Beneath the tower, at the westerly end, is the baptistery, entrance to which from the body of the church is gained through a low, pointed arch.

[{318}]

XXX

ESSEN AND DORTMUND

Essen

Lying just to the eastward of the Rhine are Essen and Dortmund.

The former was once the site of a powerful abbey of Benedictine nuns, which was dissolved in 1803. The abbess of Essen was always a titled person, and was a member of the Westphalian circle of the Imperial Estates, in which capacity she held a governing right over a large tract of country immediately surrounding the abbey.

GENERAL
VIEW
of
ESSEN