Capitals of the Northlands: Tales of Ten CitiesHannah, Ian C.
History
Capitals of the Northlands: Tales of Ten Cities
Hannah, Ian C.
Capitals (Cities); Russia -- Description and travel; Scandinavia -- Description and travel
[109] There is a nave of seven bays and a quire of four, each with
aisles and outer chapels, the western towers being the full width
of both; each transept is of two bays and aisleless, the apse is
three-sided with ambulatory and five radiating chapels, themselves
apsidal. The corresponding chapels of Notre Dame, no less than thirteen
in number, are not apsidal except the central one (though they usually
are in other great French Gothic churches), but they were not built at
the time Upsala was erected. In the case of Notre Dame the nave has
two more bays and the quire one more, while the chapels, which were
additions, are beyond the outer aisles. The length of Notre Dame is 430
feet, that of Upsala 360 feet, while across the transepts the French
cathedral measures 165 feet, the Swedish 135 feet. The building of
Upsala Cathedral was not finished till the fifteenth century, and the
traceried windows in aisles and clearstorey are rather poor. The arches
of the nave chapels are without caps, those of the quire in the same
position are rather elaborate, and there is some good carved work over
doors and round the ambulatory, though hardly in the same class with
that at Notre Dame. The church was largely rebuilt in 1885-93, when the
tall metal spires replaced rather ugly eighteenth century turrets and
the central flèche was built. Both inside and outside look very new.
The former is largely covered with modern paintings, and nearly all the
fittings are recent except the beautiful Renaissance canopied pulpit by
Tessin (p. 203).
(I am unable to agree with Fergusson in thinking this "an extremely
uninteresting church." T. Francis Bumpus, in his beautiful work, _The
Cathedrals and Churches of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark_, 1908, comes to
the conclusion that French influence in the design was small, and that
it is to be attributed to a Swedish architect under very strong North
German influence, but his reasons do not seem very conclusive.)
[110] _Hale Lectures_, 1910; _The National Church of Sweden_, by John
Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury. They were delivered in St. James'
Church, Chicago, and grew out of the proposals for the union of the
Swedish Church with the Anglican Communion. When in 1593 the Swedish
Church in council at Upsala accepted the Augsburg confession of faith,
the succession of Bishops and the ancient order were zealously guarded.
Nevertheless, clergy ordained by the superintendents or Bishops of the
other Scandinavian Churches (who have no succession from the mediæval
Church) are admitted to Swedish altars.
[111] Among other monuments, which are not very remarkable, is one with
a marble effigy to John III. (d. 1592), which was executed in Italy.
[112] _Rambles in Sweden and Gothland_, by "Sylvanus," published 1854.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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