This is very apparent in the polygonal part of the church of St. Gereon at Cologne (Woodcuts Nos. 740 and 741), commenced in the first year of the 13th century, and vaulted about the year 1212.[73] The plan of the building is eminently German, being in fact a circular nave, as contradistinguished from the French chevet, and is a fine bold attempt at a domical building, of which it is among the last examples. In plan it is an irregular decagon, 55 ft. wide over all, north and south, and 66 ft. in the direction of the axis of the church. Notwithstanding the use of the pointed arch, the details of the building are as unlike the contemporary style of France as is the plan; and are, in fact, nearly a century behind French examples in the employment of all those expedients which give character and meaning to the true pointed style. Another church in the same city, St Cunibert, is a still more striking example of this. Commenced in the first decade of the 13th century, and dedicated in 1248, the very year in which it is said the foundation-stones of the cathedral were laid, it still retains nearly all the features of the old German style, and though pointed arches are introduced, and even tracery to a limited extent, it is still very far removed from being what can be considered an example of the new style. [Illustration: 740. Section of St. Gereon, Cologne. (From Boisserée, ‘Nieder Rhein.’) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.] [Illustration: 741. Plan of St. Gereon, Cologne. (From Boisserée.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.] More advanced than either of these is the choir of the cathedral of Magdeburg, said to have been commenced in 1208, and dedicated in 1254. This was built, as before mentioned, to supply the place of the old circular sepulchral church of Otho and his English queen Edith. Hence it naturally took the French chevet form, of which it is, probably, the earliest example in Germany, and which it copies rudely and imperfectly in its details. It possesses the polygonal plan, the graduated buttresses, the decorative shafts, and other peculiarities of the French style, and, if found in that country, would be classed as of about the same age as St. Denis. The upper part of the choir and the nave are of very much later date, and will be mentioned hereafter. [Illustration: 742. East End of Church at Gelnhausen. No scale.]