| Moorish architecture is a term used to describe the Islamic architecture of North Africa and parts of Spain and Portugal where the Moors were dominant from 711-1492. The best surviving examples are La Mezquita in Cordoba and the Alhambra palace (mainly1338-1390), and also the Giralda in 1184. | ||
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| the interior view of the Mezquita
Construction of the Great Mosque at Cordoba beginning in 785 AD marks the beginning of Islamic architecture in the Iberian peninsula and North Africa (see Moors). The mosque is noted for its striking interior arches. Moorish architecture reached its peak with the construction of the Alhambra, the magnificent palace/fortress of Granada, with its open and breezy interior spaces adorned in red, blue, and gold. The walls are decorated with stylize foliage motifs, Arabic inscriptions, and arabesque design work, with walls covered in glazed tile. Even after the completion of the Reconquista, Islamic influence had a lasting impact on the architecture of Spain. In particular, medieval Spaniards used the Mudéjar style, an imitation of Islamic design. One of the best examples of the Moors’ lasting impact is the Alcázar of Seville. |
Moorish architecture
7 DecSoft Portuguese style
24 Nov| Soft Portuguese style also known as Nationalistic style, Traditionalistic style and New State style
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| Areeiro Square building in Lisbon | Bank branch building in Santarém | |
| The Soft Portuguese style (Portuguese: Estilo Português Suave) is an architectural model used in public and private buildings in Portugal, essentially during the 1940s and the early 1950s. This architectural style is also known as Nationalistic style, Traditionalistic style and New State style, but this last denomination is not very correct, since during the Portuguese New State Regimen diverse architectural styles have been applied in public buildings.
History The Soft Portuguese appeared from the ideas of several Portuguese architects that, already since the beginning of the 20th century, looked to create a “genuine Portuguese Architecture”. One of the mentors of this current was architect Raul Lino, creator of the theory of the “Portuguese house”. The result of this current was the creation of a style of architecture that used the modernist characteristics of engineering, masked by a mixture of exterior aesthetic elements removed from the ancient and traditional architecture of Portugal. The Portuguese New State, authoritarian nationalist regimen born from the the revolution of 1926 and led by Oliveira Salazar, initiated a policy of public works in wide scale, beginning in the 1930s. Initially, in the new public buildings, a monumental modernist style prevailed, with Art Deco characteristics. However, after the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940, whose chief architect was Jose Cottinelli Telmo, the Portuguese Government started to prefer the Nationalistic Style for its new public constructions. This style was used in all the types of buildings, since the small rural elementary schools to the big high schools and university faculties, passing by military barracks, courts of justice, hospitals, town halls, etc. Beyond Portugal, this style was also wide used in public buildings of the Portuguese overseas territories of Africa, Asia and Oceania. The style also reached great popularity in the private sector, being used in all the types of buildings, from the single-family houses to apartment buildings, passing by office, commercial and even industrial buildings. The style was severely attacked by a great number of architects who had accused it of being provincial and devoid of imagination. The assignment, for which the style finished for being commonly known, “Soft Portuguese”, was given to it ironically by its critics, who had compared it with a similarly-named brand of cigarettes. The biggest blow in the style was given in the Portuguese National Congress of Architecture of 1948, that originated that it was, gradually, left of being used in the public and particular constructions. From middle of 1950s, the public works promoted by the New State had come back to use the modernist architecture styles. Despite the critics by many intellectuals, the Soft Portuguese style proved to be popular, corresponding to the tastes of the Portuguese people. Its characteristics, although attenuated, had come back to be present in innumerable private buildings, specially since the 1990s. Characteristics The typical buildings of the Architecture of the Soft Portuguese used the modern techniques of engineering, making use of concrete structures and of high constructive quality. However, in contrast to the modernists buildings, here, the modern technique is masked to the maximum by pure ornamental elements. The ornamental elements in the style are removed from the architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries and from the Portuguese regional architecture styles. Typically, decorative elements are used as rustic rock, picked tiled roofs, pinnacles, pilasters, balconies, etc. Is is also common the existence of arches and towers topped with nationalistic and symbolic elements. |
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Neo-Manueline Architecture
14 Jul |
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| Neo-Manueline façade of Rossio Railway Station in Lisbon | The Neo-Manueline Real Gabinete Portuguez de Leitura in Rio de Janeiro | Pena Palace in Sintra by Ferdinand II between 1839 and 1849 |
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| Pena Palace in Sintra | restoration of the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon during the 1860s, in which the Manueline monastery gained a new tower and annexes built in Neo-Manueline style | Torre_de_Belem |
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| Palace Hotel of Bussaco (1888-1907) | Palace Hotel of Bussaco (1888-1907) | Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra (1904-1910) |
| Neo-Manueline was a revival architecture and decorative arts style developed in Portugal between the middle of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX Century. The style adopted the characteristics of the Manueline (or Portuguese Final Gothic) of the XVI century.
The term manuelino was introduced in 1842 by Brazilian art historian Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen to designate the exuberant artistic style that developed during the reign of Manuel I of Portugal (1495-1521). The Manueline style coincided with the Age of Discovery and the peak of Portuguese maritime power. In the sequence of the Gothic Revival architecture fashion that spread for all over Europe since the middle of the XVIII century, the Manueline style was considered the most authentical Portuguese architectural style. Neo-Manueline started with the construction of the Pena Palace in Sintra by Ferdinand II between 1839 and 1849. Another pioneering project was the restoration of the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon during the 1860s, in which the Manueline monastery gained a new tower and annexes built in Neo-Manueline style (which now house the Maritime Museum and the National Archaeology Museum). During this time the iconic Belém Tower was also restored with several Neo-Manueline additions. Neo-Manueline eventually spread to the colonies and former Portuguese colonies. In Brazil there are several Neo-Manueline buildings, usually built by Portuguese associations. The most important of these is the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura (Royal Portuguese Library), built between 1880 and 1887 by Portuguese immigrants in the centre of Rio de Janeiro[4]. Other important Neo-Manueline buildings, in Portugal, are Rossio Railway Sation, Lisbon (1886-1890), Palace Hotel of Bussaco (1888-1907), the Sintra Town Hall (1906-1909), the Counts of Castro Guimarães Palace in Cascais (1900) and the Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra (1904-1910). The Neo-Manueline was also used in smaller buildings like private houses. In Brazil, apart from the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura (Royal Portuguese Library), Rio de Janeiro (1880-1887), Neo-Manueline buildings include the Portuguese Center in Santos (Centro Português de Santos, 1898-1901), the Portuguese Library of Bahia (1915-1918) and the Portuguese Literary Liceum (Liceu Literário Português) in Rio de Janeiro (1938). Other examples of Neo-Manueline buildings can also be found in African and Asian territories of the former Portuguese Colonial Empire. There are also some examples of Neo-Manueline style in countries that were not directly related with the Portuguese culture. A fine example is Morozov Palace (1894-1898) in Moscow, Russia.
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Pombaline style architecture
20 Jun
Typical building in Baixa Pombalina in the Pombaline style
The Pombaline style was a Portuguese architectural style of the 18th century, named after Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquês de Pombal who was instrumental in reconstructing Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755. Pombal supervised the plans drawn up by the military engineers Manuel da Maia, Eugénio dos Santos and Elias Sebastian Pope (later succeeded by Carlos Mardel). The new city (mostly the Baixa area now called Baixa Pombalina) was laid out on a grid plan with roads and pavements fixed at 40ft wide. The previously standing royal palace was replaced with the Praça do Comércio which along with square Rossio defines the limits of the new city. Maia and Santos also outlined the form of the facades that were to line the streets, conceived on a hierarchical scheme whereby detail and size were delineated by the importance of the street. These were in a notably restrained neoclassical style partly the result of limited funds and the urgency of building but also thanks to the enlightenment concept of architectural rationality adhered to by Pombal. A standardized system of decoration was applied both inside and out with a distinctively reduced application of azulejo tiling.
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The Pombaline
The Pombaline is again, like the plain style, the result of a necessity and made by Portugal’s spirit of initiative. It’s named Pombaline in memory of Marquis of Pombal, King D. José’s powerful minister and the kingdom’s true ruler. His willpower made such work possible. It’s important to make a reference to architects Manuel da Maia and Carlos Mardel, authors de facto of the main ideas and projects.
It’s an intelligent architecture, proposing the first anti-seismic system and the first pre-manufactured method in the world for construction on a large scale. Its a flexible wooden structure implanted on the walls, floors and roofs, later covered by pre-manufactured building materials, which “shakes but doesn’t fall”. Lisbon’s downtown, called Baixa, the most affected area, is build over unstable ground, and it is necessary to reinforce the whole area. Another anti-seismic system was needed, made with a real forest of buried poles. Because they are exposed to salty water, there is no danger of rotting, for the reason that it keeps the wood’s natural elasticity. A city is protected, for the first time in the world, with such a big-scale revolutionary method.
The pre-manufactured system is completely new. The building is entirely manufactured outside the city, transported in pieces and then assembled in situ. For the first time, a city is build like this. While the reconstruction works of the city last well into the nineteenth century, a few years later, still in the king’s life, the population was adequately lodged in conditions that were nonexistent before the earthquake. Lisbon is completely changed. The medieval streets give place to an orthogonal city, organizing the area between the city old squares, Rossio and Terreiro do Paço, now with a modern design. Large spaces, gorgeous light and good ventilation, missing in the medieval city, are now features of the city. The Terreiro do Paço, with a new name – Praça do Comércio, without the Royal Palace, moved west, is open to the Tejo River and is planned to receive governmental buildings. It’s dominated by two twin towers, inspired by the former Royal Palace tower, with a statue of King D. José, by Machado de Castro, and receives a triumph arc, built only in the nineteenth century, following a different project, symbol of the triumph over the earthquake. The Rossio square lost the old and destroyed Hospital de Todos os Santos, and remains the city “Forum”, trying to keep its popular character, despite the elegant buildings. The buildings’ typology depends of the streets’ significance.
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The Pombaline building is a structure with up to four floors, with arcades on the ground floor to allow for shops, balconies on the first floor and attic. All buildings follow the same typology. The small decorative details in the façade depend on the significance of the place. The buildings are isolated by walls, to stop possible fires from spreading, and respect the maximum dimensions imposed – four floors were the ideal size to prevent further disaster. The construction of the palaces is also regulated, and forced to be unostentatious (a very unpopular situation among the aristocracy), allowing for decoration only in the portal. Their windows are just a little more elegant than those of the lodging building. The churches follow the spirit of the time. The number is severely reduced, following the same construction orientation. Some architectural decoration outside and a very clear typology. Single room buildings with side altars, internal decoration following Rococo taste, simulated materials in wood and plaster, several paintings (Pedro Alexandrino de Carvalho made the best works) and some sculpture. The spaces are nice and light despite the pre-manufactured construction and the Rococo taste. The most important churches are Santo António da Sé (at the place where St. Anthony was born), Incarnação, São Domingos, Madalena, Mártires and many others. Keeping the aesthetic vocabulary and decorative pre-manufactured elements they all have an individual character. In buildings less wrought by destruction, the idea was to match pombaline shapes with the old decoration.
Vila Real de Santo António on the Algarve is an example of a village built after the Pombaline way.
The simplicity is total. This functional spirit, eliminating all extras, including decoration, and imposing a rational soberness, is not, in fact, completely Rococo. It reflects the illuminist spirit and a strong neoclassical character, even without classical architectural shapes. The importance of the Reason for Pombaline architecture has been systematically ignored by the European art history, wishing to see French Rococo or neoclassicism in all countries. It’s almost too modern for its time.
Style History- Portuguese Gothic architecture
2 JunPortuguese Gothic architecturePortuguese Gothic architecture is the architectural style prevalent in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages. As in other parts of Europe, Gothic style slowly replaced Romanesque architecture in the period between the late 12th and the 13th century. Between the late 15th and early 16th century, Gothic was replaced by Renaissance architecture through an intermediate style called Manueline.
Churches and monasteries
Gothic architecture was brought to Portugal by the Cistercian Order. The first fully Gothic building in Portugal is the church of the Monastery of Alcobaça, a magnificent example of the clear and simple architectural forms favoured by the Cistercians. The church was built between 1178 and 1252 in three phases, and seems inspired by the Abbey of Clairvaux, in the Champagne. Its three aisles are very tall and slender, giving an exceptional impression of height. The whole church is covered by rib vaulting and the main chapel has an ambulatory and a series of radiant chapels. The vault of the ambulatory is externally supported by flying buttresses, typical features of Gothic architecture and a novelty at the time in Portugal.
After the foundation of Alcobaça, the Gothic style was chiefly disseminated by mendicant orders (mainly Franciscan, Augustinians and Dominicans). Along the 13th and 14th centuries, several convents were founded in urban centres, important examples of which can be found in Oporto (São Francisco Church), Coimbra (Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha), Guimarães (São Francisco, São Domingos), Santarém (São Francisco, Santa Clara), Elvas (São Domingos), Lisbon (ruins of Carmo Convent) and many other places. Mendicant Gothic churches usually had a three-aisled nave covered with wooden roof and an apse with three chapels covered with rib vaulting. These churches also lacked towers and were mostly devoid of architectural decoration, in tone with mendicant ideals. Mendicant Gothic was also adopted in several parish churches built all over the country, for instance in Sintra (Santa Maria), Mafra, Lourinhã and Loulé.
Many of the Romanesque cathedrals were modernised with Gothic elements. Thus, the Romanesque nave of Oporto Cathedral is supported by flying buttresses, one of the first built in Portugal (early 13th century). The apse of Lisbon Cathedral was totally remodelled in the first half of the 14th century, when it gained an Gothic ambulatory illuminated by a clerestory (high row of windows on the upper storey). The ambulatory has a series of radiant chapels illuminated with large windows, contrasting with the dark Romanesque nave of the cathedral. An important transitional building is Évora Cathedral, built during the 13th century; even though its floorplan, façade and elevation are inspired by Lisbon Cathedral, its forms (arches, windows, vaults) are already Gothic. Many Gothic churches maintained the fortress-like appearance of Romanesque times, like the already-mentioned Évora Cathedral, the Church of the Monastery of Leça do Balio (14th century) near Matosinhos, and even as late as the 15th-century, with the Main Church of Viana do Castelo.
Several Gothic cloisters were built and can still be found in the Cathedrals of Oporto, Lisbon and Évora (all from the 14th century) as well as in monasteries like Alcobaça, Santo Tirso and the Convent of the Order of Christ.
In the early 15th century, the building of the Monastery of Batalha, sponsored by King John I, led to a renovation of Portuguese Gothic. After 1402, the works were trusted to Master Huguet, of unknown origin, who introduced the Flamboyant Gothic style to the project. The whole building is decorated with Gothic pinnacles (crockets), reliefs, large windows with intrincate tracery and elaborate crenellations. The main portal has a series of archivolts decorated with a multitude of statues, while the tympanum has a relief showing Christ and the Evangelists. The Founder’s Chapel and the Chapter House have elaborate star-ribbed vaulting, unknown in Portugal until then. Batalha influenced 15th-century workshops like those of Guarda Cathedral, Silves Cathedral and monasteries in Beja (Nossa Senhora da Conceição) and Santarém (Convento da Graça).
Another Gothic variant was the so-called Mudéjar-Gothic, which developed in Portugal towards the end of the 15th century, specially in the Alentejo region. The name Mudéjar refers to the influence of Islamic art in the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, specially in the Middle Ages. In the Alentejo and elsewhere, Mudéjar influence in several buildings is evident in the profile of windows and portals, often with horseshoe arches and a mullion, circular turrets with conical pinnacles, Islamic merlons etc, as well as tile (azulejo) decoration. Examples include the portico of St Francis Church of Évora, the courtyard of the Sintra Royal Palace and several churches and palaces in Évora, Elvas, Arraiolos, Beja, etc. Múdejar eventually intermingled with the Manueline style in the early 16th century.
Castles and palaces
During the Gothic era, several castles had to be either built or reinforced, especially along the border with the Kingdom of Castille. Compared to previous castles, Gothic castles in Portugal tended to have more towers, often of circular or semi-circular plan (to increase resistance to projectiles), keep towers tended to be polygonal, and castle gates were often defended by a pair of flanking towers. A second, lower wall curtain (barbicans) were often built along the perimeter of the main walls to prevent war machines from approaching the castle. Features like machicolations and improved arrowslits became also widespread.
Starting in the 14th century, keep towers became larger and more sophisticated, with rib vaulting roofs and facilities like fireplaces. Keep towers with improved residential characteristics can be found in the castles of Beja, Estremoz and Bragança, while some later castles (15th century) became real palaces, like those in Penedono, Ourém and Porto de Mós. The most significant case is the Castle of Leiria, turned into a royal palace by King John I. Some rooms of the palace are decorated with splendid Gothic loggias, from which the surrounding landscape could be appreciated by the King and Queen.
Main façade of Silves Cathedral (15th century).
Municipality of Guimarães with Gothic gallery (early 16th century).
Style History- Gothic architecture
31 May| Gothic architecture is a style of architecture, particularly associated with cathedrals and other churches, which flourished in Europe during the high and late medieval period. Beginning in 12th century France, it was known as “the French Style”, with the term Gothic first appearing in the Reformation era as a stylistic insult.It was succeeded by Renaissance architecture beginning in Florence in the 15th century.
A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th century England, spread through 19th century Europe and continued, largely for ecclesiastical and university structures, into the 20th century. Origin
The Term “Gothic” Characteristics As a defining characteristic of Gothic Architecture, the pointed arch was introduced for both visual and structural reasons. Visually, the verticality suggests an aspiration to Heaven. Structurally, its use gives a greater flexibility to Architectural form. The Gothic vault, unlike the semi-circular vault of Roman and Romanesque buildings, can be used to roof rectangular and irregularly shaped plans such as trapezoids. The other advantage is that the pointed arch channels the weight onto the bearing piers or columns at a steep angle. In Gothic Architecture the pointed arch is utilised in every position where an arched shape is called for, both structural and decorative. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and galleries have pointed arches. Gothic vaulting over spaces both large and small is usually supported by richly moulded ribs. Rows of arches upon delicate shafts form a typical wall decoration known as blind arcading. Niches with pointed arches and containing statuary are a major external feature. The pointed arch leant itself to elaborate intersecting shapes which developed within window spaces into complex Gothic tracery forming the structural support of the large windows that are characteristic of the style.
Gothic cathedrals could be highly decorated with statues on the outside and painting on the inside. Both usually told Biblical stories, emphasizing visual typological allegories between Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament. Important Gothic churches could also be severely simple. At the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Saint-Maximin, Provence (illustration, right), the local traditions of the sober, massive, Romanesque architecture were still strong. The basilica, begun in the 13th century under the patronage of Charles of Anjou, was laid out on an ambitious scale (it was never completed all the way to the western entrance front) to accommodate pilgrims that came to venerate relics. Building in the Gothic style continued at the basilica until 1532. In Gothic architecture new technology stands behind the new building style. The Gothic cathedral was supposed to be a microcosm representing the world, and each architectural concept, mainly the loftiness and huge dimensions of the structure, were intended to pass a theological message: the great glory of God versus the smallness and insignificance of the mortal being. Brick Gothic
In Northern Germany, Scandinavia and northern Poland, in areas where native stone was unavailable, simplified provincial gothic churches were built of brick. The resultant style is called Backsteingotik in Germany and Scandinavia. The biggest brick gothic building is the Teutonic Knights Castle of Malbork in Poland and the biggest brick gothic church is the St. Mary’s Church, Gdańsk in Gdansk. The most famous example in Denmark is Roskilde Cathedral. Brick gothic buildings were associated with the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Knights. There are over one hundred brick gothic castles in northern Poland, Baltic States, and western Russia. Sequence of Gothic Styles: France Early Gothic These divisions are effective, but debatable. Because Gothic cathedrals were built over several successive periods, each period not necessarily following the wishes of previous periods, the dominant architectural style changes throughout a particular building. Consequently, it is often difficult to declare one building as a member of a certain era of Gothic architecture. It is more useful to use the terms as descriptors for specific elements within a structure, rather than applying it to the building as a whole.
Early Gothic: The East end of the Abbey Church of St Denis High Gothic: Amiens Cathedral The nave of the Abbey Church of St Denis Late Gothic: The north tower of Chartres Cathedral Sequence of Gothic styles: England
Salisbury Cathedral detail Early English (ca 1180 – 1275) Salisbury Cathedral Exeter Cathedral King’s College Chapel, Cambridge Secular Gothic Architecture in England Gothic revival
Chateau d’Abbadie, Hendaye, France: a Gothic pile for the natural historian and patron of astronomy Antoine d’Abbadie, 1860 – 1870; Viollet-le-Duc, architect In England, some discrete Gothic details appeared on new construction at Oxford and Cambridge in the late 17th century, and at the archbishop of Canterbury’s residence Lambeth Palace, a Gothic hammerbeam roof was built in 1663 to replace a building that had been sacked during the English Civil War. It is not easy to decide whether these instances were Gothic survival or early appearances of Gothic revival,. In England in the mid-18th century, the Gothic style was more widely revived, first as a decorative, whimsical alternative to Rococo that is still conventionally termed ‘Gothick’, of which Horace Walpole’s Twickenham villa “Strawberry Hill” is the familiar example. Then, especially after the 1830s, Gothic was treated more seriously in a series of Gothic revivals (sometimes termed Victorian Gothic or Neo-Gothic). The Houses of Parliament in London are an example of this Gothic revival style, designed by Sir Charles Barry and a major exponent of the early Gothic Revival, Augustus Pugin. Another example is the main building of the University of Glasgow designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. In France, the towering figure of the Gothic Revival was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who outdid historical Gothic constructions to create a Gothic as it ought to have been, notably at the fortified city of Carcassonne in the south of France and in some richly fortified keeps for industrial magnates (illustration, left). Viollet-le-Duc compiled and coordinated an Encyclopédie médiévale that was a rich repertory his contemporaries mined for architectural details but also include armor, costume, tools, furniture, weapons and the like. He effected vigorous restoration of crumbling detail of French cathedrals, famously at Notre Dame, many of whose most “Gothic” gargoyles are Viollet-le-Duc’s. But he also taught a generation of reform-Gothic designers and showed how to apply Gothic style to thoroughly modern structural materials, especially cast iron. Gothic in the 20th Century
Gasson Hall on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts Neo-Gothic continued to be considered appropriate for churches and college buildings well into the 20th century. Charles Donagh Maginnis’s early buildings at Boston College helped establish the prevalence of Collegiate Gothic architecture on American university campuses, such as at Chicago, Princeton, Yale and Duke. It was also used, perhaps less appropriately, for early steel skyscrapers. Cass Gilbert produced his 1907 90 West Street building and the 1914 Woolworth Building, both in Manhattan, in a neo-Gothic idiom. It was Raymond Hood’s neo-Gothic tower that won the 1922 competition for the Chicago Tribune Tower, a late example of the vertical style that has been called “American Perpendicular Gothic.” Another Gothic structure of interest is the jailhouse built in DeRidder, Louisiana in 1914. The iron bars in most of the windows give the structure an eerie appearance. The structure includes shallow arches, dormer windows and has a central tower. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Cathedral is also a neo-Gothic structure. The last prominent Gothic architect in America was probably Ralph Adams Cram, working in the 1910s and 1920s. With partner Bertram Goodhue they produced many good examples, like the sensitive and clever French High Gothic St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York with its asymmetrical, urban facade in the heart of Manhattan. Working alone, Cram took up the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, what he meant to be the largest cathedral and largest Gothic struture in the world, again in French High Gothic. It remains unfinished. Both St. Thomas and St. John the Divine are built without steel. List of notable Gothic structures England
Spain
Gothic House in Stargard Szczeciński Slovakia
St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague with unfinished tower finished as baroque , a feature typical of many real-life gothic churches Czech Republic Further reading |
| Gothic architectureGothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture.
Originating in 12th-century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known during the period as “the French Style” (Opus Francigenum), with the term Gothic first appearing during the latter part of the Renaissance as a stylistic insult. Its characteristic features include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and parish churches of Europe. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities, and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings. It is in the great churches and cathedrals and in a number of civic buildings that the Gothic style was expressed most powerfully, its characteristics lending themselves to appeal to the emotions. A great number of ecclesiastical buildings remain from this period, of which even the smallest are often structures of architectural distinction while many of the larger churches are considered priceless works of art and are listed with UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. For this reason a study of Gothic architecture is largely a study of cathedrals and churches. A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for ecclesiastical and university structures, into the 20th century. The term “Gothic” The term “Gothic”, when applied to architecture, has nothing to do with the historical Goths. It was a pejorative term that came to be used as early as the 1530s by Giorgio Vasari to describe culture that was considered rude and barbaric as a put down per se.[1] At the time in which Vasari was writing, Italy had experienced a century of building in the Classical architectural vocabulary revived in the Renaissance and seen as the finite evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and refinement. The Renaissance had then overtaken Europe, overturning a system of culture that, prior to the advent of printing, was almost entirely focused on the Church and was perceived, in retrospect, as a period of ignorance and superstition. Hence, François Rabelais, also of the 16th century, imagines an inscription over the door of his Utopian Abbey of Thélème, “Here enter no hypocrites, bigots…” slipping in a slighting reference to “Gotz” and “Ostrogotz.”[2] In English 17th-century usage, “Goth” was an equivalent of “vandal”, a savage despoiler with a Germanic heritage and so came to be applied to the architectural styles of northern Europe from before the revival of classical types of architecture. According to a 19th-century correspondent in the London Journal Notes and Queries: There can be no doubt that the term ‘Gothic’ as applied to pointed styles of ecclesiastical architecture was used at first contemptuously, and in derision, by those who were ambitious to imitate and revive the Grecian orders of architecture, after the revival of classical literature. Authorities such as Christopher Wren lent their aid in deprecating the old mediæval style, which they termed Gothic, as synonymous with every thing that was barbarous and rude.[3][4] On 21 July 1710, the Académie d’Architecture met in Paris, and among the subjects they discussed, the assembled company noted the new fashions of bowed and cusped arches on chimneypieces being employed “to finish the top of their openings. The Company disapproved of several of these new manners, which are defective and which belong for the most part to the Gothic.” Regional At the end of the 12th century Europe was divided into a multitude of city-states and kingdoms. The area encompassing modern Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, eastern France and much of northern Italy, excluding Venice, was nominally under the authority of the Holy Roman Empire, but local rulers exercised considerable autonomy. France, Scotland, Spain and Sicily were independent kingdoms, as was England, whose Plantagenet kings ruled large domains in France.[6] Norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by Germany. Throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns.[7][8] Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with each other, or united for mutual weal, as in the Hanseatic League. Civic building was of great importance to these towns as a sign of wealth and pride. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their dukes, rather than grand town halls for their burghers. Materials A further regional influence was the availability of materials. In France, limestone was readily available in several grades, the very fine white limestone of Caen being favoured for sculptural decoration. England had coarse limestone, red sandstone as well as dark green Purbeck marble which was often used for architectural features. In Northern Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Baltic countries and northern Poland local building stone was unavailable but there was a strong tradition of building in brick. The resultant style, Brick Gothic, is called “Backsteingotik” in Germany and Scandinavia. In Italy, stone was used for fortifications, but brick was preferred for other buildings. Because of the extensive and varied deposits of marble, many buildings were faced in marble, or were left with undecorated facades so that this might be achieved at a later date. The availability of timber also influenced the style of architecture. It is thought that the magnificent hammer-beam roofs of England were devised as a direct response to the lack of long straight seasoned timber by the end of the Medieval period, when forests had been decimated not only for the construction of vast roofs but also for ship building.[7][9] Batalha Monastery, Portugal, is an important example of a monastery with its church and other significant buildings dating from the Gothic period. Religious The early Medieval periods had seen a rapid growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent and spreading their influence widely. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in England. Part of their influence was that they tended to build within towns, unlike the Cistercians whose ruined abbeys are seen in the remote countryside. The Cluniac and Cistercian Orders were prevalent in France, the great monastery at Cluny having established a formula for a well planned monastic site which was then to influence all subsequent monastic building for many centuries. In the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi established the Franciscans, or so-called “Grey Friars”, a mendicant order. Its off-shoot, the Dominicans, founded by St. Dominic in Toulouse and Bologna, were particularly influential in the building of Italy’s Gothic churches. Architectural Gothic architecture grew out of the previous architectural genre, Romanesque. For the most part, there was not a clean break, as there was later to be in Renaissance Florence with the sudden revival of the Classical style by Brunelleschi in the early 15th century. Romanesque tradition Romanesque architecture, or Norman architecture as it is generally termed in England because of its association with the Norman invasion, had already established the basic architectural forms and units that were to remain in slow evolution throughout the Medieval period. The basic structure of the cathedral church, the parish church, the monastery, the castle, the palace, the great hall and the gatehouse were all established. Ribbed vaults, buttresses, clustered columns, ambulatories, wheel windows, spires and richly carved door tympanums were already features of ecclesiastical architecture.[10] The widespread introduction of a single feature was to bring about the stylistic change that separates Gothic from Romanesque, and broke the tradition of massive masonry and solid walls penetrated by small openings, replacing it with a style where light appears to triumph over substance. The feature that brought the change is the pointed arch. With its use came the development of many other architectural devices, previously put to the test in scattered buildings and then called into service to meet the structural, aesthetic and ideological needs of the new style. These include the flying buttresses, pinnacles and traceried windows which typify Gothic ecclesiastical architecture.[7] Eastern influence The influence of Islamic architecture on the Gothic can be most clearly seen in Spain, as at Salamanca Cathedral. The pointed arch had its origins in ancient Assyrian architecture where it occurs in a number of structures as early as 720 BC. It passed into Sassanian-Persian architecture and from the conquest of Persia in 641 AD, became a standard feature of Islamic architecture. The Norman conquest of Islamic Sicily in 1090, the Crusades which began in 1096 and the Islamic presence in Spain all brought back the knowledge of this significant structural device. It is probable also that decorative carved stone screens and window openings filled with pierced stone also influenced Gothic tracery. In Spain in particular individual decorative motifs occur which are common to both Islamic and Christian architectural mouldings and sculpture. Concurrent with its introduction and early use as a stylistic feature in French churches, it is believed that the pointed arch evolved naturally in Western Europe as a structural solution to a purely technical problem. Abbot Suger Abbot Suger, friend and confidante of the French Kings, Louis VI and Louis VII, decided in about 1137, to rebuild the great Church of Saint-Denis, attached to an abbey which was also a royal residence. Suger began with the West front, reconstructing the original Carolingian facade with its single door. He designed the façade of Saint-Denis to be an echo of the Roman Arch of Constantine with its three-part division and three large portals to ease the problem of congestion. The rose window is the earliest-known example above the West portal in France. At the completion of the west front in 1140, Abbot Suger moved on to the reconstruction of the eastern end, leaving the Carolingian nave in use. He designed a choir (chancel) that would be suffused with light. To achieve his aims his architects drew on the several new features which evolved or been introduced to Romanesque architecture, the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the ambulatory with radiating chapels, the clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and the flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestory windows. The new structure was finished and dedicated on June 11, 1144, in the presence of the King. The Abbey of Saint-Denis thus became the prototype for further building in the royal domain of northern France. It is often cited as the first building in the Gothic style. A hundred years later, the old nave of Saint-Denis was rebuilt in the Gothic style, gaining, in its transepts, two spectacular rose windows. Through the rule of the Angevin dynasty, the style was introduced to England and spread throughout France, the Low Countries, Germany, Spain, northern Italy and Sicily. Characteristics of Gothic churches and cathedrals In Gothic architecture, a unique combination of existing technologies established the emergence of a new building style. Those technologies were the ogival or pointed arch, the ribbed vault, and the flying buttress. The Gothic style, when applied to an ecclesiastical building, emphasizes verticality and light. This appearance was achieved by the development of certain architectural features, which together provided an engineering solution. The structural parts of the building ceased to be its solid walls, and became a stone skeleton comprising clustered columns, pointed ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. A Gothic cathedral or abbey was, prior to the 20th century, generally the landmark building in its town, rising high above all the domestic structures and often surmounted by one or more towers and pinnacles and perhaps tall spires. Plan Most Gothic churches, unless they are entitled chapels, are of the Latin cross (or “cruciform”) plan, with a long nave making the body of the church, a transverse arm called the transept and beyond it, an extension which may be called the choir, chancel or presbytery. There are several regional variations on this plan. The nave is generally flanked on either side by aisles, usually singly, but sometimes double. The nave is generally considerably taller than the aisles, having clerestory windows which light the central space. Gothic churches of the Germanic tradition, like St. Stephen of Vienna, often have nave and aisles of similar height and are called Hallenkirche. In the South of France there is often a single wide nave and no aisles, as at Sainte-Marie in Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. In some churches with double aisles, like Notre Dame, Paris, the transept does not project beyond the aisles. In English cathedrals transepts tend to project boldly and there may be two of them, as at Salisbury Cathedral, though this is not the case with lesser churches. The eastern arm shows considerable diversity. In England it is generally long and may have two distinct sections, both choir and presbytery. It is often square ended or has a projecting Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In France the eastern end is often polygonal and surrounded by a walkway called an ambulatory and sometimes a ring of chapels called a chevette. While German churches are often similar to those of France, in Italy, the eastern projection beyond the transept is usually just a shallow apsidal chapel containing the sanctuary, as at Florence Cathedral.[7][10][14] Origins The defining characteristic of Gothic architecture is the pointed or ogival arch. Arches of this type were used in Islamic architecture before they were used structurally in European architecture, and are thought to have been the inspiration for their use in France, as at Autun Cathedral, which is otherwise stylistically Romanesque.[7] However, it appears that there was probably simultaneously a structural evolution towards the pointed arch, for the purpose of vaulting spaces of irregular plan, or to bring transverse vaults to the same height as diagonal vaults. This latter occurs at Durham Cathedral in the nave aisles in 1093. Pointed arches also occur extensively in Romanesque decorative blind arcading, where semi-circular arches overlap each other in a simple decorative pattern, and the points are accidental to the design. Functions The Gothic vault, unlike the semi-circular vault of Roman and Romanesque buildings, can be used to roof rectangular and irregularly shaped plans such as trapezoids. The other structural advantage is that the pointed arch channels the weight onto the bearing piers or columns at a steep angle. This enabled architects to raise vaults much higher than was possible in Romanesque architecture. While, structurally, use of the pointed arch gave a greater flexibility to architectural form, it also gave Gothic architecture a very different visual character to Romanesque, the verticality suggesting an aspiration to Heaven. In Gothic Architecture the pointed arch is used in every location where a vaulted shape is called for, both structural and decorative. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and galleries have pointed arches. Gothic vaulting above spaces both large and small is usually supported by richly moulded ribs. Rows of pointed arches upon delicate shafts form a typical wall decoration known as blind arcading. Niches with pointed arches and containing statuary are a major external feature. The pointed arch lent itself to elaborate intersecting shapes which developed within window spaces into complex Gothic tracery forming the structural support of the large windows that are characteristic of the style. Height A characteristic of Gothic church architecture is its height, both real and proportional. A section of the main body of a Gothic church usually shows the nave as considerably taller than it is wide. In England the proportion is sometimes greater than 2:1, while the extreme is reached at Cologne Cathedral with a ratio of 3.6:1. The extreme of actual internal height was achieved at Beauvais Cathedral at 157′ 6″ (48 m). Externally, towers and spires are characteristic of Gothic churches both great and small, the number and positioning being one of the greatest variables in Gothic architecture. In Italy, the tower, if present, is almost always detached from the building, as at Florence Cathedral, and is often from an earlier structure. In France and Spain, two towers on the front is the norm. In England, Germany and Scandinavia this is often the arrangement, but an English cathedral may also be surmounted by an enormous tower at the crossing. Smaller churches usually have just one tower, but this may also be the case at larger buildings, such as Salisbury cathedral or Ulm Minster, which has the tallest spire in the world,[15] slightly exceeding that of Lincoln Cathedral, the tallest which was actually completed during the medieval period, at 527 feet (160 m). Vertical emphasis The pointed arch lends itself to a suggestion of height. This appearance is characteristically further enhanced by both the architectural features and the decoration of the building.[14] On the exterior, the verticality is emphasised in a major way by the towers and spires and in a lesser way by strongly projecting vertical buttresses, by narrow half-columns called attached shafts which often pass through several storeys of the building, by long narrow windows, vertical mouldings around doors and figurative sculpture which emphasises the vertical and is often attenuated. The roofline, gable ends, buttresses and other parts of the building are often terminated by small pinnacles, Milan Cathedral being an extreme example in the use of this form of decoration. On the interior of the building attached shafts often sweep unbroken from floor to ceiling and meet the ribs of the vault, like a tall tree spreading into branches. The verticals are generally repeated in the treatment of the windows and wall surfaces. In many Gothic churches, particularly in France, and in the Perpendicular period of English Gothic architecture, the treatment of vertical elements in gallery and window tracery creates a strongly unifying feature that counteracts the horizontal divisions of the interior structure. Light One of the most distinctive characteristics of Gothic architecture is the expansive area of the windows as at Sainte Chapelle and the very large size of many individual windows, as at York Minster, Gloucester Cathedral and Milan Cathedral. The increase in size between windows of the Romanesque and Gothic periods is related to the use of the ribbed vault, and in particular, the pointed ribbed vault which channeled the weight to a supporting shaft with less outward thrust than a semicircular vault. Walls did not need to be so weighty. A further development was the flying buttress which arched externally from the springing of the vault across the roof of the aisle to a large buttress pier projecting well beyond the line of the external wall. These piers were often surmounted by a pinnacle or statue, further adding to the downward weight, and counteracting the outward thrust of the vault and buttress arch as well as stress from wind loading. The internal columns of the arcade with their attached shafts, the ribs of the vault and the flying buttresses, with their associated vertical buttresses jutting at right-angles to the building, created a stone skeleton. Between these parts, the walls and the infill of the vaults could be of lighter construction. Between the narrow buttresses, the walls could be opened up into large windows. Through the Gothic period, due to the versatility of the pointed arch, the structure of Gothic windows developed from simple openings to immensely rich and decorative sculptural designs. The windows were very often filled with stained glass which added a dimension of colour to the light within the building, as well as providing a medium for figurative and narrative art.[14] Majesty The facade of a large church or cathedral, often referred to as the West Front, is generally designed to create a powerful impression on the approaching worshipper, demonstrating both the might of God, and the might of the institution that it represents. One of the best known and most typical of such facades is that of Notre Dame de Paris. Central to the facade is the main portal, often flanked by additional doors. In the arch of the door, the tympanum, is often a significant piece of sculpture, most frequently Christ in Majesty and Judgment Day. If there is a central door jamb or a tremeu, then it frequently bears a statue of the Madonna and Child. There may be much other carving, often of figures in niches set into the mouldings around the portals, or in sculptural screens extending across the facade. In the centre of the middle level of the facade, there is a large window, which in countries other than England and Belgium, is generally a rose window like that at Reims Cathedral. The gable above this is usually richly decorated with arcading or sculpture, or in the case of Italy, may be decorated, with the rest of the facade, with polychrome marble and mosaic, as at Orvieto Cathedral The West Front of a French cathedral and many English, Spanish and German cathedrals generally has two towers, which, particularly in France, express an enormous diversity of form and decoration. However, some German cathedrals have only one tower located in the middle of the facade (such as Freiburg Münster). Basic shapes of Gothic arches and stylistic character The way in which the pointed arch was drafted and utilised developed throughout the Gothic period. There were fairly clear stages of development, which did not, however, progress at the same rate, or in the same way in every country. Moreover, the names used to define various periods or styles within the Gothic differs from country to country. Lancet arch The simplest shape is the long opening with a pointed arch known in England as the lancet. Lancet openings are often grouped, usually as a cluster of three or five. Lancet openings may be very narrow and steeply pointed. Salisbury Cathedral is famous for the beauty and simplicity of its Lancet Gothic, known in England as the Early English Style. York Minster has a group of lancet windows each fifty feet high and still containing ancient glass. They are known as the Five Sisters. These simple undecorated grouped windows are found at Chartres and Laon Cathedrals and are used extensively in Italy. Windows in the Chapter House at York Minster show the equilateral arch with typical circular motifs in the tracery. Equilateral arch Many Gothic openings are based upon the equilateral form. In other words, when the arch is drafted, the radius is exactly the width of the opening and the centre of each arch coincides with the point from which the opposite arch springs. This makes the arch higher in relation to its width than a semi-circular arch which is exactly half as high as it is wide.[7] The Equilateral Arch gives a wide opening of satisfying proportion useful for doorways, decorative arcades and big windows. The structural beauty of the Gothic arch means, however, that no set proportion had to be rigidly maintained. The Equilateral Arch was employed as a useful tool, not as a Principle of Design. This meant that narrower or wider arches were introduced into a building plan wherever necessity dictated. In the architecture of some Italian cities, notably Venice, semi-circular arches are interspersed with pointed ones.[16] The Equilateral Arch lends itself to filling with tracery of simple equilateral, circular and semi-circular forms. The type of tracery that evolved to fill these spaces is known in England as Geometric Decorated Gothic and can be seen to splendid effect at many English and French Cathedrals, notably Lincoln and Notre Dame in Paris. Windows of complex design and of three or more lights or vertical sections, are often designed by overlapping two or more equilateral arches. Flamboyant arch The Flamboyant Arch is one that is drafted from four points, the upper part of each main arc turning upwards into a smaller arc and meeting at a sharp, flame-like point. These arches create a rich and lively effect when used for window tracery and surface decoration. The form is structurally weak and has very rarely been used for large openings except when contained within a larger and more stable arch. It is not employed at all for vaulting. Some of the most beautiful and famous traceried windows of Europe employ this type of tracery. It can be seen at St Stephen’s Vienna, Sainte Chapelle in Paris, at the Cathedrals of Limoges and Rouen in France, and at Milan Cathedral in Italy. In England the most famous examples are the West Window of York Minster with its design based on the Sacred Heart, the extraordinarily rich seven-light East Window at Carlisle Cathedral and the exquisite East window of Selby Abbey. Doorways surmounted by Flamboyant mouldings are very common in both ecclesiastical and domestic architecture in France. They are much rarer in England. A notable example is the doorway to the Chapter Room at Rochester Cathedral. The style was much used in England for wall arcading and niches. Prime examples in are in the Lady Chapel at Ely, the Screen at Lincoln and externally on the facade of Exeter Cathedral. In German and Spanish Gothic architecture it often appears as openwork screens on the exterior of buildings. The style was used to rich and sometimes extraordinary effect in both these countries, notably on the famous pulpit in Vienna Cathedral. Depressed arch The Depressed or four-centred arch is much wider than its height and gives the visual effect of having been flattened under pressure. Its structure is achieved by drafting two arcs which rise steeply from each springing point on a small radius and then turn into two arches with a wide radius and much lower springing point.[7] This type of arch, when employed as a window opening, lends itself to very wide spaces, provided it is adequately supported by many narrow vertical shafts. These are often further braced by horizontal transoms. The overall effect produces a grid-like appearance of regular, delicate, rectangular forms with an emphasis on the perpendicular. It is also employed as a wall decoration in which arcade and window openings form part of the whole decorative surface. The style, known as Perpendicular, that evolved from this treatment is specific to England, although very similar to contemporary Spanish style in particular, and was employed to great effect through the 15th century and first half of the 16th as Renaissance styles were much slower to arrive in England than in Italy and France.[7] It can be seen notably at the East End of Gloucester Cathedral where the East Window is said to be as large as a tennis court. There are three very famous royal chapels and one chapel-like Abbey which show the style at its most elaborate- King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; St George’s Chapel, Windsor; Henry VII’s Chapel at Westminster Abbey and Bath Abbey.[9] However very many simpler buildings, especially churches built during the wool boom in East Anglia, are fine examples of the style. Symbolism and ornamentation The Gothic cathedral represented the universe in microcosm and each architectural concept, including the loftiness and huge dimensions of the structure, were intended to convey a theological message: the great glory of God. The building becomes a microcosm in two ways. Firstly, the mathematical and geometrical nature of the construction is an image of the orderly universe, in which an underlying rationality and logic can be perceived. Secondly, the statues, sculptural decoration, stained glass and murals incorporate the essence of creation in depictions of the Labours of the Months and the Zodiac[17] and sacred history from the Old and New Testaments and Lives of the Saints, as well as reference to the eternal in the Last Judgment and Coronation of the Virgin. The Devil tempting the Foolish Virgins at Strasbourg. The decorative schemes usually incorporated Biblical stories, emphasizing visual typological allegories between Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament.[8] Many churches were very richly decorated, both inside and out. Sculpture and architectural details were often bright with coloured paint of which traces remain at the Cathedral of Chartres. Wooden ceilings and panelling were usually brightly coloured. Sometimes the stone columns of the nave were painted, and the panels in decorative wall arcading contained narratives or figures of saints. These have rarely remained intact, but may be seen at the Chapterhouse of Westminster Abbey. Some important Gothic churches could be severely simple such as the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Saint-Maximin, Provence where the local traditions of the sober, massive, Romanesque architecture were still strong. Regional differences Wherever Gothic architecture is found, it is subject to local influences, and frequently the influence of itinerant stonemasons and artisans, carrying ideas between cities and sometimes between countries. Certain characteristics are typical of particular regions and often override the style itself, appearing in buildings hundreds of years apart. France The distinctive characteristic of French cathedrals, and those in Germany and Belgium that were strongly influenced by them, is their height and their impression of verticality. Each French cathedral tends to be stylistically unified in appearance when compared with an English cathedral where there is great diversity in almost every building. They are compact, with slight or no projection of the transepts and subsidiary chapels. The west fronts are highly consistent, having three portals surmounted by a rose window, and two large towers. Sometimes there are additional towers on the transept ends. The east end is polygonal with ambulatory and sometimes a chevette of radiating chapels. In the south of France, many of the major churches are without transepts and some are without aisles. England The distinctive characteristic of English cathedrals is their extreme length, and their internal emphasis upon the horizontal, which may be emphasised visually as much or more than the vertical lines. Each English cathedral (with the exception of Salisbury) has an extraordinary degree of stylistic diversity, when compared with most French, German and Italian cathedrals. It is not unusual for every part of the building to have been built in a different century and in a different style, with no attempt at creating a stylistic unity. Unlike French cathedrals, English cathedrals sprawl across their sites, with double transepts projecting strongly and Lady Chapels tacked on at a later date. In the west front, the doors are not as significant as in France, the usual congregational entrance being through a side porch. The West window is very large and never a rose, which are reserved for the transept gables. The west front may have two towers like a French Cathedral, or none. There is nearly always a tower at the crossing and it may be very large and surmounted by a spire. The distinctive English east end is square, but it may take a completely different form. Both internally and externally, the stonework is often richly decorated with carvings, particularly the capitals. Germany and the Holy Roman Empire Romanesque architecture in Germany is characterised by its massive and modular nature. This is expressed in the Gothic architecture of the Holy Roman Empire in the huge size of the towers and spires, often proposed, but not always completed.[18] The west front generally follows the French formula, but the towers are very much taller, and if complete, are surmounted by enormous openwork spires that are a regional feature. Because of the size of the towers, the section of the facade that is between them may appear narrow and compressed. The eastern end follows the French form. The distinctive character of the interior of German Gothic cathedrals is their breadth and openness. This is the case even when, as at Cologne, they have been modelled upon a French cathedral. German cathedrals, like the French, tend not to have strongly projecting transepts. There are also many hallenkirke without clerestorey windows. Spain and Portugal The distinctive characteristic of Gothic cathedrals of the Iberian Peninsula is their spacial complexity, with many areas of different shapes leading from each other. They are comparatively wide, and often have very tall arcades surmounted by low clerestories, giving a similar spacious appearance to the hallenkirche of Germany, as at the Church of the Batalha Monastery in Portugal. Many of the cathedrals are completely surrounded by chapels. Like English Cathedrals, each is often stylistically diverse. This expresses itself both in the addition of chapels and in the application of decorative details drawn from different sources. Among the influences on both decoration and form are Islamic architecture, and towards the end of the period, Renaissance details combined with the Gothic in a distinctive manner. The West front, as at Leon Cathedral typically resembles a French west front, but wider in proportion to height and often with greater diversity of detail and a combination of intricate ornament with broad plain surfaces. At Burgos Cathedral there are spires of German style. The roofline often has pierced parapets with comparatively few pinnacles. There are often towers and domes of a great variety of shapes and structural invention rising above the roof. Italy The distinctive characteristic of Italian Gothic is the use of polychrome decoration, both externally as marble veneer on the brick facade and also internally where the arches are often made of alternating black and white segments, and where the columns may be painted red, the walls decorated with frescoes and the apse with mosaic. The plan is usually regular and symmetrical. With the exception of Milan Cathedral which is Germanic in style, Italian cathedrals have few and widely spaced columns. The proportions are generally mathematically simple, based on the square, and except in Venice where they loved flamboyant arches, the arches are almost always equilateral. Colours and moldings define the architectural units rather than blending them. Italian cathedral facades are often polychrome and may include mosaics in the lunettes over the doors. The facades have projecting open porches and occular or wheel windows rather than roses, and do not usually have a tower. The crossing is usually surmounted by a dome. There is often a free-standing tower and baptistry. The eastern end usually has an apse of comparatively low projection. The windows are not as large as in northern Europe and, although stained glass windows are often found, the favourite narrative medium for the interior is the fresco. Other Gothic building Synagogues, commonly built in the prevailing architectural style of the period and country where they are constructed, were built in the Gothic style in Europe during the Medieval period. A surviving example is the Old New Synagogue in Prague, built in the 13th century. Many examples of secular, non-military structures in Gothic style survive in fairly original condition. The Palais des Papes in Avignon is the best complete large royal palace, with partial survivals in the great hall at the Palace of Westminster, London, an 11th-century hall renovated in the late 1300s with gothic windows and a wooden hammerbeam roof, and the famous Conciergerie, former palace of the kings of France, in Paris. In addition to monumental secular architecture, examples of the Gothic style, can be seen in surviving medieval portions of cities across Europe, above all the distinctive Venetian Gothic. The house of the wealthy early 15th century merchant Jacques Coeur in Bourges, is the classic Gothic bourgeois mansion, full of the asymmetry and complicated detail beloved of the Gothic Revival.[19] Other cities with a concentration of secular Gothic include Bruges and Sienna. Most surviving small secular buildings are relatively plain and straightforward; most windows are flat-topped with mullions, with pointed arches and vaulted ceilings often only found at a few focal points. The country-houses of the nobility were slow to abandon the appearance of being a castle, even in parts of Europe, like England, where defence had ceased to be a real concern. The living and working parts of many monastic buildings survive, for example at Mont Saint-Michel. There are many excellent examples of secular Gothic buildings in brick, notably Malbork, a castle of the Teutonic Knights in Poland. Brick Gothic buildings were associated with the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Knights. There are over one hundred brick Gothic castles in northern Poland, Baltic states, and western Russia, and many smaller buildings. Exceptional pieces of gothic architecture are also found in Cyprus, and especially in the walled city of Famagusta. Gothic survival and revival Chateau d’Abbadie, Hendaye, France: a Gothic pile for the natural historian and patron of astronomy Antoine d’Abbadie, 1860-1870; Viollet-le-Duc, architect In 1663 at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s residence, Lambeth Palace, a Gothic hammerbeam roof was built to replace that destroyed when the building was sacked during the English Civil War. Also in the late 17th century, some discrete Gothic details appeared on new construction at Oxford and Cambridge, notably on Tom Tower at Christ Church, Oxford, by Christopher Wren. It is not easy to decide whether these instances were Gothic survival or early appearances of Gothic revival. In England in the mid-18th century, the Gothic style was more widely revived, first as a decorative, whimsical alternative to Rococo that is still conventionally termed ‘Gothick’, of which Horace Walpole’s Twickenham villa “Strawberry Hill” is the familiar example. 19th and 20th century Gothic Revival Partly in response to a philosophy propounded by the Oxford Movement and others associated with the emerging revival of ‘high church’ or Anglo-Catholic ideas in England during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, neo-Gothic began to become promoted by influential establishment figures as the preferred style for ecclesiastical, civic and institutional architecture. The appeal of this Gothic revival (which after 1837, in Britain, is sometimes termed Victorian Gothic), gradually widened to encompass ‘low church’ as well as ‘high church’ clients, as its intrinsic qualities attracted interest. This period of more universal appeal, spanning 1855-1885, is known in Britain as High Victorian Gothic. The Houses of Parliament in London provides an example of the Gothic revival style from its earlier period in the second quarter of the nineteenth century; built to designs by Sir Charles Barry with interiors by a major exponent of the early Gothic Revival, Augustus Welby Pugin. Examples from the High Victorian Gothic period include Sir George Gilbert Scott’s design for the Albert Memorial in London, and William Butterfield’s chapel at Keble College, Oxford. From the second half of the nineteenth century onwards it became more common in Britain for neo-Gothic to be used in the design of non-ecclesiastical and non-governmental buildings types; Gothic details even began to appear in working-class housing schemes subsidised by philanthropy, though due to the expense, less frequently than in the design of upper and middle-class housing In France, simultaneously, the towering figure of the Gothic Revival was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who outdid historical Gothic constructions to create a Gothic as it ought to have been, notably at the fortified city of Carcassonne in the south of France and in some richly fortified keeps for industrial magnates. Viollet-le-Duc compiled and coordinated an Encyclopédie médiévale that was a rich repertory his contemporaries mined for architectural details. He effected vigorous restoration of crumbling detail of French cathedrals, including the Abbey of Saint-Denis and famously at Notre Dame, where many of whose most “Gothic” gargoyles are Viollet-le-Duc’s. He taught a generation of reform-Gothic designers and showed how to apply Gothic style to modern structural materials, especially cast iron. In Germany, the great cathedrals of Cologne and Ulm, left unfinished for 600 years, were brought to completion, while in Italy, Florence Cathedral finally received its polychrome Gothic facade. New churches in the Gothic style were created all over the world, including Japan, Thailand, India, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and South Africa. As in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand utilised Neo-Gothic for the building of universities, a fine example being Sydney University by Edmund Blacket. In Canada, the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa designed by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones with its huge centrally-placed tower draws influence from Flemish Gothic buildings. Although falling out of favour for domestic and civic use, Gothic for churches and universities continued into the 20th century with buildings such as Liverpool Cathedral and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York. The Gothic style was also applied to iron-framed city skyscapers such as Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building and Raymond Hood’s Tribune Tower. Post-Modernism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has seen some revival of Gothic forms in individual buildings, such as the Gare do Oriente in Lisbon, Portugal. References |
Style History- Romanesque architecture
31 May| Romanesque architectureRomanesque architecture is the term that is used to describe the architecture of Middle Ages Europe which evolved into the Gothic style beginning in the 12th century. The term “Romanesque”, meaning “descended from Roman”, was used to describe the style from the early 19th century.[1] Although there is no consensus for the beginning date of the style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th centuries, examples can be found across the continent, making Romanesque architecture the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman Architecture. The Romanesque style in England is more traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.Combining features of contemporary Western Roman and Byzantine buildings, Romanesque architecture is known by its massive quality, its thick walls, round arches, sturdy piers, groin vaults, large towers and decorative arcading. Each building has clearly defined forms and they are frequently of very regular, symmetrical plan so that the overall appearance is one of simplicity when compared with the Gothic buildings that were to follow. The style can be identified right across Europe, despite regional characteristics and different materials.
Many castles were built during this period, but they are greatly outnumbered by churches. The most significant are the great abbey churches, many of which are still standing, more or less complete and frequently in use. Definition “Romanesque” was first applied by the archaeologist Charles de Gerville or his associate Arcisse de Caumont, in the early 19th century, to describe Western European architecture from the 5th to the 13th centuries, at a time when the actual dates of many of the buildings so described had not been ascertained.[3] The term is now used for the more restricted period from the late 10th to the 12th century. The word was used to describe the style which was identifiably Medieval and prefigured the Gothic, yet maintained the rounded Roman arch and thus appeared to be a continuation of the Roman tradition of building, albeit a much simplified and less technically competent version. The term “Pre-romanesque” is sometimes applied to architecture in Germany of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods while “First Romanesque” is applied to buildings in Italy, Spain and parts of France that have Romanesque features but pre-date the influence of the monastery of Cluny. History Origins Romanesque architecture was the first distinctive style to spread across Europe since the Roman Empire. Despite the impression of 19th century Art Historians that Romanesque architecture was a continuation of the Roman, in fact, Roman building techniques in brick and stone were largely lost in most parts of Europe, and in the more northern countries had never been adopted except for official buildings, while in Scandinavia they were unknown. There was little continuity, even in Rome where several great Constantinian basilicas continued to stand as an inspiration to later builders. It was not the buildings of ancient Rome, but the 6th century octagonal Byzantine Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna which was to inspire the greatest building of the Dark Ages in Western Europe, the Emperor Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel in Aachen, built around the year AD 800.[4] Dating shortly after Aachen Cathedral is a remarkable 9th century manuscript which shows the plan for the building of the Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland. It is a very detailed plan, with all the various monastic buildings and their functions labelled. The largest building is the church, the plan of which is distinctly Germanic, having an apse at both ends, an arrangement which is not generally seen elsewhere. Another feature of the church is its regular proportion, the square plan of the crossing tower providing a module for the rest of the plan. These features can both be seen at the Proto-Romanesque St. Michael’s Church, Hildesheim, 1001-1030.[4] Architecture of a Romanesque style also developed simultaneously in the north of Italy, parts of France and in the Iberian Peninsula in the 10th century and prior to the later influence of the Abbey of Cluny. The style, sometimes called “First Romanesque” or “Lombard Romanesque”, is characterised by thick walls, lack of sculpture and the presence of rhythmic ornamental arches known as a Lombard band. Politics Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope in St Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Day in the year AD 800, with an aim to re-establishing the old Western Roman Empire. Charlemagne’s political successors continued to rule much of Europe, with a gradual emergence of the separate political states which were eventually to become welded into nations, either by allegiance or defeat, the Kingdom of Germany giving rise to the Holy Roman Empire. The invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy, in 1066, saw the unification of that country and the building of both castles and churches which reinforced the Norman presence. At a time when the remaining structures of the Western Roman Empire were falling into decay and its learning and technology lost, the building of masonry domes and the carving of decorative architectural details continued unabated, though greatly evolved in style since the fall of Rome, in the enduring Byzantine Empire. The domed churches of Constantinople and Eastern Europe were to greatly affect the architecture of certain towns, particularly through trade and through the Crusades. The most notable single building which demonstrates this is St Mark’s Basilica, Venice but there are many lesser known examples, particularly in France, such as the church of Saint-Front, Périgueux and Angoulême Cathedral. Much of Europe was affected by feudalism in which peasants held tenure from local rulers over the land that they farmed in exchange for military service. The result of this was that they could be called upon, not only for local and regional spats, but to follow their lord to travel across Europe to the Crusades, if they were required to do so. The Crusades, 1095-1270, brought about a very large movement of people and, with them, ideas and trade skills, particularly those involved in the building of fortifications and the metal working needed for the provision of arms, which was also applied to the fitting and decoration of buildings. The continual movement of people, rulers, nobles, bishops, abbots, craftsmen and peasants, was an important factor in creating a homogeneity in building methods and a recognizable Romanesque style, despite regional differences. Religion Across Europe, the late 11th and 12th centuries saw an unprecedented growth in the number of churches.[6] A great number of these buildings, both large and small, remain. They include many very well-known churches such as Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome,[7] the Baptistery in Florence[8] and San Zeno Maggiore in Verona.[9] In France, the famous abbeys of Aux Dames and Les Hommes at Caen and Mont Saint-Michel date from this period, as well as the abbeys of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. In England, of the 27 cathedrals of ancient foundation, all were begun in this period with the exception of Salisbury, where the monks relocated from Old Sarum, and several, such as Canterbury which were rebuilt on the site of Saxon churches.[10][11] In Spain, the most famous church of the period is Santiago de Compostela. In Germany, the Rhine and its tributaries were the location of many Romanesque abbeys, notably Mainz, Worms, Speyer and Bamberg. In Cologne, then the largest city north of the Alps, a very important group of large city churches survives largely intact. As monasticism spread across Europe, Romanesque churches sprang up in Scotland, Scandinavia, Poland, Hungary, Sicily, Serbia and Tunisia. Several important Romanesque churches were built in the Crusader kingdoms. Monasticism The system of monasticism in which the religious become members of an order, with common ties and a common rule, living in a mutually dependent community, rather than as a group of hermits living in proximity but essentially separate, was established by the monk Benedict in the 6th century. The Benedictine Monasteries spread from Italy throughout Europe, being always by far the most numerous in England. They were followed by the Cluniac order, the Cistercians, Carthusians and Augustinian Canons. In association with the Crusades, the military orders of the Knights Hospitallers and the Knights Templars were founded. The monasteries, which sometimes also functioned as cathedrals, and the cathedrals which had bodies of secular clergy often living in community, were a major source of power in Europe. Bishops and the abbots of important monasteries lived and functioned like princes. The monasteries were the major seats of learning of all sorts. Benedict had ordered that all the arts were to be taught and practiced in the monasteries. Within the monasteries books were transcribed by hand, and few people outside the monasteries could read or write. In France, Burgundy was the centre of monasticism. The enormous and powerful monastery at Cluny was to have lasting effect on the layout of other monasteries and the design of their churches. Unfortunately, very little of the abbey church at Cluny remains; the “Cluny II” rebuilding of 963 onwards has completely vanished, but we have a good idea of the design of “Cluny III” from 1088-1130, which until the Renaissance remained the largest building in Europe. However, the church of St. Sernin at Toulouse, 1080-1120, has remained intact and demonstrates the regularity of Romanesque design with its modular form, its massive appearance and the repetition of the simple arched window motif. Pilgrimage and Crusade One of the effects of the Crusades, which were intended to wrest the Holy Places of Palestine from Islamic control, was to excite a great deal of religious fervour, which in turn inspired great building programs. The Nobility of Europe, upon safe return, thanked God by the building of a new church or the enhancement of an old one. Likewise, those who did not return from the Crusades could be suitably commemorated by their family in a work of stone and mortar. The Crusades resulted in the transfer of, among other things, a great number of Holy Relics of saints and apostles. Many churches, like Saint-Front, Périgueux, had their own home grown saint while others, most notably Santiago de Compostela, claimed the remains and the patronage of a powerful saint, in this case one of the Twelve Apostles. Santiago de Compostela, located near the western extremity of Galicia (present day Spain) became the most important pilgrimage destination in Europe. Most of the pilgrims travelled the Way of Saint James on foot, many of them barefooted as a sign of penance. They moved along one of the four main routes that passed through France, congregating for the journey at Jumieges, Paris, Vezelay, Cluny, Arles and St. Gall in Switzerland. They crossed two passes in the Pyrenees and converged into a single stream to traverse north-western Spain. Along the route they were urged on by those pilgrims returning from the journey. On each of the routes abbeys such as those at Moissac, Toulouse, Roncesvalles, Conques, Limoges and Burgos catered for the flow of people and grew wealthy from the passing trade. Saint-Benoît-du-Sault, in the Berry province, is typical of the churches that were founded on the pilgrim route. Characteristics The general impression given by Romanesque architecture, in both ecclesiastical and secular buildings, is one of massive solidity and strength. In contrast with both the preceding Roman and later Gothic architecture in which the load bearing structural members are, or appear to be, columns, pilasters and arches, Romanesque architecture, in common with Byzantine architecture, relies upon its walls, or sections of walls called piers. Romanesque architecture is often divided into two periods known as the “First Romanesque” style and the “Romanesque” style. The difference is chiefly a matter of the expertise with which the buildings were constructed. The First Romanesque employed rubble walls, smaller windows and unvaulted roofs. A greater refinement marks the Second Romanesque, along with increased use of the vault and dressed stone Walls The walls of Romanesque buildings are often of massive thickness with few and comparatively small openings. They are often double shells, filled with rubble. The building material differs greatly across Europe, depending upon the local stone and building traditions. In Italy, Poland, much of Germany and parts of the Netherlands, brick is generally used. Other areas saw extensive use of limestone, granite and flint. The building stone was often used in comparatively small and irregular pieces, bedded in thick mortar. Smooth ashlar masonry was not a distinguishing feature of the style, particularly in the earlier part of the period, but occurred chiefly where easily-worked limestone was available. Piers In Romanesque architecture, piers were often employed to support arches. They were built of masonry and square or rectangular in section, generally having a horizontal moulding representing a capital at the springing of the arch. Sometimes piers have vertical shafts attached to them, and may also have horizontal mouldings at the level of base. Although basically rectangular, piers can often be of highly complex form, with half-segments of large hollow-core columns on the inner surface supporting the arch, or a clustered group of smaller shafts leading into the mouldings of the arch. Piers that occur at the intersection of two large arches, such as those under the crossing of the nave and transept, are commonly cruciform in shape, each arch having its own supporting rectangular pier at right angles to the other. Columns Salvaged columns In Italy, during this period, a great number of antique Roman columns were salvaged and reused in the interiors and on the porticos of churches. The most durable of these columns are of marble and have the stone horizontally bedded. The majority are vertically bedded and are sometimes of a variety of colours. They may have retained their original Roman capitals, generally of the Corinthian or Roman Composite style. Some buildings, like the atrium at San Clemente in Rome, may have an odd assortment of columns in which large capitals are placed on short columns and small capitals are placed on taller columns to even the height. Architectural compromises of this type would have been unthinkable to either Roman or Gothic architects. Salvaged columns were also used to a lesser extent in France. In Germany and other areas, small columns cut from a single piece of stone were used alternately between more massive piers.[12] Drum columns In most parts of Europe, Romanesque columns were massive, as they supported thick upper walls with small windows, and sometimes heavy vaults. The most common method of construction was to build them out of stone cylinders called drums, as in the crypt at Speyer Cathedral. Hollow core columns Where really massive columns were called for, such as those at Durham Cathedral, they were constructed of ashlar masonry and the hollow core was filled with rubble. These huge untapered columns are sometimes ornamented with incised decorations. Capitals The foliate Corinthian style provided the inspiration for many Romanesque capitals, and the accuracy with which they were carved depended very much on the availability of original models, those in Italian churches such as Pisa Cathedral and southern France being much closer to the Classical than those in England. The Corinthian capital is essentially round at the bottom where it sits on a circular column and square at the top, where it supports the wall or arch. This form of capital was maintained in the general proportions and outline of the Romanesque capital. This was achieved most simply by cutting a rectangular cube and taking the four lower corners off at an angle so that the block was square at the top, but octagonal at the bottom, as can be seen at St. Michael’s Hildesheim. This shaped lent itself to a wide variety of superficial treatments, sometimes foliate in imitation of the source, but often figurative. In Northern Europe the foliate capitals generally bear far more resemblance to the intricacies of manuscript illumination than to Classical sources. In parts of France and Italy there are strong links to the pierced capitals of Byzantine architecture. It is in the figurative capitals that the greatest originality is shown. While some are dependent on manuscripts illustrations of Biblical scenes and depictions of beasts and monsters, others are lively scenes of the legends of local saints. The capitals, while retaining the form of a square top and a round bottom, were often compressed into little more than a bulging cushion-shape. This is particularly the case on large masonry columns, or on large columns that alternate with piers as at Durham. Alternation A common characteristic of Romanesque buildings, occurring both in churches and in the arcades which separate large interior spaces of castles, is the alternation of piers and columns. The most simple form that this takes is to have a column between each adjoining pier. Sometimes the columns are in multiples of two or three. At St. Michael’s, Hildesheim, an ABBA alternation occurs in the nave while an ABA alternation can be seen in the transepts. At Jumieges there are tall drum columns between piers each of which has a half-column supporting the arch. There are many variations on this theme, most notably at Durham Cathedral where the mouldings and shafts of the piers are of exceptional richness and the huge masonry columns are each deeply incised with a different geometric pattern.[12] Often the arrangement was made more complex by the complexity of the piers themselves, so that it was not piers and columns that alternated, but rather, piers of entirely different form from each other, such as those of Sant’ Ambrogio, Milan where the nature of the vault dictated that the alternate piers bore a great deal more weight than the intermediate ones and are thus very much larger.[4] Arches and openings Arches in Romanesque architecture are semicircular, with the exception of a very small number of buildings such as Autun Cathedral in France and Monreale Cathedral in Sicily in both of which pointed arches have been used extensively. It is believed that in these cases there is a direct imitation of Islamic architecture. While small windows might be surmounted by a solid stone lintel, larger windows are nearly always arched. Doorways are also surmounted by a semi-circular arch, except where the door is set into a large arched recess and surmounted by a semi-circular “lunette” with decorative carving. Vaults and roofs The majority of buildings have wooden roofs, generally of a simple truss, tie beam or king post form. In the case of trussed rafter roofs, they are sometimes lined with wooden ceilings in three sections like those which survive at Ely and Peterborough cathedrals in England. In churches, typically the aisles are vaulted, but the nave is roofed with timber, as is the case at both Peterborough and Ely.[11] In Italy where open wooden roofs are common, and tie beams frequently occur in conjunction with vaults, the timbers have often been decorated as at San Miniato al Monte, Florence.[2] Vaults of stone or brick took on several different forms and showed marked development during the period, evolving into the pointed ribbed arch which is characteristic of Gothic architecture. Barrel vault The simplest type of vaulted roof is the barrel vault in which a single arched surface extends from wall to wall, the length of the space to be vaulted, for example, the nave of a church. An important example, which retains Medieval paintings, is the vault of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, France, of the early 12th century. However, the barrel vault generally required the support of solid walls, or walls in which the windows were very small. Groin vault Groin vaults occur very frequently in earlier Romanesque buildings, and also for the less visible and smaller vaults in later buildings, particularly in crypts and aisles. A groin vault is almost always square in plan and is constructed of two barrel vaults intersecting at right angles. Unlike a ribbed vault, the entire arch is a structural member. Groin vaults are frequently separated by transverse arched ribs of low profile as at Santiago de Compostela. At La Madeleine, Vézelay, the ribs are square in section, strongly projecting and polychrome. Ribbed vault In ribbed vaults, not only are there ribs spanning the vaulted area transversely, but each vaulted bay has diagonal ribs. In a ribbed vault, the ribs are the structural members, and the spaces between them can be filled with lighter, non-structural material. Because Romanesque arches are nearly always semi-circular, the structural and design problem inherent in the ribbed vault is that the diagonal span is larger and therefore higher than the transverse span. The Romanesque builders used a number of solutions to this problem. One was to have the centre point where the diagonal ribs met as the highest point, with the infil of all the surfaces sloping upwards towards it, in a domical manner. This solution was employed in Italy at San Michele, Pavia and Sant’ Ambrogio, Milan. Another solution was to stilt the transverse ribs, or depress the diagonal ribs so that the centreline of the vault was horizontal, like a that of a barrel vault. The latter solution was used on the sexpartite vaults at both the Saint-Etienne, the Abbaye-aux-Hommes and Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen, France, in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Pointed arched vault Late in the Romanesque period another solution came into use for regulating the height of diagonal and transverse ribs. This was to use arches of the same diameter for both horizontal and transverse ribs, causing the transverse ribs to meet at a point. This is seen most notably at Durham Cathedral in northern England, dating from 1128. Durham is a cathedral of massive Romanesque proportions and appearance, yet its builders introduced several structural features which were new to architectural design and were to later to be hallmark features of the Gothic. Another Gothic structural feature employed at Durham is the flying buttress. However, these are hidden beneath the roofs of the aisles. The earliest pointed vault in France is that of the narthex of La Madeleine, Vézelay, dating from 1130. Church and cathedral plan and section Many parish churches, abbey churches and cathedrals are in the Romanesque style, or were originally built in the Romanesque style and have subsequently undergone changes. The simplest Romanesque churches are aisless halls with a projecting apse at the chancel end, or sometimes, particularly in England, a projecting rectangular chancel with a chancel arch that might be decorated with mouldings. More ambitious churches have aisles separated from the nave by arcades. Abbey and cathedral churches generally follow the Latin Cross plan. In England, the extension eastward may be long, while in Italy it is often short or non-existent, the church being of T plan, sometimes with apses on the transept ends as well as to the east. In France the church of St Front, Perigueux, appears to have been modelled on St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice or another Byzantine church and is of a Greek cross plan with five domes. In the same region, Angouleme Cathedral is an aisless church of the Latin cross plan, more usual in France, but is also roofed with domes. In Germany, Romanesque churches are often of distinctive form, having apses at both east and west ends, the main entrance being central to one side. It is probable that this form came about to accommodate a baptistery at the west end. In section, the typical aisled church or cathedral has a nave with a single aisle on either side. The nave and aisles are separated by an arcade carried on piers or on columns. The roof of the aisle and the outer walls help to buttress the upper walls and vault of the nave, if present. Above the aisle roof are a row of windows known as the clerestory, which give light to the nave. During the Romanesque period there was a development from this two-stage elevation to a three-stage elevation in which there is a gallery, known as a triforium, between the arcade and the clerestory. This varies from a simple blind arcade decorating the walls, to a narrow arcaded passage, to a fully-developed second story with a row of windows lighting the gallery. Church and cathedral east ends The eastern end of a Romanesque church is almost always semi-circular, with either a high chancel surrounded by an ambulatory as in France, or a square end from which an apse projects as in Germany and Italy. Where square ends exist in English churches, they are probably influenced by Anglo Saxon churches. Peterborough and Norwich Cathedrals have retained round east ends in the French style. However, in France, simple churches without apses and with no decorative features were built by the Cistercians who also founded many houses in England, frequently in remote areas. Buttresses Because of the massive nature of Romanesque walls, buttresses are not a highly significant feature, as they are in Gothic architecture. Romanesque buttresses are generally of flat square profile and do not project a great deal beyond the wall. In the case of aisled churches, barrel vaults, or half-barrel vaults over the aisles helped to buttress the nave, if it was vaulted. In the cases where half-barrel vaults were used, they effectively became like flying buttresses. Often aisles extended through two storeys, rather than the one usual in Gothic architecture, so as to better support the weight of a vaulted nave. In the case of Durham Cathedral, flying buttresses have been employed, but are hidden inside the triforium gallery. Church and cathedral facades and external decoration Romanesque church facades, generally to the west end of the building, are usually symmetrical, have a large central portal made significant by its mouldings or porch and an arrangement of arched-topped windows. In Italy there is often a single central ocular window. The common decorative feature is arcading.[2] Smaller churches often have a single tower which is usually placed to the western end, in France or England, either centrally or to one side, while larger churches and cathedrals often have two. In France, Saint-Etienne, Caen presents the model of a large French Romanesque facade. It is a symmetrical arrangement of nave flanked by two tall towers each with two buttress of low flat profile which divide the facade into three vertical units. The three horizontal stages are marked by a large door set within an arch in each of the three vertical sections. The wider central section has two tiers of three identical windows, while in the outer tiers their are two tiers of single windows, giving emphasis to the mass of the towers. The towers rise through three tiers, the lowest of tall blind arcading, the next of arcading pierced by two narrow windows and the third of two large windows, divided into two lights by a colonette.[16] This facade can be seen as the foundation for many other buildings, including both French and English Gothic churches. While the form is typical of northern France, its various components were common to many Romanesque churches of the period across Europe. Similar facades are found in Portugal. In England, Southwell Cathedral has maintained this form, despite the insertion of a huge Gothic window between the towers. Lincoln and Durham must once have looked like this. In Germany, the Limburger Dom has a rich variety of openings and arcades in horizontal storeys of varying heights. The churches of San Zeno Maggiore, Verona and San Michele, Pavia present two types of facade that are typical of Italian Romanesque, that which reveals the architectural form of the building, and that which screens it. At San Zeno, the components of nave and aisles are made clear by the vertical shafts which rise to the level of the central gable and by the varying roof levels. At San Miniato al Monte the definition of the architectural parts is made even clearer by the polychrome marble, a feature of many Italian Medieval facades, particularly in Tuscany. At San Michele the vertical definition is present as at San Zeno, but the rooflines are screened behind a single large gable decorated with stepped arcading. At Santa Maria della Pieve, Arezzo this screening is carried even further, as the roofline is horizontal and the arcading rises in many different levels while the colonettes which support them have a great diversity of decoration Towers Towers were an important feature of Romanesque churches and a great number of them are still standing. They take a variety of forms, square, circular and octagonal, and are positioned differently in relation to the church in different countries. In northern France, two large towers, such as those at Caen, were to become an integral part of the facade of any large abbey or cathedral. In central and southern France this is more variable and large churches may have one tower or a central tower. Large churches of Spain and Portugal usually have two towers. Many abbeys of France, such as that at Cluny, had many towers of varied forms. This is also common in Germany, where the apses were sometimes framed with circular towers and the crossing surmounted by an octagonal tower as at Worms Cathedral. Large paired towers of square plan could also occur on the transept ends, such as those at Tournai Cathedral in Belgium. In Germany, where four towers frequently occur, they often have spires which may be four or eight sided, or the distinctive Rhenish helm shape seen on Limburg Cathedral. In England, for large abbeys and cathedral buildings, three towers were favoured, with the central tower being the tallest. This was often not achieved, through the slow process of the building stages, and in many cases the upper parts of the tower were not completed until centuries later as at Durham and Lincoln. Large Norman towers exist at the cathedrals of Durham, Exeter, Southwell and Norwich. In Italy towers are almost always free standing and the position is often dictated by the landform of the site, rather than aesthetics. This is the case in Italian nearly all churches both large and small, except in Sicily where a number of churches were founded by the Norman rulers and are more French in appearance. As a general rule, large Romanesque towers are square with corner buttresses of low profile, rising without diminishing through the various stages. Towers are usually marked into clearly defined stages by horizontal courses. As the towers rise, the number and size of openings increases as can be seen on the right tower of the transept of Tournai Cathedral where two narrow slits in the fourth level from the top becomes a single window, then two windows, then three windows at the uppermost level. This sort of arrangement is particularly noticeable on the towers of Italian churches, which are usually built of brick and may have no other ornament. Two fine examples occur at Lucca, at the church of San Frediano and at the Duomo. It is also seen in Spain. In Italy, there are a number of large free-standing towers which are circular, the most famous of these being the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In other countries where circular towers occur, such as Germany, they are usually paired and often flank an apse. Circular towers are uncommon in England, but occur throughout the Early Medieval period in Ireland. Octagonal towers were often used on crossings and occur in France, Germany, Spain and Italy where an example that is unusual for its height is that on the crossing of Sant’ Antonio, Piacenza, 1140. In Spain, in the 12th century, a feature is the polygonal towers at the crossing. These have ribbed vaults and are elaborately decorated, such as the “Torre del Gallo” at Salamanca Old Cathedral.[12] Decoration Architectural embellishment Arcading is the single most significant decorative feature of Romanesque architecture. It occurs in a variety of forms, from the Lombard band which is a row of small arches that appear to support a roofline or course, to shallow blind arcading often a feature of English architecture and seen in great variety at Ely Cathedral, to open galleries such as those on both Pisa Cathedral and its famous Leaning Tower. Arcades could be used to great effect, both externally and internally, as exemplified by the church of Santa Maria della Pieve, in Arezzo. Architectural sculpture The Romanesque period produced a profusion of sculptural ornamentation. This most frequently took a purely geometric form and was particularly applied to mouldings, both straight courses and the curved moldings of arches. In La Madeleine, Vezelay, for example, the polychrome ribs of the vault are all edged with narrow filets of pierced stone. Similar decoration occurs around the arches of the nave and along the horizontal course separating arcade and clerestory. Combined with the pierced carving of the capitals, this gives a delicacy and refinement to the interior.[14] In England, such decoration could be discrete, as at Hereford and Peterborough cathedrals, or have a sense of massive energy as at Durham where the diagonal ribs of the vaults are all outlined with chevrons, the mouldings of the nave arcade are carved with several layers of the same and the huge columns are deeply incised with a variety of geometric patterns creating an impression of directional movement. These features combine to create one of the richest and most dynamic interiors of the Romanesque period.[18] On these much-restored mouldings around the portal of Lincoln Cathedral are formal chevron ornament, tongue-poking monsters, vines and figures, and symmetrical motifs in the Byzantine style. Although much sculptural ornament was sometimes applied to the interiors of churches, the focus of such decoration was generally the west front, and in particular, the portals. Chevrons and other geometric ornaments, referred to by 19th century writers as “barbaric ornament” are most frequently found on the mouldings of the central door. Stylized foliage often appears, sometimes deeply carved and curling outward after the manner of the acanthus leaves on Corinthian capitals, but also carved in shallow relief and spiral patterns, imitating the intricacies of manuscript illuminations. In general, the style of ornament was more classical in Italy, such as that seen around the door of Sant Giusto in Lucca, and more “barbaric” in England, Germany and Scandinavia, such as that seen at Speyer Cathedral. France produced a great range of ornament, with particularly fine interwoven and spiralling vines in the “manuscript” style occurring at Saint-Sernin, Toulouse.[14][5][12] Figurative sculpture With the fall of the Roman Empire, the tradition of carving large works in stone and sculpting figures in bronze died out, as it effectively did (for religious reasons) in the Byzantine world. Some life-size sculpture was evidently done in stucco or plaster, but surviving examples are understandably rare.[19] The best-known surviving large sculptural work of Proto-Romanesque Europe is the life-size wooden Crucifix commissioned by Archbishop Gero of Cologne in about 960-65.[20] During the 11th and 12th centuries, figurative sculpture flourished. It was based on two other sources in particular, manuscript illumination and small-scale sculpture in ivory and metal. The extensive friezes sculpted on Armenian and Syriac churches are have been proposed as another likely influence.[21] These sources together produced a distinct style which can be recognised across Europe, although the most spectacular sculptural projects are concentrated in South-Western France, Northern Spain and Italy. Images that occurred in metalwork were frequently embossed. The resultant surface had two main planes and details that were usually incised. This treatment was adapted to stone carving and is seen particularly in the tympanum above the portal, where the imagery of Christ in Majesty with the symbols of the Four Evangelists is drawn directly from the gilt covers of medieval Gospel Books. This style of doorway occurs in many places and continued into the Gothic period. A rare survival in England is that of the “Prior’s Door” at Ely Cathedral. In South-Western France, many have survived, with impressive examples at Saint-Pierre, Moissac, Souillac,[22] and La Madaleine, Vézelay – all daughter houses of Cluny, with extensive other sculpture remaining in cloisters and other buildings. Nearby, Autun Cathedral has a Last Judgement of great rarity in that it has uniquely been signed by its creator, Giselbertus.[4][14] A feature of the figures in manuscript illumination is that they often occupy confined spaces and are contorted to fit. The custom of artists to make the figure fit the available space lent itself to a facility in designing figures to ornament door posts and lintels and other such architectural surfaces. The robes of painted figures were commonly treated in a flat and decorative style that bore little resemblance to the weight and fall of actual cloth. This feature was also adapted for sculpture. Among the many examples that exist, one of the finest is the figure of the Prophet Jeremiah from the pillar of the portal of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre, Moissac, France, from about 1130. One of the most significant motifs of Romanesque design, occurring in both figurative and non-figurative sculpture is the spiral. One of the sources may be Ionic capitals. Scrolling vines were a common motif of both Byzantine and Roman design, and may be seen in mosaic on the vaults of the 4th century Church of Santa Costanza, Rome. Manuscripts and architectural carvings of the 12th century have very similar scrolling vine motifs. Another source of the spiral is clearly the illuminated manuscripts of the 7th to 9th centuries, particularly Irish manuscripts such as the St. Gall Gospel Book, spread into Europe by the Hiberno-Scottish mission. In these illuminations the use of the spiral has nothing to do with vines or other natural growth. The motif is abstract and mathematical. It is in an adaptation of this form that the spiral occurs in the draperies of both sculpture and stained glass windows. Of all the many examples that occur on Romanesque portals, one of the most outstanding is that of the central figure of Christ at La Madaleine, Vezelay.[14] Another influence from Insular art are engaged and entwined animals, often used to superb effect in capitals (as at Silos) and sometimes on a column itself (as at Moissac). Many of the smaller sculptural works, particularly capitals, are Biblical in subject and include scenes of Creation and the Fall of Man, episodes from the life of Christ and those Old Testament scenes which prefigure his Death and Resurrection, such as Jonah and the Whale and Daniel in the Lions’ Den. Many Nativity scenes occur, the theme of the Three Kings being particularly popular. The cloisters of Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey in Northern Spain, and Moissac are fine examples surviving complete. A feature of some Romanesque churches is the extensive sculptural scheme which covers the area surrounding the portal or, in some case, much of the facade. Angouleme Cathedral in France has a highly elaborate scheme of sculpture set within the broad niches created by the arcading of the facade. In Spain, an elaborate pictorial scheme in low relief surrounds the door of the church of Santa Maria at Ripoll. The purpose of the sculptural schemes was to convey a message that the Christian believer should recognise their wrong-doings, repent and be redeemed. The Last Judgement reminds the believe to repent. The carved or painted Crucifix, displayed prominently within the church, reminded the sinner of their redemption. The sculpture which reminded the sinners of their sins often took alarming forms. These sculptures, not being of Christ, were usually not large and are rarely magnificent, but are often fearsome or simply entertaining in nature. These are the works that frequently decorate the smaller architectural features. They are found on capitals, corbels and bosses, or entwined in the foliage on door mouldings. They represent the Seven Deadly Sins but often take forms that are not easily recognisable today. Lust, gluttony and avarice are probably the most frequently represented. The appearance of many figures with oversized genitals can clearly be equated with carnal sin, but so also can the numerous figures shown with protruding tongues, which are a feature of the doorway of Lincoln Cathedral. Pulling ones beard was a symbol of masturbation, and pulling ones mouth wide open was also a sign of lewdity. A common theme found on capitals of this period is a tongue poker or beard stroker being beaten by his wife or seized by demons. Demons fighting over the soul of a wrongdoer such as a miser is another popular subject. Gothic architecture is usually considered to begin with the design of the choir at the Abbey of Saint-Denis, north of Paris, by the Abbot Suger, consecrated 1144. The beginning of Gothic sculpture is usually dated a little later, with the carving of the figures around the Royal Portal at Chartres Cathedral, France, 1150-55. The style of sculpture spread rapidly from Chartres, overtaking the new Gothic architecture. In fact, many churches of the late Romanesque period post-date the building at Saint-Denis. The sculptural style based more upon observation and naturalism than on formalised design developed rapidly. It is thought that one reason for the rapid development of naturalistic form was a growing awareness of Classical remains in places where they were most numerous and a deliberate imitation of their style. The consequence is that there are doorways which are Romanesque in form, and yet show a naturalism associated with Early Gothic sculpture. One of these is the Pórtico da Gloria dating from 1180, at Santiago de Compostela. This portal is internal and is particularly well preserved, even retaining colour on the figures and indicating the gaudy appearance of much architectural decoration which is now perceived as monochrome. Around the doorway are figures who are integrated with the colonnettes that make the mouldings of the doors. They are three dimensional, but slightly flattened. They are highly individualised, not only in appearance but also expression and bear quite strong resemblance to those around the north porch of the Abbey of St. Denis, dating from 1170. Beneath the tympanum there is a realistically carved row of figures playing a range of different and easily identifiable musical instruments. Murals The large wall surfaces and plain, curving vaults of the Romanesque period lent themselves to mural decoration. Unfortunately, many of these early wall paintings have been destroyed by damp or the walls have been replastered and painted over. In England, France and the Netherlands such pictures were systematically destroyed in bouts of Reformation iconoclasm. In other countries they have suffered from war, neglect and changing fashion. A classic scheme for the full painted decoration of a church, derived from earlier examples often in mosaic, had, as its focal point in the semi-dome of the apse, Christ in Majesty or Christ the Redeemer enthroned within a mandorla and framed by the four winged beasts, symbols of the Four Evangelists, comparing directly with examples from the gilt covers or the illuminations of Gospel Books of the period. If the Virgin Mary was the dedicatee of the church, she might replace Christ here. On the apse walls below would be saints and apostles, perhaps including narrative scenes, for example of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. On the sanctuary arch were figures of apostles, prophets or the twenty-four “elders of the Apocalypse”, looking in towards a bust of Christ, or his symbol the Lamb, at the top of the arch. The north wall of the nave would contain narrative scenes from the Old Testament, and the south wall from the New Testament. On the rear west wall would be a Last Judgement, with an enthroned and judging Christ at the top.[24] One of the most intact schemes to exist is that at Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe in France. The long barrel vault of the nave provides an excellent surface for fresco, and is decorated with scenes of the Old Testament, showing the Creation, the Fall of Man and other stories including a lively depiction of Noah’s Ark complete with a fearsome figurehead and numerous windows through with can be seen the Noah and his family on the upper deck, birds on the middle deck, while on the lower are the pairs of animals. Another scene shows with great vigour the swamping of Pharaoh’s army by the Red Sea. The scheme extends to other parts of the church, with the martyrdom of the local saints shown in the crypt, and Apocalypse in the narthex and Christ in Majesty. The range of colours employed is limited to light blue-green, yellow ochre, reddish brown and black. Similar paintings exist in Serbia, Spain, Germany, Italy and elsewhere in France. Stained glass The oldest-known fragments of medieval pictorial stained glass appear to date from the 10th century. The earliest intact figures are five prophet windows at Augsburg, dating from the late 11th century. The figures, though stiff and formalised, demonstrate considerable proficiency in design, both pictorially and in the functional use of the glass, indicating that their maker was well accustomed to the medium. At Canterbury and Chartres Cathedrals, a number of panels of the 12th century have survived, including, at Canterbury, a figure of Adam digging, and another of his son Seth from a series of Ancestors of Christ. Adam represents a highly naturalistic and lively portrayal, while in the figure of Seth, the robes have been used to great decorative effect, similar to the best stone carving of the period. Most of the magnificent stained glass of France, including the famous windows of Chartres, date from the 13th century. Far fewer large windows remain intact from the 12th century. One such is the Crucifixion of Poitiers, a remarkable composition which rises through three stages, the lowest with a quatrefoil depicting the Martyrdom of St Peter, the largest central stage dominated by the crucifixion and the upper stage showing the Ascension of Christ in a mandorla. The figure of the crucified Chirst is already showing the Gothic curve. The window is described by George Seddon as being of “unforgettable beauty”.[25] Transitional style During the 12th century, features that were to become typical of Gothic architecture began to appear. It is not uncommon, for example, for a part of building that has been constructed over a lengthy period extending into the 12th century, to have very similar arcading of both semi-circular and pointed shape, or windows that are identical in height and width, but in which the later ones are pointed. This can be seen on the towers of Tournai Cathedral and on the western towers and facade at Ely Cathedral. Other variations that appear to hover between Romanesque and Gothic occur, such as the facade designed by Abbot Suger at the Abbey of Saint-Denis which retains much that is Romanesque in its appearance, and the Facade of Laon Cathedral which, despite its Gothic form, has round arches. Romanesque influence Paris and its surrounding area were quick to adopt the Gothic style of Abbot Suger Abbey of Saint-Denis in the 12th century but other parts of France were slower to take it up, and provincial churches continued to be built in the heavy manner and rubble stone of the Romanesque, even when the openings were treated with the fashionable pointed arch. In England, the Romanesque groundplan, which in that country commonly had a very long nave, continued to affect the style of building of cathedrals and those large abbey churches which were also to become cathedrals in the 16th century. Despite the fact that English cathedrals were rebuilt in many stages, substantial areas of Norman building can be seen in many of them, particularly in the nave arcades. In the case of Winchester Cathedral, the Gothic arches were literally carved out of the existent Norman piers.[11] In Italy, although many churches such as Florence Cathedral and Santa Maria Novella were built in the Gothic style, sturdy columns with capitals of a modified Corinthian form continued to be used. The pointed vault was utilised where convenient, but it is commonly interspersed with semicircular arches and vaults wherever they conveniently fit. The facades of Gothic churches in Italy are not always easily distinguishable from the Romanesque. Germany was not quick to adopt the Gothic style, and when it did so, often the buildings were modelled very directly upon French cathedrals, as Cologne Cathedral was modelled on Amiens. The smaller churches and abbeys continued to be constructed in a more provincial Romanesque manner, the date only being registered by the pointed window openings.[14] Romanesque Revival During the 19th century, when Gothic Revival architecture was fashionable, buildings were occasionally designed in the Romanesque style. There are a number of Romanesque Revival churches, dating from as early as the 1830s and continuing into the 20th century where the massive and “brutal” quality of the Romanesque style was appreciated and designed in brick. The Natural History Museum, London designed by Alfred Waterhouse, 1879, on the other hand, is a Romanesque revival building which makes full use of the decorative potential of Romanesque arcading and architectural sculpture. The Romanesque appearance has been achieved while freely adapting an overall style to suit the function of the building. The columns of the foyer, for example, give an impression of incised geometric design similar to those of Durham Cathedral. However, the sources of the incised patterns are the trunks of palms, cycads and tropical tree ferns. The animal motifs, of which there are many, include rare and exotic species. The type of modern buildings for which the Romanesque style was most frequently adapted was the warehouse, where a lack of large windows and an appearance of great strength and stability were desirable features. These buildings, generally of brick, frequently have flattened buttresses rising to wide arches at the upper levels after the manner of some Italian Romanesque facades. This style was adapted to suit commercial buildings by opening the spaces between the arches into large windows, the brick walls becoming a shell to a building that was essentially of modern steel-frame construction, the architect Henry Hobson Richardson giving his name to the style, “Richardson Romanesque”. Good examples of the style are Marshall Fields store, Chicago by H.H.Richardson, 1885, and the Chadwick Lead Works in Boston USA by William Preston, 1887. The style also lent itself to the building of cloth mills, steelworks and powerstations. Notes and references Bibliography |
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| The term Romanesque, like many other stylistic designations, was not a term contemporary with the art it describes but an invention of modern scholarship to categorize a period. The term “Romanesque” attempts to link the architecture, especially, of the 11th and 12th centuries in medieval Europe to Roman Architecture based on similarities of forms and materials. Romanesque is characterized by a use of round or slightly pointed arches, barrel vaults, cruciform piers supporting vaults, and groin vaults. The great carved portals of 12th century church facades (see Church of St. Trophime) parallel the architectural novelty of the period-monumental stone sculpture seems reborn in the Romanesque.Romanesque appears to have been the first pan-European style since Roman Imperial Architecture and examples are found in every part of the continent. One important fact pointed out by the stylistic similarity of buildings across Europe is the relative mobility of medieval people. Contrary to many modern ideas of life before the Industrial Revolution, merchants, nobles, knights, artisans, and peasants crossed Europe and the Mediterranean world for business, war, and religious pilgrimages, carrying their knowledge of what buildings in different places looked like. The important pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela (Way of Saint James), in Galicia, modern northwest Spain, generated as well and spread some aspects of the Romanesque style. A particular scheme of Pilgrimage Church appeared and developed throughout the main routes in Tours, Limoges, Conques, Toulouse and Santiago de Compostela.The Romanesque was not confined only to architecture. It was accompanied by changes in design for woodworking seen, for instance in, chests and cupboards. The exterior of the book changes at this time, and as does manuscript design as scribes start to use a new clear style of writing (Caroline minuscule). Texts are set among intricate spirals and elaborate and finely-drawn nature motifs. This became an international graphic style, influencing even Jewish illuminated manuscripts. In western painting, mosaic and fresco design, from around 1150 a spirit emerged across Europe. This attempted to revive the styles of the art of classical antiquity, and yet it also drew heavily on ancient Christian Celtic and Byzantine arts.
The main characteristics of the style The Pier (an upright support generally square, or rectangular in plan) is a better solution for masonry walls, than the column. Columns are subsequently replaced by piers, or transformed to better support the masonry arches. Geometrisation and rigidity in Romanesque architecture is evident in the transformation of column capitals from corinthian to cubic capitals, as found in the church of St.Michael, Hildesheim. There is also one new element in the capitals developed during Romanesque period – the impost. It’s a trapezoid form which stands between capital and arch. Two types of alternation of supporting elements appeared during the Romanesque: 1. Simple alternation – 1 column (circular) is followed by 1 pier (rectangular) 2. Double alternation – 2 piers stand between every column Surviving Romanesque buildings France French Romanesque schools of architecture, which are specific for every region, are characterised by the variety of stone vaulting. Regions that developed distinctive styles are: Auvergne Normandy Gordes, Abbey of Sénanque Spain The plein Romanesque Architecture arrives with the influence of Cluny through the Way of Saint James, that ends in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The model of the Spanish Romanesque in 12th century was the Cathedral of Jaca, with its characteristic absis structure and plan, and its “chess” decoration in strips, called taqueado jaqués. As the Christian Kingdoms advanced to the South, that model spread troughout the reconquered areas with some variations. Spanish Romanesque has also influence of the Spanish pre-romanesque styles, mainly the Asturian and the Mozarab. But there is also a strong influence of the moorish architecture, so close in space, specially the vaults of Córdoba’s Mosque, and the polylobulated arches. In the 13th century, some romanesque churches alternated with the gothic. Aragón, Castile and Navarra are some of the most dense areas of Spanish Romanesque. Basílica de San Isidoro, with “Kings’ Pantheon” León Poland Croatia Ireland
Doorway, Dysert Church, Co. Clare, Ireland Germany Netherlands Italy England Durham Cathedral Switzerland Belgium Scandinavia Central Europe Portugal External links
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| South transept of Tournai Cathedral, Belgium, 12th century. | Trier Cathedral, left, and the Gothic Church of Our Lady. | Angoulême Cathedral, France. |
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| The plan of the Abbey of St Gall, Switzerland. | At St. Andrew’s Church, Kraków, the paired towers are octagonal in plan and have domes of the Baroque period. | Sant’Ambrogio, Milan is constructed of bricks. |
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| Bamberg Cathedral presents the distinctive outline of many of the large Romanesque churches of the Germanic tradition. | The Romanesque Abbey of Sénanque, France, is surrounded by monastic buildings of various dates. | San Vittore alle Chiuse, Genga, Italy, of undressed stone, has a typically fortress-like appearance. |
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| Mainz Cathedral, Germany, has possibly the earliest example of an internal elevation of 3 stages. | Santiago de Compostela has large columns constructed of drums, with attached shafts. pic G.Jansoone. | Durham Cathedral, England, has decorated masonry columns and the earliest pointed high ribs.pic Nina Aldin Thune |
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| Paired columns like those at Duratón, near Sepúlveda, Spain, are a feature of Romanesque cloisters in Spain, Italy and southern France. | Bayeux Cathedral, the crypt has groin vaults and simplified Corinthian capitals. | The apse of the Cathedral of la Seu d’Urgell, Spain, has a round-topped windows, an arcade with colonnettes and an occular window.pic K.Jeaves |
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| The Cathedral of Saint-Front, Perigueux, France, has five domes like Byzantine churches, but is Romanesque in construction. | St. Michael’s, Hildesheim has alternating piers and columns. | The interior of St Gertrude, Nivelles, Belgium, has a king post roof. |
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| At Saint-Etienne, Caen, both the nave and the tower are covered by ribbed vaults. c.1080. | The abbey church of Fongombault displays a cruciform plan, round chancel, apsidal chapels and high nave with lower aisles. | Schoengrabern church, Austria, shows a semi-circular chancel, flat buttresses and arcade beneath the roof. The tower is of the Baroque period. |
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| The south transept of Winchester Cathedral is in 3 stages. | Limburger Dom, Germany, has recently had its polychrome plaster restored. | The richly decorated tower of Norwich Cathedral is surmounted by a 15th Century spire. |
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| At Sant Climent de Taüll, Vall de Bohí, the tower has an increasing size in the windows at each level, typical also of Italian and German towers. pic Núria Pueyo | Santa Maria della Pieve, Arezzo, has a screen front with varied tiers of colonettes. | The “blind arcade” beneath this window at Canterbury Cathedral has overlapping arches forming points, a common decorative feature of Romanesque architecture in England. |
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| San Miniato al Monte, Florence, presents of polychrome marble facade favoured in Tuscany. | On these much-restored mouldings around the portal of Lincoln Cathedral are formal chevron ornament, tongue-poking monsters, vines and figures, and symmetrical motifs in the Byzantine style. | The tympanum of Vézelay Abbey, Burgundy, France, 1130s, has much decorative spiral detail in the draperies. |
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| A Capital from Seu Vella, Lleida, Spain, showing spiral and paired motifs. | This capital of the Three Kings at Autun has strong narrative qualities in the interaction of the figures. | Schoengrabern Church, Austria, is decorated with naif figures, here representing Adam being approached by an angry angel. |
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| The painted crypt of San Isidoro at León, Spain | Ely Cathedral, England, had an elaborate west front with its central tower framed by smaller towers showing transitional features, 1180s. One of the smaller towers fell. Porch, 1250s; lantern, 1390s. | The facade of Laon Cathedral, 1225, maintains rounded arches and arcading in the Romanesque manner. |
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| Paired columns in the foyer of the Natural History Museum, London. | The Romanesque Revival facade of Speyer Cathedral, architect- Heinrich Hübsch, 1854–1858. | |
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| St-Sernin basilica, Toulouse, 1080 – 1120: elevation of the east end | Romanesque St. Michael’s Church (1010-33) in Hildesheim – a World Heritage Site | Romanesque Collegiate church in Tum, Poland |
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| Romanesque portal of Schottenkirche, Regensburg | Collegiate church of Santillana del Mar, Spain. Cloister | Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain. Capitol detail |
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| Inner view of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. | Façade of the Old Cathedral of Coimbra (Portugal, 2nd half of 12th century). | |
Style History- Asturian Pre-Romanesque architecture (Spain and Portugal 711-910)
30 MayAsturian architecture
Pre-Romanesque architecture in Asturias is framed between the years 711 and 910, the period of the rise, extension and disappearance of the kingdom of Asturias.
Historical introduction
In the 5th century, the Goths, a Christianized tribe of Eastern European origin, arrived in the Iberian peninsula after the fall of the Roman empire, and dominated most of the territory, attempting to continue Roman order by the so called Ordo Gothorum.
In the year 710, the Visigothic king Witiza died, and instead of being succeeded by the eldest of his three sons, Agila, the throne was usurped by the duke of Baetica, Roderic. The young heir sought support to recover the throne, and apart from local backing, he approached the Muslim Kingdom in northern Africa. Tarik, the caliph of Damascus governor in Tangier, received permission to offer his army and disembark in Spain, ready to face the Visigothic army of King Roderic.
On July 19, 711, the battle of Guadalete took place near Gibraltar, where supporters of Witiza’s heir, backed by Tarik’s Muslim army, killed King Roderic and destroyed the Visigothic army. Tarik and his troops then took advantage of their military superiority, and marched on the Visigothic capital, Toledo, taking it almost without opposition.[2]
According to the chronicles, Asturian mercenaries, who had already been recruited by the Romans for their courage and fighting spirit, fought alongside King Roderic. These warriors, together with the rest of the retreating Gothic army, sought refuge in the mountains of Asturias, where they also tried to safeguard some of the sacred relics from Toledo cathedral, the most important of which was the Holy Ark, containing a large number of relics from Jerusalem.
The kingdom of Asturias arose exactly seven years later, in 718, when the Astur tribes, rallied in assembly, decided to appoint Pelayo as their leader, a person of uncertain origin, since for some chroniclers he was a Visigothic nobleman who fled from the Muslim conquerors and for others he was an indigenous nobleman associated with the Visigothic kingdom. Whatever the case, Pelayo joined the local tribes and the refuged Visigoths under his command, with the intention of progressively restoring Gothic Order, based on the kingdom of Toledo’s political model.
The kingdom of Asturias disappeared with King Alfonso III, who died in December of the year 910. In barely two hundred years, the 12 kings of the dynasty founded by Pelayo were to gradually recover territory from the Muslims (León, Galicia and Castile), a process which finally required the court to be moved south, to León, for its strategic position in the struggle that culminated 800 years after it had started (1492) with the taking of Granada and the expulsion of the last Arabic king from the Iberian Peninsula. The symbol of the flag of Asturias, a golden cross (significantly called “La Victoria”), and a blue background with the Latin motto Hoc signo, tvetvr pivs, Hoc signo vincitvr inimicvs (With this sign the pious is protected, With this sign you shall defeat the enemy), sums up the unified character that Christianity gave the armed struggle.
Pre-Romanesque as the Asturian monarchy’s artistic expression
Asturian Pre-Romanesque is a singular feature in all Spain, which, while combining elements from other styles (Visigothic, Mozarabic and local traditions), created and developed its own personality and characteristics, reaching a considerable level of refinement, not only as regards construction, but also in terms of decoration and gold ornamentation. This last aspect can be seen in such relevant works as the Cross of the Angels, the Victory Cross, the agate Box (housed in the Holy Chamber of Oviedo Cathedral), the Reliquary in Astorga Cathedral and the Cross of Santiago. As court architecture, the situation of Pre-Romanesque monuments followed in the wake of the various locations of the kingdom’s capital; from its original site in Cangas de Onís (Eastern Asturias), through Pravia (west of the central coast), to its final location in Oviedo, the region’s geographical centre.
As regards its evolution, from its appearance, Asturian Pre-Romanesque followed a “stylistic sequence closely associated with the kingdom’s political evolution, its stages clearly outlined”. Five stages are distinguished; a first period (737-791) belonging to the reigns of the kings Fáfila, Alfonso I, Fruela I, Aurelio, Silo, Mauregato and Vermudo I. A second stage comprises the reign of Alfonso II (791-842), entering a stage of stylistic definition, and third comprises the reigns of Ramiro I (842-850) and Ordoño I (850-866); a fourth belongs to the reign of Alfonso III (866-910) and a fifth and last which coincides with the transfer of the court to León, the disappearance of the kingdom of Asturias, and simultaneously, of Asturian Pre-Romanesque.
Monuments of interest
First Period (737 to 791)
From this period, of the young kingdom’s rise and consolidation, the existence of two churches have been registered. The Church of Santa Cruz (737) at the court’s original location, Cangas de Onís, of which we only have written references, because it was destroyed in 1936. The present-day one dates from 1950 and, like the original, is built over a barrow covering a dolmen. The legend goes that the name Santa Cruz (“Holy Cross”) comes from the oaken cross carried by King Pelayo in the battle of Covadonga, the first “little-big victory” against the Arabs, which was later to be covered in gold and precious stones (reign of Alfonso III), coming to be called La Victoria, and emblem of the Asturian flag. Chronicles state that the Church of Santa Cruz was built in stone masonry, one nave with a barrel vault and a main chapel on one side.
The second of these constructions is the Church of Santianes, the result of moving the royal court from Cangas de Onís to Pravia, an old Roman settlement (Flavium Navia) and crossroads. The church, built between the years 774 and 783, already showed a number of elements anticipating Asturian Pre-Romanesque; eastward-facing, basilica ground plan (central nave and two side aisles), separated by three semicircular arches, transept facing the central nave with the same length as the width of the three aisles. It also had a single, semicircular apse, and an external entrance vestibule, with a wooden ceiling over the nave.
Several sculptural decorative elements showing floral and geometric designs (something habitual in what were to be the characteristics of subsequent Pre-Romanesque), are on public display in the sacristy, where there is a museum.
Second Period (791 to 842)
Alfonso II, known as “the Chaste” (maybe for this reason he never had descendants), was a decisive king in the Asturian monarchy. From a military point of view, he definitively established the kingdom against the Muslims (in the famous battle of Lutos he gained a significant victory), in administration he moved the court to its final site in Oviedo, and in politics he set up cordial, stable relationships with the emperor Charlemagne, as demonstrated by the following quote by Eginardo (Vita caroli): “…the emperor (Charlemagne) was so closely united with Alfonso, king of Asturias and Galicia, that each time he sent a letter or ambassador, he ordered that he be given no treatment other than that of his client”.
As regards patronage of art, Alfonso II promoted the largest number of Pre-Romanesque buildings defining what were to be this style’s characteristics. With the royal architect, Tioda, he built the churches of San Tirso, San Julián de los Prados, Santa María de Bendones and San Pedro de Nora, in addition to the palace complex in Oviedo, now disappeared, consisting of the churches of San Salvador, Santa María and its adjoining palace and chapel (now the Holy Chamber of Oviedo Cathedral, the only one remaining), containing relies such as the Holy Ark and jewels, like the Cross of the Angels,which he donated himself to the Church of San Salvador. Outside Asturias, with the legend of the discovery of the apostle St. James’ tomb in Galicia, in a place known as campus stellae (Compostela), Alfonso II had the first church built in the saints honour (year 892).
When the Church of San Julián de los Prados, or Santullano, was built (approx. between the years (812 and 842), it formed part of a series of royal buildings. The church had a basilica ground plan [central nave and two side aisles), separated by three semicircular arches on impost capitals and square columns. It is worth noting the existence of a transept or transversal aisle located between the aisles and the sanctuary, exceeding the central nave in height.
Finally, there was a straight sanctuary, divided into three chapels, and over the main one, only accessible from outside, there was a room whose function is still open to conjecture. As for the roof, the church had an interesting oaken ceiling carved with a variety of geometric designs.
As elements outside the ground plan, there was a vestibule (to the east) and two sacristies adjoining the north and south facades, communicating directly with the transept.The Church of Santullano is the largest of the pre-romanesque churches.
From an ornamental point of view, the murals covering the walls and ceilings of this church are the best-conserved upper medieval paintings in Spain. the technique used is al fresco painting (applied with the plaster still wet), arranged in three well-defined areas. Decorative designs show clear influence of mural painting from the Roman period, recreating a certain atmosphere typical of the “theatrical style” (1st century B.C.). Decorative elements are numerous; marble imitation, rectangles, bands, weaving, squares, imitation channelling and columns, medallions decorated with plant motifs, architectural designs, curtains, though totally lacking in any portrayal of biblical or religious scenes, with the single exception of the Anastasis Cross (alpha and omega), as a symbol of royal power. This lack of figurative representation is known as aniconism and was not maintained in later Pre-Romanesque churches.
The church of San Tirso, located beside Oviedo cathedral, only conserves the end wall of the apse from its original construction, because it was destroyed by fire in the 16th century. The section remaining shows the original construction in stone blocks, and in the centre, there is the characteristic three-point window of Asturian Pre-Romanesque, with semicircular arches made of brick. The central opening, larger that the side ones, is supported by free-standing columns.
The Holy Chamber was built as a palace chapel for Alfonso II and the church of San Salvador (both demolished in the 14th century to build the present Gothic cathedral). The Chamber, adjoining the pre-romanesque Tower of San Miguel, also had the function of housing relies brought from Toledo after the fall of the Visigothic kingdom. It consists of two overlapping aisles with a barrel vault; the crypt or lower floor has a height of 2.30 metres, and is dedicated to St. Leocadia, containing several tombs of other martyrs.
The upper floor, dedicated to St. Michael, was extended in the 12th century, elongating the central section to six metres, a reconstruction that also provided it with its current decoration, a masterpiece of Spanish Romanesque. From an architectural point of view, the Holy Chamber’s construction solved one orthe greatest problems of Asturian Pre-Romanesque: the vaulting of two overlapping spaces, later used in the buildings of Ramiro I.
As mentioned above, a from acting as royal chapel, the Holy Chamber was built to house the jewels and relies of the cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo, a function it continues to have 1,200 years later. Some of these jewels were donated by the Kings Alfonso II and Alfonso III, and represent extraordinary gold artefacts of Asturian Pre-Romanesque.
The first of them is the Cross of the angels, created in the year 808 in Gauzón (the left bank of the estuary of Avilés) on the instructions of Alfonso II, who donated the precious stones necessary to make it from his personal treasury. The Cross of the Angels takes its name from the legend that it was made and given to Alfonso II by angels, who appeared to him in the form of pilgrims. The Greek cross (equal arms) has a core of cherry wood and in the centre there is a circular disk acting as connection for the four arms. The anverse is covered with a filigreed mesh of gold thread and bands of geometric decoration with a total of 48 precious stones (agates, shapir,esamethysts, rubies and opals) of great beauty.The reverse is covered with fine sheet of gold held by silver nails. Decoration on this side shows, mounted on the central disk, a large elliptical agate cameo, and a large stone at the end of each arm.
Exactly one century later, in the year 908,to commemorate a hundred years of the Asturían kingdom’s victories and conquests, Alfonso III donated Pre-Romanesque most important gold artifact to Oviedo Cathedral; the cross of la Victoria or Santa Cruz, a Latin cross (unequal arms) of 92 cm by 72 cm. The core is made of two pieces of oak with circular ends finished in three foils, and joined in the centre by a circular disk. The whole cross is covered with gold leaf and filigree, and richly decorated especially the anverse, covered with coloured enamel, pearls, precious stones and gold thread. The reverse shows an inscription in soldered gold letters, mentioning the donors to the Church of San Salvador, King Alfonso III and Queen Jimena, and the place (Gauzón Castle again) and the year it was made.
The last of the Pre-Romanesque jewels on in the Holy Chamber of Oviedo Cathedral is the Agate Box, donated to the church by Frela II (son of Alfonso II), and his wife Nunilo, in the year 910, when he was still a prince. This extraordinary gold artifact in mozarabic style is a rectangular reliquary made from cypress with a semi-pyramidal shaped lid. The covered with gold plate, with 99 little arch shaped openings, framed in woven gold thread, containing agates. The most valuable part of this piece is the upper part of the lid, probably re-used from another, smaller reliquary of Carolingian origin, a hundred years older than the rest. This plaque is decorated with panels of enamel, in turn surrounded by 655 incrusted garnets.
Continuing with the architectural works of the second period of Pre-Romanesque art, the last two are the churches of Santa María de Bedones and San Pedro de Nora. The first is located just fíve kilometres from the capital, in a south-east direction, towards the Nalón valley, and was a donation from King Alfonso III and his wife Jimena to San Salvador cathedral, on January 20, 905. Very similar to Santullano, although the ground plan is not the typical basilica of the Pre-Romanesque churches, but has three enclosures at the western end, the central one as an entrance vestibule and two side areas possibly to house parishioners or ecciesiastics. This entrance leads into a single nave with a wooden ceiling, covered by an interesting roof, the same length as the entrance enclosures. The nave adjoins two rectangular side areas, also with a wooden ceiling, whose use seems to associated with the liturgical rites of the period. this nave joined with the sanctuary by three semicircular brick arches, each of which leads into its corresponding chapel, of which only the main or central one is covered with a brick barrel vault, the other two with wooden ceilings.
Above the main chapel is the “typical” chamber, only accessible from outside, through a trefoil window with the standard Pre-Romanesque features; central arch larger that the side ones, resting on two free-standing capitals with rope moulding, and the upper rectangle framed by simple moulding.
Independent from the church structure, though close to its southern facade, stands the bell tower, on a rectangular ground plan.
San Pedro de Nora is located beside the River Nora, about tweive kilometres from Oviedo. This church has the construction style established in Santullano: facing eastwards, vestibule separate from the main structure, basilica-type ground plan, central nave higher than the side aisles, with intersecting wooden roof and lit by Windows with stone lattice. The straight sanctuary is divided into three apses with barrel vaults. As a differentiating element, the apses were joined to each other through the dividing walls by semicircular-arched doors. Like all the churches from this period, there was a room over the apse, only accessible from outside through a trefoil window. The bell tower, separate from the church like in Santa Maria de Bendones, does not belong to the original construction, and stems from an initiative in the seventies by the architect and great restorer of Asturian Pre-Romanesque, Luis Menéndez Pidal.
Third period (842 to 866)
This period corresponds with the reigns of Ramiro I and Ordoño I. The first, son of Vermudo I, succeeded Alfonso II when he died without descendants, taking charge of a rapidly expanding kingdom. He was described by chroniclers as Virga justitiae (baton of justice) because he had to face two internal rebellions by noblemen and due to his enthusiasm in hunting down magic and the black arts, very widespread in Asturias at the time. He also fought the Normans successfully, defeating them in Gijón and La Coruña. Paradoxically, he enjoyed a time of peace with his traditional enemies, the Muslims, which from an artistic point of view allowed him to substantially renew Pre-Romanesque’s architecture and decorative style, giving rise to the so-called Ramirian style.
Ramiro I was succeeded by his son Ordoño I, who inherited a very solid kingdom from a military perspective, a condition that let him use subjects from the kingdom of Asturias to re-populate abandoned cities on the other side of the mountains, such as Tui, Astorga and León. He measured his military might against the Arabs with varying results; in the battle of Clavijo (year 859) he easily defeated them, though six years later, at Hoz de la Morcuera, his army, led by one of his generals, suffered a defeat, halting the intense re-population work of the first part of his reign.
The first of the works from this period, the Palace of Santa María del Naranco, involved a significant stylistic, morphological, constructive and decorative renovation of Pre-Romanesque, supplementing it with new, innovative resources, representing a leap forward with respect to immediately previous periods. Built as a recreational palace, it is situated on the southern side of Monte Naranco facing the city, and was originally part of a series of royal buildings located in the outskirts. Its character as a civil building changed in the 12th century when it was converted into a church dedicated to St. Mary.
This palace’s innovations amazed chroniclers, who repeatedly mention it over time. A case in point is the Crónica Silense, written around the year 115, about 300 years after its construction, and which, on describing Ramiro I, states that “(…)he built many constructions, two miles away from Oviedo, with sandstone and marble in a vaulted work: (…) He also made (…), a palace without wood, of admirable construction and vaulted below and above,…”.
What marvelled the chroniclers for so many centuries were its proportions and slender shapes, its rich, varied decoration and the introduction ofelongated barrel vaults thanks to the transverse arches, allowing support and eliminating wooden ceilings. This solution, timidly advanced in the Holy Chamber, fully matured in Santa Maria del Naranco.
The palace, on a rectangular ground plan, has two floors; the lower level, or crypt, quite low, has a central chamber and another two located on either side. The upper floor is accessed via a double exterior stairway adjoining the facade, leading into an identical layout as the lower floor; a central or noble hall with six blind semicircular arches along the walls, supported by columns built into the wall, and a mirador at each end. These are accessed via three arches, similar to those onto the wall, resting on columns with helicoidal rope moulding, typical of Pre-Romanesque. The barrel vault is made from tufa stone, and is held up by six transverso arches resting on consoles.
Santa Maria del Naranco represented a step forward from a decorative point of view by enriching the habitual standards and modeis with elements from painting, gold work and the textile arts. The rich decoration is concentrated in the hall and miradors of the upper floor, where it is especially worth noting the cubic-prismatic capitals (of Byzantine influence), decorated with reliefs framed by cord decoration (from local tradition) in trapezoid and triangular shapes, inside which there are sculpted forms of animals and humans. This kind of motif is repeated on the disks with central medallions located above the blind arches’ intersections. The 32 medallions distributed around the building are similar in size and shape, varying the decorative designs and the interior figures (quadrupeds, birds, bunches of grapes, fantastic animáis), a style inherited from the Visigoth period, in turn descended from Byzantine tradition.
The medallions have decorative bands above them, again framed by rope moulding, inside which four figures are scuipted and arranged symmetrically; the upper two carrying loads on their heads and the lower two representing soldiers on horseback carrying swords. These figures seem to have some kind of symbolic social meaning; the warriors who defend and support the men of prayer (here offeres),or alternatively, the royal and ecclesiastic orders complementing each other.
Santa María del Naranco shows other, equally beautiful and important sculptural elements; for the first time, a Greek cross appears sculpted as emblem of the Asturian monarchy, at the same time protecting the building from all evil, something which was to become habitual in the popular architecture of towns and villages. Other sculptural elements, such as the capitals of Corinthian inspiration on the miradors’ triple-arched Windows or the altar stone in the eastern mirador (originally from the neighbouring Church of San Miguel de Liño/Lillo), make this palace the most distinctive building in Pre-Romanesque, a singularity highlighted by being the only palace complex that has lasted until the present day with both Visigothic and Carolingian court structures.
The church of San Miguel de Lillo was consecrated by Ramiro I and his wife Paterna in the year 848. It was originally dedicated to St. Mary until, as mentioned above (and shown by the altar located in the eastern mirador of santa María del Naranco), this worship passed to the nearby palace in the 12th century, leaving this church dedicated to St. Michael.
It originally had a basilica ground plan, three aisles with a barrel vault, although part of the original structure has disappeared as the building fell into decay during the 12th or 13th century. Nowadays, it conserves its western half from that period, together with several elements in the rest of the church such as the fantastic jambs in the vestibule or the extraordinary lattice on the window of the southern wall, sculpted from one single piece of stone.
The last of the churches from this period is Santa Cristina de Lena , located in the Lena district, about 25 km south of Oviedo, on an old Roman road that joined the lands of the plateau with Asturias. The church has a different ground plan to Pre-Romanesque´s traditional basilica. It is a single rectangular space with a barrel vault, with four adjoining structures located in the centre of each facade. The first of these annexes is the typical Austrian Pre-Romanesque vestibule, with a royal tribune on the upper part, accessed via a stairway joined to one of the walls. To the east is the enclosure with the altar, with a single apse, foregoing the traditional Asturian pre-romanesque triple apse, and going back to Visigoth influences. To the north and south respectively, there are two other enclosures through semicircular arches and barrel vaults, whose use was associated with the Hispano-Visigothic liturgy practised in Spain up to the 11th century.
One of the most particular elements of Santa Cristina de Lena is the existence of the presbytery elevated above floor level in the last section of the central nave, separated from the area intended for the congregation by three arches on marble columns. This separation, which appears in other Asturian churches, is not repeated in any other with a similar structure. Both the lattices over the arches and the wall enclosing the central arch were re-used from Visigothic origins in the 7th century.
On the outside of the church, it is worth noting the large number of buttresses (32) which seem in some cases to have a merely aesthetic function. Nearby this church is the Asturian Pre-Romanesque Information Centre, located in the old Norte de la Cobertoria Railway Station.
Fourth period (866 to 910)
This comprises the reign of Alfonso III, who came to the throne at the age of 18, on the death of his father, Ordoño I, marking the zenith of the kingdom of Asturias. Expansion against Islam led him to conquer Oporto and Coimbra in present-day Portugal, and he pushed the borders of the kingdom as far as the Douro, repopulating Zamora, Simancas, Toro and the whole area known as Campos Góticos. The idea of the Asturian kingdom as a continuation of the Visigoths in Toledo was fully assumed, involving the obligation to re-conquer all the territory occupied by Muslims. This idea was reflected in the historical chronicles, such as the Crónica Albeldense, written in Oviedo in the year 881, which tells the history of the Gothic kingdom (Ordo Gentis gothorum), followed by the Asturian monarchy (Ordo Gothorum Obetensium fíegnum)T he kingdom’s moment of expansion and maturity was also reflected in a cultural revitalisation promoted from the court, involving architectural and artistic renewal.
The kingdom’s progressive expansion and increasing power also kindled the ambition of Alfonso III’s three sons (García I, Ordoño II and Fruela II), who, encouraged by a number of noblemen, dispossessed the king and confined him in the town of Boiges (Boides valley, present-day Valdediós). Even so, they allowed him to lead a final campaign against the Muslims in Zamora, where he was victorious once more. He died on his return, in December of the year 910. Described in the chronicles as “Great King and Emperor” [Magnus Imperatore ImpemtorNoster),the king who had achieved the kingdom’s greatest expansion and consolidation since it was founded by Pelayo, could not prevent his since from splitting it into three parts, Asturias, Galicia and Castile-León, meaning the disappearance of the kingdom of Asturias.
San Salvador de Valdediós and Santo Adriano de Tuñón are the two churches built by this monarch, in addition to the Foncalada fountain (fonte incalata) in the centre of Oviedo, and the already-mentioned gold artefacts of the Victoria Cross and the Agatha Box.
San Salvador de Valdediós stands in the Boides valley (Villaviciosa), the place where Alfonso III was detained when he was dispossessed by his sons, and where there used to be an old convent governed by the Benedictine Order, substituted in the 13th century by the Cistercians. The church known as the “Bishops’ Chapel” was consecrated on September 16, 893, with seven bishops in attendance, and stands on a classic basilica ground plan with a triple sanctuary, separating the central nave from the side aisles with four semicircular arches.
At the western end, there are three enclosures, the central one used as an access vestibule, and two located on the left and right which may have been used to house pilgrims. The vault over the central nave, like the one over the apses, is barrelled with a brick ceiling and decorated with al fresco wall painting, alternating a variety of geometric designs.
The royal tribune is located above the vestibule, separate from the area intended for the congregation (spatium fidelium) in the central nave, and this from the area devoted to the liturgy by iron grilles, now disappeared. Particular elements of this church include the covered gallery annexed to the southern facade at a later date or Royal Portico, the 50 cm square columns on the central naves arches, the triple-arched window open in the central apse, and the room above it, exclusively accessed from the exterior by a window which here has two openings, compared with the habitual three.
Santo Adriano de Tuñón is located on the bank of the River Trubia, next to an old Roman road. Founded on January 24, 891, it stands on a classic basilica ground plan, although in the 17th and 18th centuries it was extended with a nave structure at the western end, and a bell gable. The al fresco paintings in this church are the only remains of Mozarabic painters’ work in an Asturian art workshop.
Finally, the Foncalada fountain, the only upper medieval civil construction conserved in Spain, was built on the outside of Oviedo city walls, with stone blocks and an intersecting roof, barrel vault and rectangular ground plan. The intersection of the roof is topped with a triangular pediment, sculpted with the VictoriaCross, characteristic of Alfonso III, under which runs the inscription Hocsigno tvetvr pivs, hoc signo vincitvr inimicvs, also typical of the kingdom of Asturias.
Fifth period (866 to 910)
With Alfonso III dead and the kingdom of Asturias divided among his sons, Asturian Pre-Romanesque entered its last stage with two constructions. The first of them is the Church of San Salvador de Priesca (a few kilometres from Valdediós), consecrated on September 24, 921, which has the architectural and decorative reference of the model laid down by Santullano, and not subsequent works. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it underwent several reconstructions, altering especially the structures adjoining the vestibule, by communicating them with the side aisles.
The Church of Santiago de Gobiendes, located near Colunga, next to the sea and the Sueve mountain range, is the last of the Pre-Romanesque churches, and like the previous one, follows the Santullano construction model. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it underwent significant reform, altering the entrance, facade, main and side chapels.
References
^ S. J. Keay, Margarita Díaz-Andreu García (1997). The Archaeology of Iberia: The Dynamics of Change . Routledge, 236. ISBN 0415120128.
^ Harold W. Osborne (1970). The Oxford Companion to Art . Clarendon P.
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| St Juliàn Prados, Oviedo | Monument in memory of Pelayo in Covadonga | Santa María del Naranco |
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| Santullano | Santianes de Pravia | San Miguel de Lillo |
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| Ground plan San Miguel de Lillo | San Salvador de Valdediós monastery | Valdediós ground plan |
Style History- Visigothic Pre-Romanesque architecture (Spain and Portugal 415-711)
28 MayVisigothic art and architectureThe Visigoths entered Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal) in 415, and they rose to be the dominant people there until the Moorish invasion of 711 brought their kingdom to an end.
This period in Iberian art is dominated by their style. Visigothic art is generally considered in the English-speaking world to be a strain of Migration art, while the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking worlds generally classify it as Pre-Romanesque.
Branches of Visigothic art include their architecture, their crafts (especially jewellery), and even their script.
Visigothic architecture
The only remaining examples of their architecture from the sixth century are the church of San Cugat del Vallés in Barcelona, Saint Frutuoso Chapel in (Braga, the church of S.Gião (Nazaré) and the few remnants of the church at Cabeza de Griego, Cuenca. However, their style developed over the next centuries, though the prime remaining examples of it are mostly rural and often run-down. Some of the characteristics of their architecture are:
Generally basilican in layout, sometimes a Greek cross plan or, more rarely, a combination of the two. The spaces are highly compartmentalised.
Horseshoe arches without keystones.
A rectangular, exterior apse.
Use of columns and pillars with Corinthian capitals of unique design.
Barrel vaults with cupolas at the crosses.
Walls of ashlar blocks, occasionally alternating with Roman brickwork.
Decoration commonly of animal or plant motifs.
Examples include:
San Juan de Baños de Cerrato (Palencia)
Cripta de San Antolín de Palencia
San Pedro de la Mata (Toledo)
Santa Comba de Bande (Orense)
San Pedro de la Nave (Zamora)
Santa María de Quintanilla de las Viñas (Burgos)
Santa María de Melque (Toledo)
São Gião (Nazaré)
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| Saint Frutuoso Chapel in Braga, Portugal | San Pedro de la Nave from the southwest. | |
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| San Juan de Baños de Cerrato (Palencia) | Santa María de Melque (Toledo) |
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