Gothic Church on a Rock by the Sea

It is dusk and a group of riders is moving towards the sea, most probably to embark in the harbor. The wind coming up from the sea tugs at their clothes and violently shakes the trees and the bushes. The scene is almost completely in darkness with the setting sun hidden behind the Gothic church that rises up majestically on a rock right by the water, as though it had originally formed as part of the natural rock. The transition from land to sea is like a cliff there, and the house of God seems like a vision bathed in an auspicious glow, a telling image of the Christian world view. Schinkel’s leaning towards narrative and drama shows his close affinity with the poets of German Romanticism such as Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim, whose influence accounted for Schinkel’s preference for old German themes and medieval architecture in his works. In those days, it was generally thought that the Gothic style was German in origin, which in itself explains the enthusiasm among the Romantics for that period and its architecture, particularly during the period 1813 to 1815 with its groundswell of patriotism.