for other resorts of a similar nature elsewhere.

There can be no question but that Charlemagne's church at Aix, while it
is itself a rather vivid memory of Ravenna, is the prototype of much
church-building elsewhere. The round churches of Germany followed in due
course, while, in respect to some details, the cathedral has been
claimed to be the forerunner of the true Gothic. At any rate, there is
a reflection of its dome in that which terminates the centre of the
cross of St. Fedele at Como. The similarity goes to prove that
Charlemagne's industry in church-building in Italy was as great as his
desire of conquest.

The church at Aix-la-Chapelle was frankly designed as the tomb of
Charlemagne, and that perhaps accounts for the combining of the rotunda
of a ceremonial edifice with that of a basilica intended solely for
worship. Part of it was undoubtedly the work of the Comacine builders
whom Charlemagne brought from Italy, and part is nothing more than an
importation or adaptation of classical and Byzantine adornments.

Charlemagne's architects studied geography and climate well when they
erected this link between the Romanesque-Lombardic style of the south
and the Gothic of the north.

That portion of the present cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle which was built
by Charlemagne is the octagonal projection toward the east. It forms a
truly regal mausoleum, and for twelve hundred years has well stood the
march of time.

It is supposed to have been the most magnificent church edifice of
Charlemagne's era throughout all Europe, though it was seriously
injured by an earthquake a few years after its completion.

[Illustration: AIX-LA-CHAPELLE CATHEDRAL]

Later it was plundered by the Normans, and it suffered disastrous fires
in 1146, 1234, 1236, and 1656, having in consequence undergone many
material changes.

Its external features have been considerably added to, but the prototype
of the round and octagonal churches, subsequently erected in Germany, is
here visible to-day in all its comparative novelty.

The granite and porphyry columns which support the arches giving upon
the interior of the octagon were once taken and carried to Paris, but
fortunately they were returned and again put into position.

The choir of the church, as it now is, was not begun until 1353, and was
finished in the century following. It is pure Gothic of the most
approved variety, whereas the octagon church is as pure Romanesque; and
the two