Untitled Page 77

OverviewTranscribeVersionsHelp

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Indexed

least he's an efficient statesman. Here too though he sees a new
burst of rule making and bureaucracy (as he saw it in 1933) and he is
not confident of the future. At the same time he is encouraged by the
growth of privatism - distrust of the "big idea" - that he himself feels
a very complex but interesting and articulate set of ideas.

From Nürnberg (after time out to eat a pack lunch and buy a city map) we
continued straight to Bamberg, arriving about 2 pm. And in about 3 hours we
saw quite a bit and grew very fond of the city. It is smaller than Stuttgart,
or Munich or Nürnberg (pop. 80,000), less hustle bustle, sort of
more romantically European. We walked through the downtown, stopped
briefly at St. Martin's Kirche, and went first up to the "Kaiserdom" the large
gothic cathedral. I say up because this church is on top of a hill in the older
part of town (Bamberg is said to be built on 7 hills). The church is
beautifully situated on one side of a large open platz (square), and has
four tall spires, one at each corner. Inside the main hall is very large,
in cold gray stone with the usual Gothic construction (very hard to sketch,
but I have pictures). Very little ornate and colorful art or sculpture (rather
a sort of massive, cool simplicity) but instead some very fine stone sculptures,
the most famous of which is the "Bamberg Rider", life size on his horse,
and beautifully detailed. Also the stone crypts of Pope Clemens II and
an emperor whose title I forget. Then in one of the side sanctuaries off
the main hall, the wall was lined with bronze reliefs (also life size)
of old counts of the area and there was a lovely wood carved and painted
altar scene dating about 1600.

From the [Dom?] we walked past some very old homes (wood frames
filled inbetween with mortared stones) - about 1000-1200
I think - and up another hill to Michaels kirche, another large
(also Catholic) cathedral. This was also Gothic in construction, but
with later additions of Baroque statuary and art, which removed
some of the coolness of the Gothic. An odd combination but to me
more pleasant than the pure German Gothic.

Notes and Questions

Nobody has written a note for this page yet

Please sign in to write a note for this page