This  combination  is  ingenious,  but  the  effect  is  heavy.  The
dimensions  which  are  necessarily  given  to  the  timbers  dwarf
the  lower  parts.  It  is  a  kind  of  compromise  between  some
churches  in  the  Netlierlands  and  certain  of  our  modern  ones,
in  which  barrel  vaults  have  recently  been  constructed.  Still,
while  accepting  ideas  of  this  nature,  it  is  evidently  an  advan-
tage, with  regard  both  to  the  appearance,  the  construction,  and
the  durability,  to  substitute,  as  we  have  done,  stone  arches  for
the  wooden  tie-beams  from  which  the  vaults  spring.
The  most  important  modern  ecclesiastical  building  in  Hanover
is  the  new  synagogue,  the  architect  of  which  is  Mons.  Oppler.
The  synagogue  was  anciently  the  place  where  the  Jews  met
to  pray,  to  read  and  expound  the  sacred  Scriptures.  This  cus-
tom has  not  been  changed ;  and  the  Hebrew  worship,  after  the
lapse  of  three  thousand  years,  requires  no  modification  of  the
arrangement  according  to  which  the  temple  of  Solomon  was
built.  It  seems,  therefore,  at  first  sight,  that  tlie  plan  of  this
temple  ought  to  have  been  adopted  for  all  synagogues  in  every
country ;  but,  though  the  creed  and  mode  of  worship  have  not
been  altered,  the  requirements  of  different  climates  are  not  the
same.  It  was  necessary  to  unite  the  modern  necessities  of  the
West  with  the  conditions  required  by  a  religion  which  origi-


196


GERMANY.
nated  in  the  East,  and  to  plan  an  edifice  whicli  by  its  form,  its


Fig.  104.— Interior  of  a  Churcli  in  .^gidien-stadt,  Hanover.
ei%^  -m.
mz:M


11     m    m


mwm


'o      1


_u


_L


'0    J     ;>         <t  '6\/r*

Fig.  105.  —  Ground-plan  of  the  same.
