that curious pyramidal effect so often remarked in
Rhenish churches.

There is no very great beauty in the outlines of this church, which is a
curious jumble of towers and turrets; but there are some very good
architectural details, quite worthy of a more splendid edifice. Ste.
Helene, the mother of Constantine, herself placed the first stone in the
easterly portion of the present church, a fact which was only discovered
in the seventeenth century, when the foundations were being repaired. It
is supposed originally to have been a part of the palace of the Empress
Helene, afterward converted into a house of God.

[Illustration: TREVES CATHEDRAL]

One notes in the interior a remarkably beautiful series of Corinthian
columns with elaborately carved capitals of the eleventh century. In
later years these have been flanked by supporting pillars which detract
exceedingly from the beauty of the earlier forms.

In parts the edifice is frankly French Gothic, Byzantine, and what we
know elsewhere as Norman,--a species of the Romanesque.

In 1717 the church suffered considerably by fire, but it was repaired
forthwith, and to-day gives the effect of a fairly well cared for
building of three naves and a double choir.

There are sixteen altars, some of which are modern, and two organs,
cased as usual in hideous mahogany.

[Illustration: PULPIT TREVES]

The high altar and the pulpit are excellently sculptured, and there are
some notable monuments to former archbishops and electors.

Beneath the church are vast subterranean passages, and a great vault
where repose the ancient regents of the province.

Architecturally, Treves's other remarkable church (Notre Dame) quite
rivals the cathedral itself in interest. It is one of the best examples
of German mediaeval architecture extant.

In the year 1227 when St. Gereon's at Cologne, one of the earliest
examples of ogival vaulting in Germany, was just finished, there was
commenced the church of Notre Dame at Treves. It was the first church
edifice in Germany to consistently carry out the Gothic motive from the
foundation stones upward.

For fifty years the well-defined Gothic had been knocking at the gateway
which led from France into Germany, and at last it was to enter at a
period when the cathedrals at Soissons and Laon had already established
themselves as well-nigh perfect examples of the new style.

The first foundation stone was laid in 1227, and the work was completed
i