Historical Sketch of the Cathedral of Strasburg Part 2

We shall add one word more on the _foundations_ of the Cathedral.

Every one knows the old story, according to which this edifice rests on piles, between each of which it were possible to go in boats on ca.n.a.ls extending even under the place Gutenberg. As far back as the seventeenth century, they dug to a considerable depth, and have since several times renewed the experiments, to ascertain the nature of the foundations, that have been found to lie very deep and to be very solid, formed of masonry reposing on clay mixed with gravel; under a portion of the nave this bottom is reinforced by oaken piles.

Through a door on the right of saint Catharine's chapel you enter the area of the workhouse of the stone-cutters of the Cathedral (_Steinhutte_). These workmen, even to this day form a particular corporation that seems to have originated in the days of Erwin of Steinbach; at all events it is a certain fact that the masons of the Cathedral were from the beginning a body, distinct from the ordinary masons; that they have not admitted among them every one who presented himself, and that they had secret signs to know one another. This (_loge_) society of the masons of the Cathedral has become the cause of many others in Germany; Dotzinger, the successor of John Hultz as architect of this church, united them all in one body; a general meeting of the masters or chiefs of the different _loges_, held at Ratisbon in 1459, adopted certain rules and regulations, and chose as their grand-masters the architects of the Cathedral of Strasburg, where the princ.i.p.al loge or lodge (_Haupthutte_) was established. Maximilian I confirmed the establishment and the rules of this corporation on the 3d October 1498. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it was transferred to Mayence.

It has already been stated that at a very remote period the Cathedral had received rich and important donations composing the _[OE]uvre-Notre-Dame_, the revenues of which were originally under the direction of the bishops; but as they squandered them away leaving the building to decay, the chapter a.s.sumed their administration in 1263, after the war between the town and Walter of Geroldseck; however, the canons did no better and in 1290 the magistrate of the city was obliged to take back from them the management of the revenues. The estate and income of the _[OE]uvre_, employed only for keeping in good order and for repairing the Cathedral church, are still managed like other property that belongs to the city; the collector of the revenues is appointed by the city corporation, who also names the architect and sculptor of the _[OE]uvre_. The receiver's office is in a handsome house (_Frauenhaus_), built in 1581, after the taste of those times, situated opposite the South side of the Cathedral. In that house, where the old plans of the church and the pieces of the old clockwork, above mentioned, are carefully preserved, we have also to admire the light and elegant construction of the staircase.