Church doorways are carved with beautiful and fantastic forms by men whose names were long ago forgotten. Common dwellings are adorned with picturesque dormer windows. Even the narrow crooked streets hold their share of beauty, for here are fountains so exquisite in their workmanship that their like is not to be found elsewhere. Here it is the Beautiful Fountain, gay with sculptures of heroes and saints, and there it is the Little Gooseman’s Fountain where humor is added to beauty. Through all the years stands the little man with a goose under either arm, patiently receiving his daily drenching. Still two other fountains known to fame send up their crystal waters to greet the light.
If we seek for more modern things we are also rewarded, for here in Durer Square stands Rauch’s great statue of the artist, copied from Durer’s portrait of himself in Vienna. We note the custom house, one of the oldest buildings, the town hall and the burg or castle, which for many years was the favorite residence of the Emperor.
THE BEAUTIFUL FOUNTAIN IN NUREMBERG
Everywhere I see around me rise the wondrous world of art;
Fountains wrought with richest sculpture standing in the common mart. —Longfellow
Here, too, are many fine old houses which used to belong to noblemen of the city. It is not these residences that we seek, however, if we are visiting Nuremberg. We ask rather for the house of Hans Sachs, the cobbler poet, of John Palm, the fearless patriot, who gave his life for the privilege of beating Napoleon, and above all we seek that quaint house where Durer lived and worked. In choosing these as objects of our special attention we feel like Charles I., who said, when he compelled a reluctant courtier to hold Durer’s ladder, “Man can make a nobleman, but only God can make an artist.”
In our search for interesting things in old Nuremberg, we come suddenly upon a house bearing a tablet on which are these words, “Pilate’s House.” At first we are mystified, for was not Pilate’s house in Jerusalem? But at once we recall that this is the house of the pious Jacob Ketzet who twice visited the Holy Land that he might measure exactly the distance from Pilate’s house to Calvary. When he was satisfied with his measurements he returned to Nuremberg and commissioned the great sculptor, Adam Kraft, to carve “stations,” as he called them, between his home and St. John’s Cemetery to the northwest of the city. These “stations,” which are merely stone pillars on which are carved in relief scenes from the sufferings of our Lord just before his death, are still standing, and if we go to Durer’s grave, as I am sure we should wish to do, we shall pass them on our way.
1526 Viventis potvit dvrerivs ora philippi Mentem non potvit pingere docta
manvs
AD
MELANCTHON