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sometimes pyramidal, all of these towers possessing a general character, yet no two being exactly alike. Some of them have attached to each corner a conical-capped little turret, like that of a Scottish baronial mansion; others, particularly those on each side of the gates, project outwards on the side farthest from the town. In consequence of the continually recurring contentions with the Burggraf already alluded to, the citizens found it necessary to separate themselves from him by a wall, and built in the vicinity of the Burg a lofty and most imposing tower, capped by a slender tapering spire with round open turrets at the angles. At a much later period (about 1560) the Nurembergers further strengthened the defences of their city, by building a large cylindrical tower of most peculiar form, close to each of the four principal gates. These towers, which constitute one of the most characteristic and picturesque features of Nuremberg, are of a broad substantial shape, tapering slightly as they ascend. On the upper part are a few bold round mouldings like the hoops of a barrel, and a flattish conical roof is crowned by a lantern turret with loopholes. One of them is represented in Plate I. fig. 1. These defences in former days rendered Nuremberg impregnable, but much as they now add to her beauty, they would be of little avail against modern artillery. Since the stirring times of the Thirty Years' War, the moat has grown up into a fruitgarden, and the walls, bastions, and towers, covered with shrubs, creepers, and mosses, have lost their original asperity of outline.

The Burg or Reichsveste occupies an abruptly rising eminence just within the walls of Nuremberg. This fortress consists of a congeries of buildings of different dates, from the eleventh century, or perhaps earlier, down to the

fifteenth. To the five-cornered tower has been assigned a date long prior to Conrad the Salic; and certainly the under part has much the appearance of Roman masonry. Next in antiquity, and probably of Conrad's time, is a four-storeyed square tower looking down towards the town. Its machicolations, formed of semicircular notches, are Romanesque; but certain rude statues built into the walls, popularly believed to be relics of Pagan times, have acquired for it the name of Heidenthurm or Heathen tower. I shall presently revert to the remarkable chapels within its walls. The part of the Burg next in date is the so-called Kaiserstallung or Imperial stable, equally a misnomer with the Heidenthurm. It was built in 1494 as a public granary, on the site of the dwelling of the Burggraf which had been razed in 1417. The round tower with the fire watch, occupying the highest point, is contemporary with the remarkable gate towers already described, and of similar form, but considerably more slender and not quite so lofty. This is the most prominent object in all distant views of Nuremberg, and its masonry being of immense solidity, and its site the most elevated in the town, it is facetiously said by the Nurembergers to be at once thicker and thinner, higher and lower than the gate towers. An irregular mass of building, surrounding a courtyard adjoining the Heidenthurm, and dating in its present form from the fifteenth century, was in more recent times the imperial dwelling; and here it is that the King of Bavaria has his state apartments, which, however, he but rarely visits. This part of the Burg is as little like a royal residence as possible, and one is startled by its close proximity to that beer-drinking resort, the Schlosszwinger. On entering by a gate on which the two-headed eagle of the empire is conspicuously displayed, the first object that meets the

eye is a large linden tree with an enormously thick trunk. Four centuries have passed since the youths and maidens of Nuremberg were merrily dancing under the shade of that selfsame tree, then a venerable linden of 300 years old, to celebrate the marriage-day of Philip Pirckheimer, the father of Albert Dürer's friend Willibald; and on the selfsame day Dürer informs us, that his own father, then but a youth, having left his native home in Hungary, arrived in Nuremberg to try his fortune in that great city of commerce and art. This venerable tree, which is still green and flourishing, was, even in Dürer's time, known by pre-eminence as the "Grosse Linden." The interior of the court has rather more pretension than the outside would lead one to expect; and a large hall, adorned with paintings of the Nuremberg school, conducts to an oratory. A stair communicating with both these rooms, gives access to the upper chapel of the Heidenthurm.

Having now in a general way described the Walls and the Citadel, I shall consider separately, first the Ecclesiastical, and then the Civil and Domestic Architecture of Nuremberg.

The earliest ecclesiastical architecture of Germany is exceedingly beautiful. Its immediate parent, the Lombard style of Italy, arose gradually from the combination of three several elements. The reconquest of Italy by Justinian introduced the architecture of Byzantium, which first appeared at his new capital, Ravenna, and gradually amalgamating with the native Roman basilica, spread over the north of Italy. It was introduced into Germany towards the close of the eighth century, by Charlemagne, who brought with him a company of Italian freemasons, when he established his northern capital at Cologne. The church of St. Vitale at Ravenna, was adopted as the model for his

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