page_title: List of regional characteristics of Romanesque churches
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: List of regional characteristics of Romanesque churches / Romanesque churches in Italy / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: Ancona S.Ciriaco - leone Italy Italiano: Ancona S.Ciriaco - leone
context_page_description: Romanesque is the architecture of Europe which emerged in the late 10th century and evolved into Gothic architecture during the 12th century. The Romanesque style in England is more traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.
  The style can be identified across Europe with certain significant architectural features occurring everywhere. There are other characteristic which differ greatly from region to region.
  Most of the buildings that are still standing are churches, some of which are very large abbey churches and cathedrals. The majority of these are still in use, some of them having been substantially altered over the centuries.
  This list presents a comparison of Romanesque churches, abbeys and cathedrals of different countries. The second section describes the architectural features that can be identified within pictures of major architectural elements.
context_section_description: Large churches often have basilical form, with a projecting apse.
  Some large churches have projecting transepts as at Pisa Cathedral.
  Towers are freestanding and may be circular as at Pisa.
  Windows are small.
  The façade takes two forms, that which coincides with the basilical section of nave and aisles, as at Pisa Cathedral and that which screens the form, such as San Michele, Pavia.
  Dwarf galleries are the prevalent form of decoration on the façade as at Pisa Cathedral.
  A number of churches have facades and interiors that are faced with polychrome marble, as at San Miniato al Monte.  The rest of a brick exterior was generally left undecorated with some notable exceptions including Pisa Cathedral.
  Portals were rarely large and were square rather than round, as at San Miniato al Monte.  Decorative tympanums, where they exist, are mosaic, fresco or shallow relief, as at San Zeno, Verona.
  Shallow relief carving in marble was a feature of some facades, as at San Zeno and Modena Cathedral
  Ocular and Wheel windows are commonly found in facades, as at San Zeno and Modena Cathedral.
  Portals are sometimes covered by an open porch supported on two columns standing on the backs of lions at San Zeno, Verona.
  Internally, large churches generally have arcades resting on columns of Classical form.
  There is little emphasis on vertical mouldings.
  The wall surface above the arcade was covered with decorative marble, mosaic or fresco.  Galleries such as that at Pisa were uncommon, but occur in convent churches as nuns' galleries.
  Open timber roofs prevailed.
  Ribbed vaults, when used, are large, square and domical, spanning two bays as at San Michele, Pavia, and Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio.
  The crossing is often covered by a dome, as at Bari Cathedral and Pisa Cathedral (where the dome is oval and of a later date).
  The choir may be above a vaulted crypt, accessible from the nave or aisles, as at San Zeno, Verona.
  Freestanding polygonal baptisteries were common, as at Parma Cathedral and the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence.
  Cloisters often have an array of elaborately twisted columns, and fanciful decoration in mosaic tiles as at the Romanesque cloister of the Ancient Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls, Rome.
  The large churches and cathedrals of Southern Italy and Sicily were influenced by Norman architecture, as at Trani Cathedral and Bari Cathedral in Apulia.
  Churches in Sicily were influenced by Islamic architecture, in the employment of the pointed arch as at Monreale Cathedral and Palermo Cathedral.
caption: The lion supporting a column of the porch at Ancona Cathedral is typical of Northern Italy.
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