MISCELLANIES. 



515 



principal street in tlie town, a 

 large palace, such as Copenhagen 

 perhaps cannot match, rises above 

 the other buildings, and is con- 

 spicuous at a distance of more than 

 two English miles. It is built in a 

 simple and noble style, and pro- 

 duces a striking effect ; but it is 

 composed of wood. The boards, 

 through sun and moisture, are in a 

 perpetual motion : in the side ex- 

 posed to the sun they are quite 

 dried, and draw the building down. 

 Whatever ought to be uniform 

 and regular, becomes distorted, and 

 all the little ornaments which 

 should aid the general impression, 

 in the course of time grow disfi- 

 gured, and serve only to excite an 

 unpleasant idea of disorder and de- 

 cay. The evil cannot be remedied 

 «vithout pulling the house entirely 

 down, and building it anew. This 

 great town-house (Stiftsamthause) 

 does not yet, it is true, exhibit 

 such a ruinous ap|>earance; but 

 it is the inevitable fate of all 

 wooden edifices. I never passed 

 this immense palace without ex- 

 periencing a strong feeling of re- 

 gret, that it was not built of ma- 

 terials worthy of its simple gran- 

 deur. It will long remaiii a mo- 

 nument of the good taste and sub- 

 limity of idea of the respectable 

 general, Von Krogh, who con- 

 structed it; but if it were of 

 stone, it would serve as a perpe- 

 tual monument, and a model to 

 preserve a feeling for good taste 

 alive in Dronthcim. The general 

 was not at full liberty in his erec- 

 tion. The building has been sold 

 to the king, and is now the resi- 

 dence of the chief magistrate, and 

 the public bodies of the district. 



The remains of the old and 

 highly-celebrated cathedral, to 



which the whole of the north 

 formerly went in pilgrimage for the 

 remission of their sins on the 

 grave of St. Oluf, stand at the end 

 of the same street. The great and 

 extensive ruins yet remain to bear 

 witness to their former state, not- 

 withstanding the town has beea 

 seven times burnt to the ground, 

 and that Swedish plundering par- 

 ties have also contributed their 

 share to the general devastation. 

 It is still evident that there is no 

 edifice in Norway to be compared 

 with it, and that even yet it is the 

 largest in the whole country. 

 Should the downfall of Drontheim 

 be decreed by fate, and its revival 

 be transferred to another situation, 

 these ruins would still keep alive 

 the recollection of the place, the 

 people, and their actions. It will 

 never be completely annihilated 

 like the wooden towns of Hammer 

 and Intin, or the eastern cities of 

 Babylon, Ctesiphon, and Nineveh, 

 built of brick, ai.d cemented with 

 bitumen. From the remains, which 

 point out very distinctly the extent 

 of the building, this cathedral ap- 

 peared to be much larger than even 

 the cathedral of Magdeburg : the 

 choir alone is at present the princi- 

 pal church of the town. There is 

 more external ornament, however, 

 about the cathedral of Magde- 

 burg; but if we dare trust the 

 description, the inside of thechurch 

 of St. Oluf exceeded every thing 

 of the kind which was known. 



This Munkegade is a noble 

 street, such as few towns can boast 

 of. It runs through the whole 

 breadth of the town to the shores 

 of the Fiord, and the buildings on 

 both sides of the street are very 

 respectable. The charming island 

 of Munkholm, with the castle^ 



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