Galeaz Marie, Visconti Sforza, in 1481, demanded of the
magistrates of the city the name of an architect capable of completing
his cathedral at Milan.

In a vaulted chamber attached to the cathedral proper are two strangely
curious memorials. They are nothing more or less than two mummies which,
for their better preservation, have been varnished, and the costumes
which they anciently wore have from time to time been renewed.

One is the mummy of the Count of Nassau-Saarbruck, who died in the
sixteenth century, and the other is that of a young girl of perhaps
twenty years, supposed to have been his daughter.

The ancient church of St. Bartholomew is another of Strasburg's
ecclesiastical shrines which ranks high among great churches.

It dates from the second half of the thirteenth century, but frequent
additions have been made in more recent times.

It possesses a remarkable monument which shows a painted "Danse des
Morts," with figures of nearly life size. It is a fresco on the inner
walls of the overhanging canopy of a tomb. The painting dates from the
fifteenth century, but was only discovered in 1824, on the occasion of a
general renovation of the church.

The choir was begun in 1308 and completed in 1345. Its height and its
general airiness, and the lightness of its vaulting and arches, unite in
making it quite unusual and most worthy of note.

This ancient church to-day is occupied by the Protestants, and the
edifice has been divided up in a somewhat sacrilegious manner in order
to provide within its walls for a library and a museum.

Strasburg has another great church in St. Thomas, a vast ogival edifice
which has some good glass, but which is remarkable above all else for
the number of its sepulchral monuments, both ancient and modern.

At the end of the choir is found one of those wonders of French
sculpture, an allegorical grouping of figures on the tomb of Marechal de
Saxe.

It was erected in 1777 by Pigalle by the order of Louis XV. For a
background it has a pyramid of gray marble, at the base of which is the
following inscription:

MAVRITIO SAXONI
CVRLANDIAE ET SEMIGALLIAE DVCI
SVMMO REGIORVM EXERCITVVM
PRAEFECTO
SEMPER VICTORI
LVDOVICVS XV
VICTORIARVM AVCTOR ET IPSE DVX
PONI IVSSIT
OBIIT XXX NOV. ANNO MDCCL. AETATIS
LV.

Standing in the centre of the pyramid is a figure of the marechal
descending toward th