RHENISH ARCHITECTURE, the style of the countrier, bordering on the Rhine when the arts first revived after the fall of the Roman empire. Being, at the time of Charle magne, part of the same empire with Lombardy, the arts of that country (see LOMBARD ARCHITECTURE) soon spread northward, and similar buildings sprung up ii. of the Alps. There are almost no traces of architecture in Germany before the time of Charle magne. It received great encouragement from him and his successors, and the Rhenish style made great progress up to the beginning of the 13th c., when the fashion of copying the Gothic architecture of France superseded it. It is, however, a well marked style, and is complete and perfect in itself. Like the Lombard style, it is round-arched and has some remarkable peculiarities. The earliest churches seem to have been all circular (like the Dom at Aix-la-Chapelle, built by Charlemagne), and when this was abandoned, the circular church was absorbed into the basilica, or rectan gular church (see ROMAMESQUE ARCHITECTURE), in the form of a western apse. Most German churches thus have two eastern and a western. They also have a number of small circular or octagonal towers, which seem to be similar in origin to the round towers of Ireland. They exemplify in a remarkable manner the arrangements of an ancient plan of the 9th c., found in the monastery of St. Gall, and supposed to have been sent to the abbot, as a design for a perfect monastery, to aid him in carrying out his new buildings. The arcaded galleries at the eaves, and the richly-carved capitals,
are among the most beautiful features of the style. Examples are very numerous from about 1000 to 1200 A.D. The three great types of the style are the cathedrals of Mainz, Worms, and Speyer. The last is a magnificent building, 435 ft. long by 125 ft. wide, with a nave 45 ft. wide and 105 ft. high. It is grand and simple, and one of the most impressive buildings in existence. There are also numerous fine examples of the style at Cologne—the Apostles' church, Sta Maria in Capitulo, and St. Martin's being amongst the most finished examples of Rhenish architecture. The peculiarities of plan and ele vation above referred to are embodied in the church at Laach, which also has a paradise or pavis in front of the entrances. The vaults in this case being small, the different spans were managed (although with round arches) by stilting the springing; but in great buildings like Speyer and Worms the vaults are necessarily square in plan, in this round-arched style, and the nave embraces in each of its bays two arches of the side aisles—a method also followed by the early Gothic architects. From the use of the round arch and solid wallS, the exteriors are free from the great mass of buttresses in Gothic buildings, and the real forms are distinctly seen.