Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/741

given way to modern improvements. Only one side, for example, of the famous Judengasse or Jews’ Street is now standing, the other having been demolished since 1870; but the visitor can still see the house where Ludwig Börne was born in 1786, and the dingy and unpretentious premises of No. 148 which saw the rise of the Rothschild family. When the whole of what remains of this street has been pulled down and rebuilt, as it must be ere long, there will still be many less celebrated parts of the old city of no small interest as eloquent relics of bygone conditions of life. In the modern quarters Frankfort will compare favourably, both in the general appearance of the streets and in the architectural character of individual buildings, with all except a very few of the greater cities of the Continent; and almost every year this is becoming more certainly true. Among the more spacious streets are the Schöne Aussicht or Beautiful Prospect along the Main, the Kaiser-Strasse or Emperor Street, and the Zeil. The business of the city is largely concentrated in the Zeil, the Rossmarkt or Horse Market, the Kaiser-Strasse, Friedens-Strasse, and their immediate vicinity.

Plan of Frankfort-on-the-Main.
1.	Bethmann’s Museum.	16.	Cathedral and Dom Platz.
2.	Bethmann’s Monument.	17.	St Paul’s Church and Platz.
3.	Hessian Monument.	18.	Goethe’s House.
4.	Senckenberg Museum.	19.	Städel Institute.
5.	Taxis Palace.	20.	Römer or Townhouse.
6.	Barracks.	21.	St Leonard’s Church.
7.	Schiller’s Monument.	22.	Saalhof (Picture Gallery).
8.	Hauptwache.	23.	Library.
9.	St Catherine’s Church.	24.	Strangers’ Hospital.
10.	Post-Office.	25.	Exchange.
11.	Goethe’s Monument and Platz.	26.	Bank.
12.	French Reformed Church.	27.	German Reformed Church.
13.	Gutenberg’s Museum.	A.	Jews’ Market and Infirmary.
14,	15.  Barracks.	B.	Liebfrauenberg and Cathedral.

The principal ecclesiastical building in Frankfort is the cathedral of St Bartholomew’s, which is situated not far from the river between the Domplatz on the N. and the Weekmarkt on the S. The date of its first foundation is not precisely known. A church called Salvator’s was erected on the site by Louis the German at least as early as 874 A.D., and he enriched it with considerable donations, and instituted a chapter of twelve priests and an abbot. Charles the Fat not only confirmed his father’s gifts in 882, but he added a nona or ninth of the produce of Frankfort, Trebur, Ingelheim, Kreiznach, and other royal domains. In the 12th century the church obtained possession of the skull of St Bartholomew, and by the early part of the 13th it appears to have been known as St Bartholomew’s church. The building was by that time in a very dilapidated condition; and consequently Pope Gregory IX. urged the faithful of the diocese of Mainz to contribute to its restoration. When in 1315 the church was appropriated to the religious ceremonies connected with the coronation of the emperors, it was found necessary to enlarge its dimensions. The eastern portion, consisting of the choir and two towers, was pulled down and rebuilt on a larger scale about 1338, and in the same century the wings of the transepts and the imperial election chapel were added. The so-called Pfarrthurm or Parson’s Tower was built between 1414 and 1512. In 1855 the interior was renovated; but on the night of the 14th August 1867 the whole building was laid in ruins by a conflagration. In 1869 F. J. Denziger, chief architect of the Ratisbon (or Regensburg) cathedral was entrusted with the work of restoration, and his task has been steadily prosecuted. The only portions of the enterprize uncompleted in 1878 were the cloister and the grand organ. In the interior are still to be seen the high altar at which after 1562 the imperial coronations were celebrated, the tombstone of the emperor Günther of Schwarzburg, who died in Frankfort in 1349, and the tombstone of Rudolph, the last knight of Sachsenhausen, who died in 1371. The other Catholic churches are Leonhardskirche and Liebfrauenkirche, and the Deutschhauskirche in Sachsenhausen. St Leonhard’s ranks second to the cathedral in point of antiquity, and is said to occupy the site of the palace of Charles the Great. It possesses a stained glass window above the high altar, with a Lord’s Supper by Hans Holbein. Our Lady’s Church was founded in 1322 by Schöffen Weigel of Wambach, was made collegiate in 1326, and underwent a restoration in the second half of the 18th century. St Paul’s (Paulskirche), the principal church of the Evangelical Lutherans, was built between 1786 and 1833 on the site of the old church of the Minorites, and is mainly interesting as the seat of the national parliament of 1848–49. The church of St Nicholas (Nicolaikirche) dates from the 13th century, and has a fine cast-iron spire erected in 1843. From 1570 to 1721, and again from 1813 to 1841, it was used as a warehouse. St Catherine’s was built about 1678–1680 on the site of an older building famous in Frankfort history as the place where the first Protestant sermon was preached in 1522. The principal synagogue—there are three altogether—is a Mauro-Byzantine structure erected between 1855 and 1860 in room of an older synagogue of the 15th century. Of the secular buildings in Frankfort perhaps the most characteristic is the Rathhaus or Römer, which by a strange coincidence bears a name suggestive of, though not derived from, its principal historical associations. It was here, in the Wahlzimmer or election room, that the electors or their plenipotentiaries decided the choice of the emperors, and here, in the Kaisersaal or emperor’s hall, the coronation festival was held, at which the new recipient of the crown dined with the electors after having shown himself from the balcony to the people assembled in the Römerberg, as the open place in front of the building is called. The building dates from the 15th century, and occupies the site of the Golden Swan and two private houses which from time immemorial had borne the name of the Römer. The Kaisersaal retained its antique appearance till 1843; but it is now ornamented with a series of modern paintings by Veit, Jung, Ballenberger, and a score of other German artists representing the “German” emperors from Charlemagne to Francis II., in all fifty-two. The palace of the prince of Thurn and Taxis is a large building in the old French style of considerable historical interest: from 1806 to 1810 it was the residence of the “prince-primate,” or head of the confederation of the Rhine; after the battle of Leipsic it was occupied by Francis I. of Austria; and from 1816 to 1866 the parliament of the German confederation held its sessions within its walls. The Eschenheim Tower is a pic-