There’s another trouble about cathedrals, and that is the “restoration” that is going on perpetually and constantly. They were all commenced some hundreds of years ago, they were very slow in building, and by the time the last part was done the first part had decayed, and had to be restored. Go wherever you may in a cathedral, you shall see a large part of it disfigured with scaffolds, with workmen on them, and building material around, giving one the idea they are yet unfinished.
It is said by scoffers and sneerers that the reason why it took several centuries to finish a cathedral was to prolong the time for pulling money out of the faithful, and that the perpetual restorations that are going on are for the same purpose, but of course that is a slander. Boss Tweed might do such a thing, but not those filled with zeal for cathedrals.
Cologne has many points of interest, but the principal one is its grand cathedral, the fourth largest in Christendom; St. Peter’s at Rome standing first, the cathedral at Milan second, St. Paul’s in London third, Cologne fourth.
Though it may not be so huge in its dimensions as the other three, it certainly cannot be excelled in beauty of design or artistic excellence in construction. It is cruciform in shape, with a total length of one hundred and forty-eight yards, and sixty-seven yards breadth. Its walls are one hundred and fifty feet high, the roof two hundred and one feet, and the tower over the transept three hundred and fifty-seven feet, and the two towers over the west façade two hundred and fifty feet high.
Tibbitts didn’t think much of the architect. The tower over the transept, he insisted, should have been an inch, or an inch and a half, wider at the top.
These figures, however, give but a faint idea of the immensity of the structure, whose imposing appearance is greatly heightened by the elaborate galleries, turrets, flying buttresses and cornices that adorn every portion of the walls and towers.
THE GREAT CATHEDRAL.
The history of this cathedral, which has been building since 1248, is somewhat interesting to those who take any interest in cathedrals. The foundation stone was laid on the twenty-fourth of August, 1248, by Archbishop Conrad, of Hechstaden, but it was a number of years before anything more was done. In 1322 the choir was finished and consecrated. In 1388 the nave was fitted up for use, and in 1447 the bells were placed in the south tower. From that time the interest in the work gradually died out, and it seemed as though the original design would never be carried out. In 1796 the French took off the lead roof that had been placed over the decaying building, and converted it into a hay magazine.
It was not till 1823 that anything was done to restore the church. In that year the work of renovation commenced, and a few years later a talented architect named Zwirner, suggested the completion of the building according to the original designs. The idea was enthusiastically taken up, and in 1842 the work was begun, and has been steadily continued, until now only a few finishing touches remain to be given.
The architect who first designed this structure, undoubtedly the finest Gothic edifice in the world, is not definitely known, though it is commonly supposed to be Meister Gerard, of Riehl, a small village near Cologne. The imaginative people there had to have a legend about the cathedral, which is as follows: