e court of justice for the west bank of the Rhine,
one of the chief commercial cities in Germany, and a military stronghold
of the first class, is an old Catholic city dating its foundation from the
1st century of the Christian era. In the beginning of the present century,
it had 200 churches and chapels; it has at present 25 only, two of which
are prodestant.

The Cathedral.

The first place that the traveler naturally goes to visit is the
Cathedral, (Ger. Dom), which "is perhaps" says Baedeker, "the most
magnificent Gothic edifice in the world." This superb edifice is over an
acre and a half in extent! It is 448 feet long and 249 feet through the
transepts; the choir is 149 feet high. The magnificent south portal cost
more than $500,000.

The central portal in the west end is 93 feet high, and 31 feet wide. The
central window is 48 feet in height and 20 feet wide. The projected height
of the twin towers is 511 feet. These are intended to consist of four
stories, the third of which is approaching completion. A model
representing in miniature what this structure is intended to be in the
height of its glory when its towers are completed and crowned with spires,
may be seen in a store adjacent to the _Dom-platz,_ where the "only
veritable" Cologne water (eau de Cologne) may also be obtained.

The foundation of this vast edifice was laid in 1248. Little work was done
at it between 1322 and the beginning of the 16th century, and none from
the latter date until 1816, when its restoration was begun under the
auspices of the King of Prussia. Since that time $2,000,000 have been
expended upon it. Those lower portions of the walls which were built 600
years ago, are old and gray and washed thinner by the rains of those half
a dozen centuries. Such as appreciate the poetry of architecture, see in
its multitude of spires and finials (large and small) a thousand vegetable
forms, uniting to produce a bewildering effect upon the imagination; but
no word-picture can do justice to the almost matchless beauty of this fine
blossom of Gothic architecture. The tourist will love to go round about it
and inspect and contemplate its every part, to take near views and distant
views of it, and to revisit it time and again; and when he has bid adieu
to Cologne and returned to his far distant home, he will dream dreams, by
day and by night, in which he revisits and beholds again the beauties and
glories of this magnificent temple.

_St