Lost Valleys of the Imagination...: Empress for a Day

So I realize that I haven't spent a lot of time talking about my classes. In fact, I'm not sure I've mentioned them at all. I could blame this on the fact that I've only been in class for two weeks now, but in reality it's just because they've taken a back seat to all of the Europe/ traveling things. (Ok, how much does that NOT sound like me? Since when does school take a back seat to anything?) Anyway, now it's time to talk about class.

Today was one of those days where everything you talk about in one class matched what you discussed in the next. This morning in my Baylor class, we were covering the Protestant Reformation, leaning heavily on Martin Luther before turning toward Calvin, the Anabaptists, and then back to the Catholic church. We were discussing the internal conflicts of the church around Luther's time, primarily settling into a discussion on the selling of indulgences and the collecting of relics. And what do you suppose we did half an hour later in Dutch Art History? Low and behold, we high tailed it over to the nearest Catholic Church, St. Servaas, for a bit of relic gazing. There were the bones of St. Servatious, Something that belonged to St. Barbara (written in Dutch so I'm not sure what), and a real live piece of the "actual" cross. This however is not what was amazing about our visit to St. Servaas.

The first wooden church built near the grave of St. Servatious was constructed in the 500s and was replaced in the 700s by a stone church. The "new" part of the church was built in the 1100s. That was primarily why we were there, to look at the Gothic Architecture, identify some characteristics, and compare the different styles of the church to one another.

Just for the betterment of us all I'll share a little before continuing with my story. The easiest way to tell the difference between Roman architecture and Gothic architecture is in the arches. As everyone knows the Romans perfected the arch to be able to support structures, but slowly (I believe this change occured around 1000-1100) the arched became more pointed which mean it could hold more weight. You could built much much higher than before. So these pointed arched take over in Gothic Cathedrals and that's how you get the insanely high ceilings like with Notre-Dame in Paris. Later during the Renaissance, architects and men of taste decided that the churches and other buildings were disporportionate with other aspects of of the building. I don't quite understand what they meant by this, but they were revolted enough by this that they called the architecture style barbaric or gothic, in reference to the Visigoths, a tribe of warriors that gave the Roman Empire a great deal of problems.

Alright, now that we're all a little smarter now, let me continue with the story. So, were standing in the hallway and an older man walks up as we're about to turn

and go into the sanctuary and starts talking to our professor in Dutch. He was rattling a thing of keys in his hand. Good sign. There are certain advantages to being a school group, and we all got to feel that today. At first, our new tour guide took up into the basement of the church directly under the altar to show us the different burial sights they found after some excavation (the church sits on an Ancient Roman burial ground). This however, is not where our private tour stopped. We then followed along the edge of the Sanctuary (I was trying to discretely take pictures with my iphone, so forgive the blurriness) to the back where he lifted a heavy bronze plaque to reveal a secret room underneath- the tomb of the architect of the building.

This wasn't all for past a rope barrier he lead us to a wooden door hidden in the back corner of the church. It opened up to a spiral stone staircase, just like you see in castles during the movies. Suddenly we found ourselves in the choir loft!

(Isn't it magnificent?)
From here our professor (who was a bit in disbelief I think) translated to us that every church at the time, at least the respectable ones, held a room for the Emperor to view Mass. The Emperor was the only one permitted to view Mass from above instead of peering over heads from the floor. So his room was located much higher in the church. Guess what?

Being in this room was like stepping into a mausoleum. The walls were solid stone with windows inset into arches. In the center, however the ceiling rose to a high dome, and floor is some sort of decorative stone. As you enter the main room the wall to the left is traditionally left open with arched windows. Today, there are only small windows through which you can see into the Sanctuary. (If you do, you realize that your above even the chandeliers!) Traditionally no one would have been permitted this view except the Emperor. Yet we still went higher.

Above the rows of windows there was a doorway. It was built to match the other arched spaces, but it would be pointless for a window to be here, because it lead to the space above the sanctuary. Now, I don't have a fear of heights per se, but I do have a fear of falling which means everything is dependent of strange variables: height, if I can see this height, what material the thing I'm standing on is made of, etc. However, I believe that sometimes you have to just suck it up because in 20 years, or 20 minutes, you'll end up regretting it. So that's what I did.