Bk. IV. Ch. III. DRUGELTE — BONN. 41 of the 11th century, but it stands on a circular crypt of still more ancient date.' At Driigelte, near Soest, there is a small circular church which deserves notice for the singularity of its plan. Externally it is a polygon of twelve sides. Internally it has four pillars, in the centre two very lai-ge and strong, two moi'e slender, and around theni a circle of twelve pillars of very attenuated form. As is usual in German churches, the door and apse are not placed symmetrically as regards each other. Its dimensions are small, being only 33 ft. across 493. Plan of cimrch • i 11 mi r ^•^^ i. • i. *!* iJriigelte. (From internally. 1 he (jrerman architects are not quite Kugier.) Scale soft. agreed as to its date ; generally it is said that its founder brought the plan from the Holy Land, and built it here in the 12th century, meaning it to be an exact copy of the Holy Sepulchre. If tliis be the case, it is the plan of the Dome of the Rock that he brought away and repeated, for the arrangement has consideral)le simihxrity with the plan of that building, but none what- ever with that of the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Though it is anticipating to some extent the order of the dates of the buildings of Germany, it may be as well to complete here the subject of the circular churches of that country ; for after the begin- ning of the 11th century they ceased to be used except in rare and isolated instances. At that date all the barbarian tribes had been converted, and the baptism of infants was a far less important ceremony than the admission of adults into the bosom of the church, and one not requiring a separate edifice for its celebration, and tombs had long since ceased to be objects of ambition among a purely Aryan race. At the same time the immense increase of the ecclesiastical orders, and the liturgical forms then established, rendered the circular form of church inconvenient and inapplicable to the wants of the age. The basilica, on the other hand, was equally sacred with the bap- tistery, and soon came to be considered equally applicable to the entombment of emperors and to other similar purposes. The circular church called the Baptistery at Bonn (Woodcut No. 494), which was removed only a few years ago, was one of the most interesting specimens of this class of monuments in the age to which it belongs. No record of its erection has been preserved, but its style is evidently of the 11th century. Excepting that the straight or rectangular part is here used as a porch, instead of being inserted between the apse and the round church to form a choir, the building is almost identical with St. Tomaso in Limine, and other Lombard churches of the same age. Both externally and internally it is ^ See paper by Mr. Pettit in the "Archaeological Journal," vol. xviii. p. 110.
