The cathedral of Cologne is at once its ornament and its reproach. It
was begun in 1248 by the elector Conrad, more than six hundred years
ago, but it is not yet finished, although the present Prussian king is
expending vast sums upon it. Since the city has passed under the
Prussian dominion, and more especially since the accession of the
present king, important aid has been obtained from the government. The
unfinished towers are rising year by year; and if the annual supplies
that have been granted are continued, another fifteen years may possibly
see it completed. The estimated expense of finishing it is five million
dollars. It is considered as a very fine specimen of the Gothic
architecture. One tower, that on the front, is completed. This cathedral
is exceedingly gorgeous in decorations, combining all the features that
belong to that species of architecture. The choir is finished, and
exceeds in splendid beauty almost everything of the kind which the
traveler will meet with in Europe. It is very rich in stained glass, and
this is true also of the body of the church. Much of the pictured glass
is modern: it is set in the same window with the ancient, and is not
inferior to it in splendor. The cathedral is paved with rude, common
stones, doubtless intended to be temporary only, and to be in due time
replaced by marble. It was originally intended that the towers of this
cathedral should be five hundred feet high. The dimensions on the ground
are four hundred feet by one hundred and eighty. The nave is supported
by one hundred columns, of which the middle ones are forty feet in
circumference.