The west front of Cologne is pretty much all tower, with the nave rather rudely crowded between the two. These towers are in reality of such vast bulk that they outflank the nave considerably, as do their smaller counterparts at Wells, though here at Cologne the great transepts overflow the width even of these great towers of the façade.
There is a noble simplicity and yet a wealth of warmth and feeling in this church, which runs the whole gamut of Gothic, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. From[{257}] this latter date, however, the style did not change, but was carried out with that devotion to the original plan which should have inspired the imitators of Gothic in our own time to have done better than they have.
The clerestoried choir of Cologne more nearly follows the French variety than does any other in Germany; indeed no other in Germany in any way approaches the dignity and harmony of those magnificent chevets which the French builders, for a hundred years before Cologne, had so proudly reared.
Metz in a way also reflects the same motive, though that cathedral in many other respects is French.
The apside is supported by twenty-eight flying buttresses, which again are an echo from France; this time of Beauvais; and certainly, if they do not excel the French type, they at least quite rival it in beauty and grace.
One enters through a magnificently planned vestibule and comes at once, not into darkness, but into a subdued and religious atmosphere which is quite in keeping with the spirit of devotion.
There are numerous monuments scattered about, and there are eight fifteenth-century tapestries from the Gobelins' factory.[{258}]
The organ-case is unusually ornate and dates from 1572.
The pulpit is not perhaps so elaborate as one might expect from the general splendour surrounding it, but its sculpture is distinctly good.
In the choir, on the screens above the stalls, is a series of restored frescoes which came to light after a coating of whitewash had been removed. They were admirably restored by Steinle in the mid-nineteenth century and are very beautiful. The decorations depict scenes from the life of the Virgin and are also reproduced in part in the glass of the lady-chapel.