Cathedrals and churches of the Rhine . XXX ESSEN AND DORTMUNDEssen Lying just to the eastward of the Rhine areEssen and Dortmund. The former was once the site of a powerfulabbey of Benedictine nuns, which was dis-solved in 1803. The abbess of Essen was al-ways a titled person, and was a member ofthe Westphalian circle of the Imperial Es-tates, in which capacity she held a governingright over a large tract of country immediatelysurrounding the abbey. There are the spires of five churches hiddenaway in the forest of chimneys of the manu-factories of Essen which rise skyward fromthe Rhineland pla
Cathedrals and churches of the Rhine . XXX ESSEN AND DORTMUNDEssen Lying just to the eastward of the Rhine areEssen and Dortmund. The former was once the site of a powerfulabbey of Benedictine nuns, which was dis-solved in 1803. The abbess of Essen was al-ways a titled person, and was a member ofthe Westphalian circle of the Imperial Es-tates, in which capacity she held a governingright over a large tract of country immediatelysurrounding the abbey. There are the spires of five churches hiddenaway in the forest of chimneys of the manu-factories of Essen which rise skyward fromthe Rhineland plain. It is not a very beautifulpicture that one sees from across the railwayviaduct, but a remarkable one, and one thathas undeniable elements of the picturesque. The cathedral at Essen is a conglomerategroup of buildings of many epochs. The 318. Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine church proper consists of a three-aisled nave,with the usual choir appendage in what mustpass for acceptable Gothic. There are Romanesque features which dateback as far as 874, when the original edificewas built by Bishop Alfred of crypt, the transept, and possibly a partof the choir foundation, are of the eleventhcentury, and are of Romanesque motive; butthe Gothic fabric superimposes itself uponthese early works in the style in vogue in thefourteenth century. There are evidences of a central octagon,like that at Aix-la-Chapelle, and St. Gereonsat Cologne, but the fourteenth-century re-building has practically covered this up,though three of the original faces are left,and bear aloft a series of tall Corinthian col-umns. The nave, for some reason, inexplicable onfirst sight, is low and unimpressive, causeddoubtless by the grandeur of the supportingpillars of the roof and the shallowness of thegroining above. The pillars are single c
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