George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted PapersStreet, George Edmund
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George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted Papers
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic; Church architecture -- Europe; Europe -- Description and travel; Street, George Edmund, 1824-1881
The external view of the cathedral presents one of the most singular,
and, at the same time, most grand assemblages of steeples I have ever
seen. There are two tall towers, richly arcaded and capped with square
slated spires, to each transept, and over the crossing a much lower
though larger lantern also capped with a spire. These five spires are
well seen from the market place, and with a tall campanile at its upper
end, of the thirteenth century, combine in a very grand group. I should
have mentioned that the central spire is octagonal with four square
slated turrets at the angles. The east end of the cathedral deserves
notice; its scale is great, and its flying buttresses and detail
generally very good. Chapels are formed between the buttresses and
roofed with gables running back to the aisle walls.
The Maison de Ville was formerly a convent and still retains a few old
portions built up in the more modern additions.
In the market place is a small church, the entrance to which is at
the east, and the altar at the west end. Over the east door are two
triplets, quite first-pointed in their character. There are round
turrets at the west angles and to the transepts, and a picturesque
slated spire over the crossing; the whole is groined, and reminded me
of the style of the transepts of the cathedral, though it is not very
effective.
Another church on the way to the railway station has an eastern
apse, and a tower and slated spire over the crossing. The nave has
a continuous clerestory, with two or three windows in each bay; the
effect of which is satisfactory. Across the nave, one bay west of the
choir, there is an arch with a kind of triforium gallery across it,
pierced on each side, and serving apparently for a passage-way only. It
is not continued up to the groining.
[Illustration: THE GREAT S. MARTIN, COLOGNE]
Nearer the railway there is another large church with a continuous
clerestory and large unfinished-looking tower at the south-west angle.
There are some other churches, but not, I think, of great interest.
This, however, is amply afforded by the magnificent cathedral towering
so grandly over the town, whose only defect in the distant view is the
low height of the nave as compared with the choir and transepts.
A sluggish train took me in five or six hours to Namur to sleep, and
thence early the next morning by a strikingly beautiful line of railway
along the banks of the Meuse; and passing by the picturesque old town
of Huy, with its fine church and castle, I found my way to Liège.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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