There are the spires of five churches hidden away in the forest of chimneys of the manufactories of Essen which rise skyward from the Rhineland plain. It is not a very beautiful picture that one sees from across the railway viaduct, but a remarkable one, and one that has undeniable elements of the picturesque.
The cathedral at Essen is a conglomerate group of buildings of many epochs. The[{319}] church proper consists of a three-aisled nave, with the usual choir appendage in what must pass for acceptable Gothic.
There are Romanesque features which date back as far as 874, when the original edifice was built by Bishop Alfred of Hildesheim. The crypt, the transept, and possibly a part of the choir foundation, are of the eleventh century, and are of Romanesque motive; but the Gothic fabric superimposes itself upon these early works in the style in vogue in the fourteenth century.
There are evidences of a central octagon, like that at Aix-la-Chapelle, and St. Gérêon's at Cologne, but the fourteenth-century rebuilding has practically covered this up, though three of the original faces are left, and bear aloft a series of tall Corinthian columns.
The nave, for some reason, inexplicable on first sight, is low and unimpressive, caused doubtless by the grandeur of the supporting pillars of the roof and the shallowness of the groining above.
The pillars are single cylinders with curiously plain capitals.
The choir rises a few steps above the nave pavement, in order to give height to the crypt[{320}] ambulatory, as is frequently the custom in German churches.
The windows of the south aisle are good in their design and glass, which, though modern, reflects the Gothic mediæval spirit far better than is usual.
There is an elevated gallery along the aisle walls, which forms a sort of tribune or männerchöre. In one of the recesses beneath the gallery is a highly coloured sculpture group of an "Entombment."
The easterly portion of the cathedral is by far the most pleasing, and partakes of the best Gothic features, and indeed is far superior to the nave. The supporting columns of the vaulting have foliaged capitals, while the vaulting itself is even more elaborate.