ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

CH. xvm] GERMAN ROMANESQUE 5The original choir was short, like that of S. Vitale, and Aix-iain1353 it was replaced by the present long building TheP cholr(Fig. 64), a veritable lantern of late German Gothic.Its expanded circular end issupposed to represent on thesame foundations the tomb-house of Otho III who diedin1 002 and who was supposed by some to have re-builtCharlemagne's church. Fergusson believes the truth tobe that he built himself a tomb-house where the choirnow ends, which the i4th century architect united by thepresent choir to the 8th century building. There can belittledoubt that we have in the Dom of Aix-la-Chapellethe basilica, opere mirabili constructa yof which Eginhardtwrites.Some would have it that Eginhardt himself, who is Eginhardtdescribed as " operwm regalium exactor" and " variarumartinm doctor peritissimus" was the architect of thebuilding. It is more probable that like Julianus Argentariusat Ravenna he was the administrator of theexpenses.Coeval with Charlemagne's basilica at Aquisgranum, Lorschor possibly a little earlier, is the little chapel at LORSCH,near Worms, which is generally supposed to be partof the monastery dedicated in the presenceof Charlemagnein 774 (Plate LXXXIII).It was originally agatehouse two storeys high, with three open arches in frontand three behind. The floor has been removed and thethree arches of the back built up in order to convert itinto a chapel. The altar stands against the centralblocked arch under an additional arch on columns andcapitals, which is planted on the wall and encloses theoriginal central arch.This inner, additional arch is in a totally differentstyle from the building, and is decorated with zigzags like