Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-26
FOUNDED ON LEGEND
City of HiIdesheim Dedicated
to Saxon Goddess.
ITS ARCHITECTURE FAMOUS
All the Buildings in State Of Perfect
Preservation.
SPECIMENS OF TEUTONIC TYPE
Stories Handed Down From the An
clients Upon Which Romantic
History Is Based.
ITS ARCHITECTURE FAMOUS
,PECIMENs OF TEUToN1C TYPE
ny WILLIAM f. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald.
II YOU will take a trolley car in front of
the opera house in Hanover some MORN
ing and ride thirty miles through the
neatest and smartest looking gardens you
ever saw you will be carried right into
the middle ages. and YOU would better
take your luggage along. because you
will want to stay there. The southern
terminus Of that trolley road is the
quaintest, most fascinating and most
fantastic town in all Germany. 1t IS
called Hildesheim. which in English
means 'Hilda's Home" and was dedi-
Gated to the Saxon goddess Hilda. who
was converted to Christianity and became
st. Hilda.
Another st. Hilda, a descendant of the
royal Northumbrian line Of England was
the founder OF a celebrated nunnery at
Whitby, near London. in the middle of the
seventh century, which was $50 years
before the Hilda that I am talking about
was born. Both were romantic and in
teresting characters.
Renowned for Architecture.
The city Of Hildesheim Is renowned
above all other places in Germany for its
perfect examples of medieval Teutonic
architecture. It surpasses in picturesque
ness Nuremburg. Rothenberg, Brunswick.
Augsburg and every other place. Those
towns have quaint old houses with high
pitched roofs, narrow trefoil windows,
ioophoed watch turrsts. overhansing pro-
Jections on brackets, sharp gables. tiers
Of wooden frieZes covered With gro
tesque carvings and paintings. But the
greater part Of Hiidesheim is made up OF
such buildings.
There is nothing else. and they are in
state OF perfect preservation. The catne-
dray. which Is neariy a thousand years
old, and several other churches are per-
fectly preserved, and a dozen or twenty
streets are lined on both sides by the
finest specimens Of ancient Teutonic type
that exist. And what gives them adolf
tional interest Is the legends connected
with them and the traditions of the an
cient aristocracy which supported the
who ruled this part of
Germany for more than thousand years.
Poetic Legend.
There are several legends to account
for the existence OF Hildesheim, which /
may call the antique gem de luxe of
Germany The most poetic is that 1,O05
years ago. in 1915, when Emperor Louis
the Pious. a son of Charlemagne, was
hunting on the outskirts of the Harz
in following a deer he lost his.
way and his horse and his game In try
ing to find his camp he swan the river
Innerste. which flows through the center
of Hi.desheim today, and When he LANDED
on the other side he found a beautiful
bush OF white roses covering a mound
sacred to the ancient Saxon goddess
Hilda. AS he sat there to rest, while his
clothes were. drying, he drew from his
bosom casket In which he carried for
good luck and for preservation from peril
several relics of the Blessed Virgin. After
a prayer for her intercession to
guide him back to his camp, he fell into
a deep sleep. When he awoke his body
and every object around him were buried
in snow. although 1t was midsummer
The trees that sheltered him were in full
foliage, the roses were fresh and sweet,
and even more brilliant in color than they
were when he first saw them. The pagan
goddess had been shaking her feather
bed. as the German fairy stories explain
and had gwen him a sign Of
great significance.