If this blog seems cathedral-heavy, that’s because I love cathedrals. Stunningly beautiful even in our day, cathedrals represented heroic effort and almost miraculous achievement in their day. Each one is unique. They’re not just buildings; they’re audacity and imagination in stone.

Recently, Joe and I visited Limburg Cathedral, or Limburger Dom, in Limburg an der Lahn. Although I’ve seen the great high-Gothic cathedrals of France, this is my favorite cathedral so far. It’s more approachable, for one thing: it’s less than half the length of Notre Dame in Paris. For another thing, its construction took place quickly, the bulk from 1190 to 1235. Thus, it’s one consistent design instead of a mishmash of conflicting fashions.

Limburg Cathedral can be called late Romanesque or early Gothic. I think it marries the most beautiful elements of both, so it’s a shame that our architectural guides relegate it to a transitional stage on the way to something else. As a 1905 treatise states, it “stands supreme in its class. … In short, it is reminiscent only of itself.” So perhaps we should simply call it Limburger architecture.

We see here the wonderful arcades that are so important in Romanesque architecture, but the cathedral springs upward with a grace and lightness that only Gothic churches have, its heavy piers lightened by colorful frescoes and hidden behind clusters of thin columns that emphasize verticality. If it lacks the high-Gothic stained glass, it makes up for that with delicate stonework and harmonious design.

The vaulting in the nave must have represented real daring. Architects at this time were attempting to carry cathedral roofs without the massive Romanesque pillars and heavy barrel vaults. But they didn’t fully understand the forces they were dealing with. Sometimes cathedral roofs came crashing down.

Much of the charm of Limburg Cathedral lies in its colorful paint and medieval frescoes. The frescoes were damaged during the Thirty Years’ War, painted over by Baroque artists, and restored inexactly in the 1800′s. But a recent and very careful twenty-five-year renovation has brought this cathedral back to its full beauty. I’m looking forward to visiting it again.

Miltoun, Francis. The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine. Boston: L. C. Page and Company, 1905. Project Gutenberg EBook #31936.

To read my latest blog posts, please click on the “Green and Pleasant Land” logo at the top of this page. Photos taken in December, 2011, in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany. Text copyright Clare B. Dunkle. Photos copyright 2011 by Joseph R. Dunkle and Clare Dunkle.