STRASBURG CATHEDRAL
Iodoque Dotzinger, master of the works at Strasburg in 1452, formed an alliance between the different lodges of Germany.
It was an appreciative Frenchman—and all Frenchmen are appreciative and fond of Strasburg, because of what it once was to them—that said: "La cathédrale est un merveille unique au monde." Continuing, he said: "Those who have not seen it know not the gaieté lumineuse of a Gothic church."
All of this is of course quite true from some points of view.
There is, however, something pitiful about the general aspect of this great Gothic church. Its lone spire, standing grim and gaunt against a background of sky, makes only the more apparent the incompleteness of the structure.
Its façade is certainly marvellous, quite rivalling those of Reims and Toul, not so very far away across the French border.
The triple porch of the façade is rich in sculpture, the most remarkable groups being "The Wise and Foolish Virgins," "The [{103}]Prophets," "The Last Judgment," and "Christ and the Twelve Apostles."
A great rose window, a reminiscence of the masterpieces so frequently seen in France, also decorates this elaborate façade.
The south portal is in the form of two round-arched doorways, and is a survival, evidently, of one of the earliest epochs of this style of construction. It is ornamented with bas-reliefs and statues symbolical of the triumph of Christian religion. There has recently been erected before this portal a statue of the great architect of the fabric, Ervin, and another of his son.