A Short History of Architecture Europe (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ...three octagonal steeples, the highest in the middle. S. Stephens, in Vienna, is a really interesting experiment; an attempt at modifying the Gothic type which, if it did not result in a distinct eastern European style with its own peculiar characteristics, is so important in itself that it should be minutely studied. Figure 162 gives the plan of this church, which is of the second half of the fourteenth century. The nave, about forty feet from centre to FlG. 161. Erfurt, Germany: Cathedral. View of choir (see Fig. 160). centre of piers, is flanked by aisles of nearly its own width and also of nearly its own height; for while the nave is ninety feet high, the aisles are sixty-eight feet. With this small difference of height there is of course no attempt at a clear-story, and the nave-roof is not lighted directly except from the west end. S. Stephens is then a hall with columns, like the cathedrals at Carcassonne and at Erfurt, and the church of S. Sebaldus at Nuremberg; but having '1 1 1 1 1 FlG. 162. Vienna, Austria: Cathedral of S. Stephen. Plan. The general arrangement is of the second half of the fourteenth century. the central division crowned up as it were just enough to tell, when seen from below, as a slight elevation for the sake of dignity and to defeat the natural tendency of such a roof to seem lowest in the middle. The interior is very impressive, but not in the usual sense of a great Gothic church, long, high, and comparatively narrow. It is curious that the entrances most commonly used are in the north and south flank. Entering by one of these, one has no sense of crossing the aisle to reach the nave: it is all a high and spacious hall of assembly, with only six or eight lofty pillars to break it. In like manner, the...