No student arrived for the AYF 2020/21, so we were all glad when Ulrich Struve, the AYF program director, announced that 26 new students from Madison and Michigan would come to Freiburg this fall.
©US |
As usual, I concentrated on the Reformation's time, although Freiburg, a Habsburg outpost on the Rhine, always stayed Catholic. Nevertheless, the effects of the religious division on Freiburg were dramatic.
Haus zum Walfisch |
Basler Hof |
Finally, our group ended up at Minster Square admiring "the most beautiful steeple in the world," according to art historian Jacob Burkhardt.
Learning phase: The left tracery window shows the progression from early Gothic (RHS) to High Gothic style. |
Although all students were vaccinated and their masks well in place, it was a surprise that we were thrown out of the church. We were too many. Only ten persons per group are allowed to visit the interior of the Minster.
So here are three pictures of what I had intended to show and explain inside the
Minster Church.
The builders had to raise the initial Romanesque columns to accommodate the higher Gothic vault ribs. |
©miJoergens/Wikipedia |
During my guided tours, I always show the ruins of Freiburg following the British air raid on November 27, 1944, as my last photo.
People still call it a miracle that the Minster Church stood while all the buildings around were in ruins. One reason is that the builders have
solidly constructed walls and arches. They didn't know how to calculate
the statics at those times, so they better over-dimensioned all building
elements. Present calculations show that the safety factors built into
the construction are at least seven times greater than would be required
by modern architecture. This is one reason why the Freiburg Minster Church,
although under permanent restoration and repair, will survive for
another couple of centuries.
*
No comments:
Post a Comment