TWILIGHT AND DAWN FROM THE 6TH TO THE IOTH CENTURY

nated the columns on the ground floor. Simple wide openings alter-
nate with short, sturdy piers. The plainness and massiveness of this
ground floor (and also of the giant niche of the facade) strike a note
utterly different from the subtle spatial harmonies of S. Vitale. Yet
the upper floors with their polished antique columns, superimposed
in two orders, re-echo something of the transparency, and the floating
of space from one unit into another, which make the beauty of
Justinian's churches.

Aachen sums up the historic position of Carolingian architecture

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7, FULDA: ABBEY CHURCH, BEGUN 802.
at the extreme end of Early Christian and at the beginning of Western
developments. Roman-Christian intentions—it is eminently signifi-
cant that on Christmas Day of the year 800 Charlemagne made the
Pope crown him with the crown of a new Holy Roman Empire—
are everywhere traceable but appear marred or in other cases rejuve-
nated by the naive vigour of an unskilled, but very determined,
somewhat barbarous youth. Of the major churches of which we
know some are in plan surprisingly pure Early Christian—St. Denis
and Fulda derive directly from St. Peter's.and the other Roman
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