immediately preceding the accession to power of that house; but they are not nearly all the really important buildings which during the epoch of true German greatness were erected in almost every considerable city of the empire. In Cologne itself there is the church of St. Gereon, the nave of which, with its crypt, belongs to the 11th century, the apse to the 12th, and the decagonal domed part to the 13th. This is a most interesting specimen of transition architecture, and as such will be mentioned hereafter. So is the church of St. Cunibert, dedicated in 1248, and hardly more advanced in style than the abbey of St. Denis near Paris, built at least a century earlier. The churches of St. George and of Sion in the same city afford interesting examples of the style; but even more important, however, than these are the noble church at Andernach, the remains of the abbey church of Heisterbach, and that of St. Quirinus in Neuss. In the same neighbourhood the little church of Sinzig is a pleasing specimen of the age when the Germans had laid aside the bold simplicity of their earlier forms to adopt the more elegant and sparkling contours of pointed architecture. A little farther up the Rhine the church of St. Castor at Coblentz agreeably exemplifies the later work (1157-1208), its apse being one of the widest and boldest of its class, though deficient in height, and the style may be said to have reached its zenith in the cathedrals of Limburg on the Lahn and Bamberg. [Illustration: 712. View of Church at Laach. (From Geier and Görz.)] [Illustration: 713. Church at Sinzig. (From Boisserée.)] [Illustration: 714. Rood-Screen at Wechselburg. (From Puttrich.)] The neighbourhood of Trèves has also some excellent specimens of Romanesque work, among which may be mentioned the abbey of Echternach, the church of St. Mathias, and the interesting and elegant church of Merzig. [Illustration: 715. Crypt at Göllingen. (From Puttrich.)]