Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1870-10-15
The Strasburg Cathedral Clock and
Library,

One of the most amentable results of
the siege of Strasburg, leaving out of
view the loss of hIman life, is the injury
which the bombardment has inflicted
upon the noble cathedral and its won
dertul astronomical clock. The vast
cathedral, which, perhaps, more than
any other one thing, has made the name
OF Strasburg celebrated, is one of the
finest gothic buildings in Europe. Ii,
was founded A. d. 5G4. The choir was
built by Charlemagne, probably about
A. ID. 800, though it was not completed
until l439. The material of which the
cathedral is built is of brown stone, very
much resembling our Connecticut Port
land treestone, SO extensively used in
Filth avenue, 1t was obtained from
quarry at Wassebonne, in the valley of
Couronne, few miles from Strasburg.
The architect Of the existing edfice was
Edwin Won Steinbach o. Baden. One
John Huells of Cologne was the archi-
tect of the peerless tower. It's spire is
the lottiest in the world. It's height 466
feet, surpasses St. Peters and is about
equal to that of the great Pyramid. The
greater part of the entire structure was
destroyed by !ightniqg in 1907, and the
restored edlfice was begun in ll05 and
completed in l439. The cathedral was
in every part richly decorated with sculp-
lures; and the western front, rising to 4
height Of two hundred and thirty feet is
or was, particularly fine with its wealth
of statues, ornamental carvings, and has
reliets. IL has circular window forty
eight feet in diameter, TIE Prussian
heavy artillery has made, it is said, a
ruin Of part of the vast building.
The astronomical clock, the product of
a German clockmaker, in about the year
1860, is n marvel OF ingenuity and me-
chanical skill, and has no counterpart.
1t performs not only the ordinary SER
vice of clock, but exhibits the days,
and the months, and the years the pro-
cess OF the seasons the signs of the
zodiac, and the names and movements of
the heavenly bodies. AT each quarter
hour an angel comes Ogt and strikes one
stcke on bell at every hour another
angel c mes out and strikes twice and
at IL, meridian. figure of Christ appears,
accompanied by the twelve apostles, all
OF whom move around a central point
and pass in, out of sight, by another
hour, the stroke OF twelve being given
and a cock flaps his wings and crows.
The clock is enormous in size, like every
thing else connected with the vast calhe-
dral, and is invisible from the outside
street.-The spectator passing through
to see it. 1t has suffered from fire and
violence before the present war, having
been out of repair and motionless since
the revolution Of 1898, until the year
1912, when il was repaired by a watch
maker OF Bass Rhine, and has been in
operation since. Ii is to be hoped that
this ingenious piece of mechanism has
not been irreparably injured by the pres
ent bombardment.
The loss Of the Strasburg library-a
vast collection of 100000 volumes, in
Guiding many collections of rare and
curious monkish parchments-is totalau
irreparable, it eau never be replaced by
any collection hereafter made II was
the slow result of a thousand years; and
its destruction by FIRE caused by the
Prussian hot shot, is like the Alexandrian
library in this, that q great number of
the works destroyed no duplicates eau
ever be obtained.