Bk. IV. Cn. V. ERFURTH. 79 by 105, and is divided into five aisles by four rows of pillars support- iiio; the vaults, all at the same level. To the west is a triple frontis- ])iece, and to the east (Woodcut No. 523) the tliree apses, which form so favorite an arrange- ment with the Germans. Extei-nally its attenua- tion is ]iaiuful to one accustomed to the more sober work of French ar- chitects ; but this fault is not here carried to anything like the excess found in other churches. Internally the effect is certainly pleasing, and altogether there are ])vv- haj)S few better speci- mens of ]>uroly Ger- man design in ])ointed ar cliite c t ur e. The church of 8t. Blasius, in the same town, is far from beinij so good an example of the style. The cathedral at Erfurtli is a highly ornamented building, but, though possessing beautiful details in 2>arts, yet it shows the slenderness of construc- tion which is so fre- quent a fault in German Gothic buildings. The church of St. Severus in the same town re- sembles that at Muhl- hausen, but possesses so characteristic a group of three spires^ over what we would consider the transept — or just in front of the apse — that it is illustrated (Woodcut No. 525). It certainly looks like St. Severus Chvirch at Erfurtli. (From Puttrich, " Denkiuiiler.") ^ The facade designed for the cathe- dral at Louvain (mentioned vol. i. p. 597) was identical with this group of spires in arrangement, thonch on a much larger scale, and infinitely richer in or- nament.
