, the Oud Rijn continuing to the North Sea, through Leyden, and the other branch, known thenceforth as the Vecht, flowing into the Zuyder Zee.
Utrecht is one of the most ancient cities of the Netherlands, having been founded under Nero by a Roman Senator named Antony, hence it is frequently referred to by historians as Antonia Civitas.
Its name in time evolved itself into Trajectum inferius or vetus, and in the Latin nomenclature of the early middle ages, it became Ultrajectum, or Trajectum Ultricensium. Under the Franks it was called Wiltrecht, which was but a short step to the name it now bears.
King Dagobert here founded the first church in Friesland, with St. Willibrod as bishop, and St. Boniface, before he was called to Rome, here preached evangelization.
The city was ruined and devastated in the seventh century, but its rebuilding was begun in 718 by Clothaire IV. Toward 934 it was surrounded by protecting walls by Bishop Baldric of Clèves. Utrecht was frequently made the residence of the emperors, and Charles V. there built the château of Vreeburg, a species of fortress-château that was demolished by the burghers of the city at the beginning of the war of independence, 1577.
Adrien Florizoon, the preceptor of Charles V., who, at the death of Leo X., occupied the pontifical throne in 1522-23 as Adrien VI., was born at Utrecht. His house (Paushuizen) on the banks of the canal Nieuwe Gracht, now a government building, contains many pictures relative to his life and times.
For a long time the city was only a bishop's seat, but in 1559 it was made an archbishopric.
When, in 630, Dagobert, King of Austrasia, founded a chapel here, the religious foundation of the city began, and as early as in 696 it became the seat of a bishop. In the ninth century the Normans sacked the town, but thenceforth the bishops, who were then suffragans of Liège, acquired a strength and power which assured the city freedom from molestation for a long time.
In the sixteenth century political and religious dissension combined to promote a state of unrest which was most acute. In 1577 the party which had allied itself with the Prince of Orange introduced religious reform, and in 1579 the seven provinces of Holland formed their compact of federation, and the States General held their sittings here.
The Domkerk, or cathedral, originally dedicated to St. Martin, is to-day a Protestant church. It was an outgrowth of the primitive church founded in 630 by Dagobert I., and of an abbey established by St. Willibrod.
The cathedral of St. Martin was rebuilt, after a fire in 1024, by Bishop Adebolde, "in the presence of the Emperor Henry II. and many other great personages," as the old chroniclers have it. In 1257 it was nearly entirely rebuilt by the bishop then holding the see, Henri of Vianden, but a great storm crushed in its nave in 1674, since which time the faulty juncture of the various parts has been sadly apparent.
After the destruction of the nave, the choir and the transepts formed practically the entire building, with the tower existing merely as a dismembered and orphaned feature.
The tower was commenced in 1331 and completed in 1382. It rises from a magnificently vaulted base. The lower portion is rectangular, but the octagon which forms the upper stages and "pierced to the light of day," as the French have it, follows the best accepted style of its era. In its way it is, although quite different, the rival of St. Ouen's "Crown of Normandy" at Rouen.
There are 453 steps to be mounted if one cares to ascend to the platform, 103 metres from the ground. One gets the usual bird's-eye view, with this difference, that the glance of the eye seems to reach out into an interminable distance, by reason of the general flatness of the country. One sees, at any rate, quite all of the provinces of South Holland, with the Zuyder Zee to the north, and a part of Guelderland and North Brabant. The tower possesses also a fine set of chimes of forty-two bells which is reminiscent of Belgium; but, unlike those in the famous old belfry at Bruges, the chimes on the Domkerk at Utrecht do not ring out popular marches or the airs of popular songs.
The interior is so crowded with benches, similar to what English churchgoing people know as pews, that its original aspect is somewhat changed. Eighteen great pillars hold aloft the vaulting of the choir and transepts.
A notable tomb in black and white marble is that of Admiral van Gent (1676), and another is that of Bishop Georges d'Egmont (1549). In the vault beneath the edifice were buried the viscera of Conrad II. and Henry V., who died at Utrecht, and whose remains, with this exception, were transported to Speyer.
A fine Gothic cloister connects the cathedral with the university. This has, in recent years, undergone restoration of a most practical and devoted kind. It is a marvel of modern architectural work.
St. Peter's is another ancient Roman Catholic church now devoted to Protestant uses.
St. John's also comes under this category. It is a fine example of a small Gothic church of the variety which was best known only in Holland and Belgium; much more severe than the French species, but interesting withal.
Within the walls of this last are two tombs quite worthy of attention and remark. The one against the western wall is that of a cardinal who died in the fifteenth century, and the other is that of Balthazar Frederick of Stoech. The latter, though dating only from the eighteenth century, is charmingly sculptured, and has two superb figures of weeping children done in marble.
The Roman Catholic church of St. Catherine is a Gothic edifice of the third ogival period, and was restored in 1880 at the expense of a devout Catholic of the city, named Van den Brink.
The walls are decorated in a polychromatic scheme, which is not beautiful, though undeniably striking. The jube, by Mengelberg of Utrecht, is distinctly good.
Utrecht possesses in the Aartsbisschoppelyk Museum an establishment unique among the museums of the world. Particularly it shows all branches of religious art, and is of great importance to all who study the art and architecture of the Netherlands.
Of the secular establishments one remarks the university which adjoins the cathedral. It dates from 1636, and has to-day five faculties.
In the palace, constructed for Louis Bonaparte during the Napoleonic overflow, is a magnificent library of 110,000 volumes and 1,500 MSS.
The ancient academy, the arch-episcopal palace, the Palais de Justice, the Stadt Huis, the Paushuizen (Prefecture), the mint, with a rich numismatic collection, and the Association of Arts and Sciences complete the list of the city's notable monuments.
Leyden
With Leyden the Rhine may be said to take its leave of ancient civilization, though it only joins the briny waters of the North Sea at Katwyck, a dozen kilometres distant, after having formed a natural frontier for nearly eleven hundred kilometres, from its Alpine cradle in the canton of Grisons.
Anciently Leyden was the Lugdunum Batavorum of the Romans, and, according to the old-time historians, was the most ancient city of Holland. Later its name became Leithen, from which its present nomenclature is evolved.
Its great importance came with the thirteenth century and endured until the Spanish wars.
The city was besieged by the Spaniards in 1574, and delivered therefrom by the Prince of Orange in the year following.
To-day the plan of Leyden forms a regular pentagon, with long streets and boulevards, all characteristically Dutch, with old-time and modern houses alike built with queer gabled roofs, giving quite a mediæval aspect to an otherwise lively and up-to-date little city.
The city is traversed from east to west by the Oud Rijn, which throws out many arms and branches and gives to the place a most Venetian appearance.
One distinctive feature of the topographical aspect of Leyden, and one which is universal in most of the cities of Holland, are the canals which cross and recross the principal streets. All is plus propres, as the French have it, and the tree-bordered, cobblestoned quays are not the least of the town's attractions for the stranger.
Unquestionably the chief architectural treasure of Leyden is the Stadt Huis. It is of the style which may best be called Dutch, and is a reconstruction of 1597.
In front of the Stadt Huis are a pair of gaudily coloured stone lions, which have looked down for a matter of three hundred years on the Pilgrim Fathers, some of whom had gathered and settled here previous to going to the New World, on Oliver Goldsmith, on Boswell, on Evelyn, and on many other Englishmen who attended the famous university here.
One learns that these lions were once properly coloured beasts, – at least of the conventional tone of stone sculptured animals, and that they were only recently painted a gaudy vermilion, which apparently is not a very durable colour, as in these days they seem to shed and don their coats with surprising frequency.
The chief ecclesiastical monuments of Leyden are the church of St. Peter, of the thirteenth to sixteenth century, a vast Latin cross of not very good Gothic; and St. Pancras, of the thirteenth century, built, curiously enough, on the ground-plan of a St. Andrew's cross.
St. Peter's was built in 1221, but in 1512 its great tower fell and was replaced by the present one, which rises high above the rest of the fabric.
In truth, there is not much of interest to be derived from a contemplation of the church except the memory of the great names of those interred therein, which form a veritable category of those who became famous in matters ecclesiastic, artistic, and scientific, in Holland's roll of fame.
Near St. Peter's is a thirteenth-century edifice now used as a prison. In olden times it served as the residence of the Counts of Holland, the name "Gravenstein" on the ancient structure signifying "the house of the count."
The church of St. Pancras is an ogival edifice built in 1280. It has no remarkably artistic attributes, and its chief interest consists in the fact that it contains the tomb of Van der Werf, the courageous burgomaster, who, in 1574, so heroically defended the city. He was born at Leyden in 1529 and died in 1604.
Leyden may be called the learned city of Holland. In recognition of having withstood a siege by the Spaniards of 131 days, the city was given the choice between exemption from taxation or the foundation of a university, and chose the latter.
The city is the birthplace of many men famous in Dutch art, among them Lucas de Leyde, Rembrandt, Gerard Dow, G. Metsu, J. van Goyen.
Here also was born the celebrated anabaptist known as John of Leyden.