ROMANESQUE EXTERIORS ginning, and where they were carried out, they ended in spires of moderate pitch such as those at Southwell. The outside appearance of Romanesque churches thus differed just as widely from that of Early Christian churches as their interiors. While at S. Apollinare Nuovo the exterior hardly mattered—even church 16. HILDESHEIM: ST. MICHAEL'S, BEGUN SHORTLY AFTER 1000 (AXONO- METRIC RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL STATE). towers, when they were introduced, stood separate from their churches—a few Carolingian and then most larger Romanesque churches were designed to display variety and magnificence outside as well as inside. St. Michael's at Hildesheim with its two choirs, towers over both crossings and staircase turrets on both ends of both transepts, is the earliest surviving example of a truly Romanesque exterior (fig. 16). Altogether Germany was eminently important for the develop- 23