Romantic Germany (1910) (14784822345)

Identifier: romanticgermany00scha (find matches)
Title: Romantic Germany
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Schauffler, Robert Haven, 1879-1964
Subjects: Cities and towns -- Germany Germany -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : The Century Co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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e breaks forth into scar-let and old rose and carnelian, into all pinks andoranges and purples—brought out the more by thedeep browns and grays and yellows of the doublearcade—it needs neither the Thousand-year Rose-bush, nor the crumbling tombs, nor the charmingGothic chapel, with its devout gargoyles, that is setin the midst, to make this cloister garden one of thesweetest shrines ever dedicated to the contemplativelife. Out of this beautiful beginning grew a city thathas, ever after, seemed suffused with the romaunt ofthe rose. The first small, fortified settlement aboutthe cathedral, called the Domburg, was surroundedwith rose-hedges which became the godmothers ofsuch streets as Long-hedge, Short-hedge, Flood-hedge, and the trio of Rose-hedges (Rosenhagen I,II, and III). And there is a tradition that each ofthe cathedral clergy is warned of his own death threedays beforehand by a white rose which he finds in hischoir-stall. In the eighteenth century, sad to relate, the an- 202
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CATHEDRAL CLOISTERS. THE THOUSAND-YEAR ROSEBUSH HILDESHEIM AND FAIRYLAND cient, austere splendor of the cathedral interior wastransformed into a baroque splendor that shows par-ticularly tawdry and frivolous against the fewremains of Romanesque construction and the no-table treasures of early art that fill the building.Though the architecture of this cathedral is not tobe compared with Brunswicks, yet the place is fullyas interesting. For here the famous bronze doors,the Christ Pillar, and the font far outshine the trin-ity of Romanesque sculptures there. The bronze doors were finished in 1015 by St.Bernward of Hildesheim, one of the most illustriousof German bishops, celebrated as teacher, architect,sculptor, and friend of three emperors. Standingbefore them, one is filled with astonishment on re-membering that this was the virgin appearance ofart in a region hitherto artless. It is a miracle ofprecocity. For these reliefs, though crude, are farmore direct and elemental, and touch th