46. Plan of Wells Cathedral,
Wells (United Kingdom).

 

 

Freiburg Cathedral

The Freiburg Münster (Freiburg Cathedral) was begun in the last quarter of the twelfth century, i.e. concurrently with Strasbourg Cathedral (see p. 26, 27, 28, 29). Its oldest part is a Romanesque transept to which a new nave was added in the Gothic style in 1250. The western façade of Freiburg Cathedral was concluded with a tower that rises in three, strictly separated, yet organically connected building parts: the square foundation with its magnificent portico, the octagonal bell cage, and the crowning open stone pyramid, which is the first as well as the most masterful of its kind. The new construction of the choir begun in 1354, but was only completed in 1514. It was the same length as the nave, and was concluded with a fourteen chapel chevet.

 

 

Regensburg Cathedral

The fates of the three southern German cathedrals were similar to that of their counterparts on the Rhine: the cathedrals in Regensburg and Ulm were completed only in the last third of the nineteenth century, but they at least received the artistic completion which had always eluded Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Construction of Regensburg Cathedral began in 1275 and continued until the beginning of the sixteenth century. The cathedral’s peculiarity lies in the fact that it rises from a three-metre high terrace that circles the entire building. This increases the impression of the enormous building mass, which is intensified with a glance into the interior of the three aisle basilica. With an approximately 30m height, the central nave exceeds Strasbourg Cathedral. The designers of Regensburg sought their mastery by breaking away from the French models and instead followed the local tradition of Romanesque building methods. The towers, the pyramids of which imitate those of Cologne Cathedral (see p. 68, 70, 71) were constructed from 1859 to 1871 under the master builder Ritter von Denzinger.

 

 

Ulm Cathedral

Ulm’s citizens had an even greater desire to build and this manifested itself in their spectacular cathedral (minster). Begun a century later, in 1377, this is also a three aisle basilica. Its central nave was raised to a 42m height by the first main master builder, Ulrich von Ensingen. The structure’s pièce de résistance is the tower protruding from the western façade. Matthias Böblinger from Esslingen worked on it from 1480. A brother or relative of his, Hans Böblinger, concurrently built the beautiful tower of the Liebfrauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) in his home town. The latter’s open wall pyramid, which is one of the most charming creations of the Late Gothic, anticipated the end of the epoch. Matthias Böblinger was not quite as successful: after ten years of work his tower’s walls began to sway, the master had to flee the furious mob and was eventually replaced by Burkhart Engelberger from Augsburg. By reinforcing the foundations Engelberger succeeded in preventing the already 74m tall tower from collapsing. Similarly, the construction of the interior had to be secured with an additional row of pillars in the aisles, which ultimately resulted in the creation of a five aisle structure. The continuation of the tower, which resumed only much later, followed Böblinger’s plans and was eventually finished under August Beyer in 1890. It reached its originally intended height of 162m, surpassing the spires of Cologne Cathedral by 5 metres (see p. 68, 70, 71), and became, thanks to August Beyer, the tallest church tower in the world.