n German and French Gothic are not so
numerous as to render a very minute analysis of the Gothic of Germany
requisite in order to make them clear.

The plans of German churches usually show internal piers; and columns
occur but rarely. The churches have nave and aisles, transepts and
apsidal choir; but they are peculiar from the frequent use of apses at
the ends of the transepts, and also from the occurrence, in not a few
instances, of an apse at the west end of the nave as well as at the
east end of the choir. They are almost invariably vaulted.

As the style advanced, large churches were constantly planned with
double aisles, and the western apse disappeared. Some German church
plans, notably those of Cologne Cathedral (Fig. 46) and the great
church of St. Lawrence at Nuremberg, are fine specimens of regularity
of disposition, though full of many parts.

[Illustration: FIG. 46.--COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. GROUND PLAN. (BEGUN
1248.)]

_Walls, Towers, and Gables._

The German architects delighted in towers with pointed roofs, and in a
multiplicity of them. A highly characteristic feature is a tower of
great mass, but often extremely low, covering the crossing. The
Cathedral at Mayence shows a fine example of this feature, which was
often not more than a low octagon. Western towers, square on plan, are
common, and small towers, frequently octagonal, are often employed to
flank the choir or in combination with the transepts. These in early
examples, are always surmounted by high roofs; in late ones, by stone
spires, often of rich open tracery. A very characteristic feature of
the round arched Gothic churches is an arcade of small arches
immediately below the eaves of the roof and opening into the space
above the vaults (Fig. 45). This is rarely wanting in churches built
previous to the time when the French type was followed implicitly.

The gables are seldom such fine compositions as in France, or even in
Italy; but in domestic and secular buildings many striking gabled
fronts occur, the gable being often stepped in outline and full of
windows.

_Roofs and Vaults._

Vaults are universal in the great churches, and German vaulting has
some special peculiarities, but they are such as hardly come within
the scope of this hand-book. Roofs, however, are so conspicuous that
in any general account of German architecture attention must be paid
to them. They were from very early times steep in pitch and
picturesque i