Archlicanrc on Me Rbine. —Not only in Saxony, but also on the banks of the Rhine, there was much architectural activity in Otho's reign. St. Conrad, bishop of Constance (935-976), enlarged the cathedral there, and built a circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre, besides the three churches of St. Lawrence, St. John, and St. Paul. In 932, at Treves, the new build ing of the Church of the Maximin Convent was dedicated. At Mayence the collegiate Institute of St. Peter was built in 944. About 948, Wik fried, archbishop of Cologne, erected the Church of St. Severin in that city.
Archbishop Bruno of Cologne worked on the churches of St. Cmcilia and Great St. Martin and founded the monastery of St. Pantaleon, together with a hospital for the poor. At his death, in 965, the church of this convent was so far advanced that he found a final resting-place there, notwithstanding it was not consecrated till fifteen years later. Bruno also erected the institution of St. Patroclus at Soest. In the cathedral, which was rebuilt at a later time, there can still be seen in a small vesti bule a rich Corinthian marble capital, and in another place a pilaster capital serving as a base, both antique, and probably brought from Italy at this period.
In 965 the brother of Otho the Great, Bruno, who was made duke of Lorraine by the former, began the Church of St. Vincent at Soignies. Eyeraclus, bishop of Liege, rebuilt in that city the churches which had been destroyed in 954—namely, St. Martin's and St. Paul's in 963, and St. Lawrence in 969. The newly-built church and convent of Gerres heim, near Diisseldorf, was consecrated in 97o, and in 974 the Convent of Gladbach, both having been destroyed by the Magyars in 954. Bishop Erchenbald, who became bishop of Strasburg in 965, is said to have dedicated thirty-two churches and ninety chapels, among which Altorf (966) and AIanrmiinster (972) are enumerated.
The western nuns' choir of the Abbey of Essen, which still exists and forms part of a new building begun in 947, belongs to the period of Otho's reign; in the chief features of its plan it is a copy of the octagon church at Aix-la-Chapelle, and shows in its details the progress of the tenth century. The features most important both here and in the crypt of Ouedlinburg are the imitation and employment of antique columns; beyond these the details indicate a wider departure from the antique forms than do those of the Carolingian period. Of Byzantine forms scarcely any trace appears here.
We cannot here give full details concerning the architectural activity at the close of the tenth and during the earlier years of the eleventh cen tury; a notice of the principal structures will suffice. The activity which prevailed during the reign of Otho the Great did not cease with his death, which occurred at INienileben in 973, but was continued by his son Otho II., who first honored the locality where his father was buried by erecting a monastery in AIemleben in 975. At Gandersheim, after the destruction
of the older building by fire, in 973, a new one was commenced, which was completed in 1006. At Halberstadt the consecration of the new cathedral took place in 991 with great pomp.
The St. Servatius Institute at Quedlinburg enjoyed great prosperity; its church became too small, and was enlarged by Otho's daughter Ma thilde. In 997 this structure was consecrated, and a newer building was dedicated in 1021.
In 978, Archbishop Willigis demolished the old cathedral at Mayence, and in the space of thirty years constructed a new one of stone, which was dedicated in 1009, but was burnt on the day of its dedication; about 990 he also erected, of wood, the Church of St. Stephen. In the year 983 were laid the foundations of the conventual church at Petershausen, near Constance. Bishop Notker of Liege was famed for his love of building; in 978 he commenced to rebuild the cathedral, which, together with the episcopal palace and the convent, was completed in thirty-seven years, seven years after the death of the bishop. In 996, Bishop Burchard demolished the cathedral at Worms and began a new one, which was dedicated in ioi6.
Architecture of Southern activity prevailed also on the Danube and in Bavaria. Bishop Wolfgang of Ratisbon consecrated the west crypt of St. Emineram in 980; he established the nunnery of Mit telmunster in 982 and built the episcopal palace. Large structures were erected at Tegernsee under Abbot Cozbert (982–Tool), and a tower was added to the Cathedral of Freising by Bishop Abraham in 992. The Cathedral of Augsburg, destroyed in 944, was rebuilt by Bishop Luithold fifty years later.
Everywhere prevailed activity, which was principally directed to mon umental buildings; and the fact that structures yet unaffected were torn down to make way for larger and richer ones bears witness to essential progress.
That the country and its entire culture made such important progress affords proof that we are correct in estimating these works of Otho's time as the commencement of a new period, and not as the close of an old one. In fact, the information which has come down to us respecting the struc tures of Otho I. and his immediate successors teaches us that many new elements were making themselves felt; so that the groundwork had been laid upon which the massive architectural development in Germany during the next two centuries was based. It is true that the buildings of Otho's time were not large, but the arrangement of church-structure was fixed for future time—a basilica with lower side-aisles, the arcades of which were borne on columns; two choirs, an eastern and a western; the crypts beneath, and a bell-tower, which in an earlier period stood isolated from the basilica, but was henceforward usually made a part of the church itself.