Gothic cathedrals

Gothic architecture started out of Romanesque architecture, in France in the 1100's. The places where the architecture was made increased across Europe. But in the 1500's Renaissance architecture became more used in the Renaissance Period. The Renaissance Period took place from the 1200s to the 1600s. Before that, most cathedrals were made in Gothic styles.  

The one most special part of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch. The image on the right is an example of this arch from the inside of a late medieval Gothic cathedral. This is the most important difference from Romanesque architecture which has rounded arches. Romanesque Architecture was before the Gothic Architecture. It was used by many Catholics. 

Other features are the ribbed vault, flying buttress, and windows with designs of stone lace called tracery. Many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and churches of Europe are Gothic architecture. It is also the architecture of many castles  and palaces. It is also in some town halls, universities and houses. Most parts of this past time were made in Gothic styles. 

Many church buildings of the time have not been destroyed by time. Even some of the smallest Gothic churches are often great and big feeling.  Many of the larger Gothic churches and cathedrals are thought to be works of art that no amount of money can purchase. Many are listed in the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. In the 19th century, the Gothic style became used again, mostly for making churches and universities. This way of planning and designing buildings is called the Gothic Revival architecture. This is because the Gothic architecture did not change but came back to being used. This is called a "Revival" because it "died" when it was not used but was used in modern times so it was "living" again.

Name
Gothic architecture was at first called "the French Style" (). This way of planning and building came from France. The word "Gothic" was later used during the Renaissance as an insult. This is because the ancient Goths were said to the uncivilized. Goths were germanic-people said to be living near the lower Vistula river.

The Italian writer Giorgio Vasari used the word "Gothic" in the 1530s, because he thought buildings from the Middle Ages were not much planned and measured, different from Renaissance buildings or the buildings of ancient Rome. He said that, because the Goths had destroyed the classical world. Then he said this was reason to destroy the architecture of the twelfth century.  Vasari said it was ironical revenge against the goths for destroying the classical world.  After Vasari, many other people used the word "Gothic" for architecture with pointed arches. It was not much of an insult by then.
Background
Towns, states and countries
By the end of the 12th century, Western Europe was divided into different states. Many of the states were beginning to group out into countries that exist today. The Holy Roman Empire ruled a large part of Europe, including the modern countries of Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, eastern France and much of northern Italy, apart from Venice, a strong, independent city state. Many other powers such as England (before the forming of the English Orthodox Church), and France, had a 'power cycle' between the Pope and the king. Emperor Charlemagne started the Holy Roman Empire in 800 AD, a few hundred years after the large and powerful Roman Empire was no longer in existence. 

The modern countries of France and Spain were each divided into different kingdoms. The kingdoms had a lot of war with each other. England was ruled by a king whose family also had a lot of land in France. Norway was influenced by England and tried to do what it  did. Other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by Germanic states. Trade between towns and states started to make them be large and have power. Germany, Holland (The Netherlands) ,and Belgium had many large towns not because of war but because of trade. Because of the peace and wealth of these towns, they showed their pride by making huge town halls, often with very tall towers. This 'beauty competition' of buildings by the countries led to the formation of the Gothic style of Europe. 

In England and France, most people did not live in towns. They lived on farms. In the time of William the Conqueror, almost 90% of British people were peasants or serfs in the rural areas. In other words they were poor and had little or no land. Rich noblemen or lords owned these farms. The house of the lord was called a manor house. Italy was mostly small city-states which often were at war. Cities often had high walls and many of the houses built at this time were tall, high towers.Banister Fletcher, A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method
The Church
In Western Europe, in the Middle Ages, almost everyone and everything were controlled by the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church has only one head - the Pope. At that time, they were like dictators or people with all of the power that ruled Europe, or maybe the accepted Napoleon. During the Middle Ages, one language was used in churches all across Europe - Ecclesiastical Latin, sometimes called Church Latin. It was made from ancient Latin. The churches of each area had a local bishop who came under the Pope. Each Bishop had a throne where he could sit when priests and pilgrims came to meet him. A church which has a Bishop's throne is called a "cathedral". Cathedrals were very often the biggest and most beautiful churches. They used the Gothic architecture when the time where it was used often. 

In the early Middle Ages, many monasteries were made all across Europe. A group of holy men lived and worked and prayed there.  Monks were a part of different "orders" which had different rules. The largest number of monasteries were homes to the monks of the Benedictine Order. Their monasteries were often in towns and they often built very large churches called "Abbeys". Abbeys were for both the monks and the townspeople to worship in. Other orders of monks, like the Cistercians, did not live near towns. Now their abbeys are seen as beautiful ruins in the English countryside.

In France, there were also Benedictines, as well as Cluniac Orders. The great monastery at Cluny, built in the Romanesque style, was the biggest in Europe. The abbey and other buildings were very well planned so for hundreds of years other monasteries were influenced by that plan. In the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi started the Franciscans as a group. They were often called the "Grey Friars" because of their grey-brown robes. St. Dominic started the Dominicans in Toulouse and Bologna. The Dominicans made many of Italy's Gothic churches.John Harvey, The Gothic World

Abbot Suger and the first Gothic building
Abbot Suger was the head of a large monastery just north of Paris in France. The monastery had a large church, the Abbey of Saint-Denis. There was also a royal palace where the French kings sometimes were in.  Abbot Suger was a close friend to two kings, Louis VI and Louis VII.

In 1127 Suger decided to make again and change the great abbey Church of Saint-Denis. He began by changing the "West Front" or facade. This side of the church was about 200 years old and had only one small door. Suger planned for three large doors like the arches on the Arch of Constantine in Rome. These large doors let in all the large amounts of people on special Holy Days. The facade also had a large round window in the middle, called a rose window. This was the first one in France.

Abbot Suger did not change the church inside the west doors where most of the regular people stood. Next, he rebuilt the eastern end. Suger wanted the east facade to make people think of Heaven. He wanted it to be very light and bright, with very big windows of beautiful glass with color. He looked at all the most modern designs, and all the clever things that other architects had done. He put all the new ideas together in one building. It was the first building that was "Gothic". It was not called Gothic at first. It was called "the French Style".

On June 11, 1144 the new East End was made for or "given to God". Other architects then used this design for other large churches and cathedrals in northern France. After Abbot Suger's death, the rest of the church was also changed to be the Gothic architecture , and got two more much larger rose windows with more design. There was one window for each side.Wim Swaan, The Gothic Cathedral Gothic architecture soon spread to England and through France, the Low Countries, Germany, Spain and northern Italy and Sicily.
Architectural features of Gothic churches
Romanesque architecture
"Romanesque" was the architecture in Europe before the Gothic architecture. Gothic architecture was made from  Romanesque architecture. Slowly Romanesque architecture was more like Gothic architecture until it was.  Many of what made Gothic architecture special did not begin in the Gothic period. What made it special had existence in Romanesque architecture. It slowly changed to be Gothic. The most important changes were the pointed arch and the "flying buttress". These two changes made many other changes happen. Romanesque buildings had thick walls, small windows, round arches and flat buttresses. Gothic buildings had thinner walls, larger windows, pointed arches and large buttresses. 

All of the buildings, and the general shape of the buildings had existence in the Romanesque period. The buildings were:- the cathedral church, the parish church, the monastery, the castle, the palace, the great hall and the gatehouse. Before the 1900's, the landmark building in almost every town was a church, cathedral, abbey, or town hall with its tall tower or spire rising high above all the houses. Many of these buildings were from the Middle Ages and were Romanesque or Gothic in style.Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture.
Composition

Some Gothic churches in Germany and Austria and also Milan Cathedral (which was built in the German style) often have nave and aisles of near the same height and are called "hallenkirke" (hall church). The Cathedral of St. Stephen of Vienna is an example of hall church. In some churches with two aisles, like Notre Dame, Paris, the transept does not stick out beyond the aisles. In English cathedrals the transepts always stick out a long way and some have two transepts like at Salisbury Cathedral. It is at the eastern end that Gothic churches are the most different from each other.

England
In England, the eastern end is often long with two parts. It is often square or has a "Lady Chapel" . The "Lady Chapel" is a place to pray to the Virgin Mary.
France
In France, the eastern end is often polygonal and has a back hallway called an ambulatory for walking. Often French churches have a ring of chapels called a chevette. German churches are often like churches of France when the eastern ends are put in comparison.

Italy
In Italy, there is no long chancel going out beyond the transept. There is usually just a half circle shaped chapel as at Florence Cathedral.

Features of the Gothic style
 Pointed arches
 Very high towers and spires and roofs
 Clustered columns: tall columns that looked like a group of thin columns bundled together
 Ribbed vaults: arched ceilings made of stone. In the Gothic style they were held up by stone ribs.
 A skeleton of stonework with great big glass windows in between.
 Tracery: carved stone lace in the windows and on the walls
 Stained glass: richly colored glass in the windows, often with pictures telling stories
 Buttresses: narrow stone walls jutting out from the building to help hold it up
 Flying buttresses: buttresses that help to hold the vault up. They are made with an arch that jumps over a lower part of the building to reach the outside wall.
 Statues: of Saints, Prophets and Kings around the doors
 Many sculptures, sometimes of animals and legendary creatures. Gargoyles spout water from the roof.

Grand facade
The "facade" or West Front of a large church or cathedral is designed to make a large impression on the worshippers. One of the best known is Notre Dame de Paris. In the middle of the facade is the main door or "portal", often with two side doors as well. In the arch of the middle door is often an important piece of sculpture, most often "Christ in Majesty". Sometimes, there is a stone post in the middle of the doorway where there is a statue of the "Madonna and Child".

There are many other carved stone figures or sculptures in places. The places have tall narrow arched openings in them that could be used to put statues in.  An opening like this is called a niche which is pronounced "neesh" The carved figures are set all around the portals. Sometimes there are hundreds of stone figures carved all across the front of the building. Above the middle door there is a large window, which is most often a rose window like that at Reims Cathedral. There is no rose window in England, Scotland, Belgium or Scandinavia but there will almost always be a very large pointed window to let in lots of light.

Italy
In Italy, the facade is often designed partly with coloured marble and mosaic made of little coloured tiles. It also has less figures, for example at Orvieto Cathedral. The facade of a French cathedral and many English, Spanish and German cathedrals most often have two towers.

Height
Large Gothic churches and cathedrals are often very tall. On the inside, the nave is most often at least twice as high as it is wide, which gives the church a very tall narrow look. Some of the churches in France and Germany have naves that are three times as high as they are wide. Cologne Cathedral is an example. The tallest nave is at Beauvais Cathedral which is 157.5 feet high. Westminster Abbey is 102 feet high.

On the outside most Gothic churches, both large and small, have at least one tower. In Italy there are domes on the churches, and the tower stands to one side. But in most other countries, cathedrals generally have two towers and quite often have three. Some have even more. Laon Cathedral was planned to have seven, but they were not all made. Sometimes, there is just one tower with a huge spire as at Salisbury. Lincoln Cathedral had the tallest spire of the Middle Ages at 527 feet (160 metres).

Because a pointed arch points up, it makes people look up. In Gothic architecture, the whole building is designed to make people look up. There are long narrow columns, long narrow windows and high pointed roofs. On the inside the arches of the roof rise up like branches. On the outside, there are often lots of great parts along the edge of the roof and on the tops of buttresses and above the windows. They are called pinnacles. Milan Cathedral has hundreds of them.

Light
Gothic architecture usually has a lot of windows. Sainte Chapelle is a famous example. At Gloucester Cathedral in England, the East window is as large as a tennis court. Milan Cathedral also has windows of about the same size. The flying buttresses which arch across the roof of the aisle were used to support the roof above the windows, so the walls did not have to be so thick.

The columns of the inside, the ribs of the vault (or roof) and the flying buttresses, made a strong stone skeleton. in between these parts, the walls and the filling of the vaults could be of lighter thinner material. Between the narrow buttresses, the walls could be opened up into large windows. Throughout the Gothic period, because of the pointed arch, Gothic windows were able to change from simple windows to very designed and detailed ones. The windows were very often made of stained glass which made coloured light in the building. Stained glass was used for story-telling by pictures.

The pointed arch
Pointed arches were used in Persian architecture, and from 641 CE onwards, they were a special part of Islamic architecture. Knowledge of the pointed arch then was in Europe through the Crusaders who travelled to the Middle East often and for a long time (from 1096).  Also, Islamic forces had taken over most of Spain, where they built cities and Mosques with pointed arches.Christopher Wren and the Muslim Origin of Gothic Architecture  (2003), Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation. Architectural historians think that the pointed arch was also used by some European architects because it was a very strong way of making an arch.

In Gothic architecture, the pointed arch is used in every place where an arch is needed, both for strength and for decoration. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and galleries have pointed arches. A line of arches is called an arcade. A line of arches that is up high on a building is a gallery. Rows of pointed arches were used to decorate walls. This is known as blind arcading.
Vaulted roofs with pointed arches
An arched roof made of bricks or stone is called a vault. In the Romanesque period before the Gothic, some churches had vaulted roofs. They were always based on perfectly semi-circular shapes. There were two main ways to make a nave vault in the Romanesque period. A vault could be long like a tunnel. Churches with this type of vault were always rather dark. Or it could be square, like two tunnels crossing each other. This meant that the columns that carried the vault always had to be placed on a perfectly square ground plan, which was not always possible.

One of the good things about pointed arches was that they could be narrow and tall, or flattened and wide. Using pointed arches, architects could make vaults of very different shapes. They did not even have to be rectangular. A Gothic architect could make a vault with one side narrow, two sides wide and the last side even wider. They could make a vault with three sides or five sides quite easily, by using pointed arches.

The vaults were made of ribs which met each other at the highest part of the vault. In between the ribs were sloping surfaces of stone or brick that could be much thinner and lighter than the ribs. At first the pattern made by the ribs was quite plain, like Romanesque vaults, but architects, particularly in England, soon started adding small ribs in between the main ones and making different patterns. Some vaults like this can also be seen in Spain and Germany, but not usually in France or Italy.

Different shapes of Gothic arches
In the Gothic period the shape of pointed arches changed. But the changes were not the same in every country.

With pointed arches, windows could be made very large. Architects made many designs of pointed arches crossing each other in different ways. These designs were often used in windows, which look as if they are filled with beautiful stone lace. This is called "tracery". The stone tracery was used to hold the glass in place.  An Architectural Historian can often tell just how old a part of a building is by looking at the window tracery design.

Lancet arch
The simplest Gothic arch is a long opening with a pointed arch known in England as the lancet. A "lancet" is a sharp knife, so these windows are knife-shaped. Very often lancet windows are put together in a group of three or five.

Salisbury Cathedral is famous for the beauty of its Lancet Gothic Architecture. In England the style is called "Early English Gothic". York Cathedral in England has a group of five lancet windows that are 50 feet high and are still full of ancient glass. They are called "the Five Sisters".

This sort of simple windows are also found at Chartres Cathedral and Laon Cathedral in France. They are the most often sort of Gothic windows in Italy.

Equilateral arch
Many Gothic openings have tops that are based upon an equilateral triangle. The Equilateral Arch has a very pleasing look and gives a wide opening useful for doorways, arcades and big windows.

This sort of arches are often filled with tracery in circular designs. In England this is called Geometric Decorated Gothic. It can be seen at many English and French Cathedrals, for example Lincoln cathedral in England and Notre Dame in Paris.

Flamboyant arch
Some Gothic windows have designs in the tracery, or even in the top of the window itself, that rises up like a flame. This is called Flamboyant Gothic. Tracery like this makes a very rich and lively effect.

Some of the most beautiful and famous windows of Europe have 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 windows like this are the West Window of York Minster with its design based on the Sacred Heart. There is also the East Window at Carlisle Cathedral and the East window of Selby Abbey. Architectural Historians sometimes argue about which of these is the most beautiful.

Flame-shaped arches are not as strong as ordinary pointed arches. It is never used for making a vaulted roof. If this shape is used to make a doorway, there is generally another stronger arch around it. Another way is to make a square topped door that has Flamboyant decoration over the top. In France there are many doorways, both in churches and in houses, that are like this. They are rare in England but there is one at Rochester Cathedral.

In England flamboyant arches were used for wall arcading and niches. The most famous examples in are in the Lady Chapel at Ely, the Screen at Lincoln and the facade of Exeter Cathedral. In German and Spanish Gothic architecture flamboyant arches  is often used for openwork stone screens. The famous "pulpit" in Vienna Cathedral is made like this.

Depressed arch
The Depressed arch is wide and looks as if it has been pushed almost flat. When arches like this are used to make great big windows they need to be supported by many tall thin vertical shafts and horizontal transoms, so that the window looks as if it has been divided up into a grid (lots of rectangles). This sort of decoration is used on walls as well. In England this is called Perpendicular Gothic style.

For example, the Gloucester Cathedral's perpendicular east window is said to be as large as a tennis court. There are three very famous large chapels in this style- King's College Chapel, Cambridge; St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle; Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey. The other famous example is Bath Abbey.

Decoration
A Gothic cathedral was designed to be like a model of the universe. Everything about the building was designed to tell a message about God. The statues, the design for the eyes, the stained glass windows and wall paintings told Bible stories. Examples of bible stories shown are how God created the world and how he rules over everything that is in the universe, the seasons of the year and the stars in the sky. Carvings near the door often show the signs of the Zodiac because the patterns of stars in the sky were very important to farming people who did not have calendars to tell them when to plant and when to harvest.

Above the main door is often a sculpture of Jesus on a throne, a judge of the people of the Earth. Many pictures and sculptures are there to remind people to live good lives because they never know what will happen next. Many churches were grandly designed for the eye, both inside and out. the statues were often painted in bright colours but nowadays only tiny bits remain at Chartres cathedral and some other places. Wooden ceilings were usually brightly coloured. Sometimes the stone columns were painted as well.

Regional differences
Even though some things about Gothic architecture stay the same, other things look different in different countries.

Building materials
Different building materials were found in different parts of Europe. This is one of the differences in the architecture between different places. In England, they have a tendency to have rough limestone, red sandstone and dark green Purbeck marble which was often used for architectural designs like thin columns.

In France, there was limestone. It was good for building because it was soft to cut, but got much harder when the air and rain got on it. It was most often a pale grey colour. France also had beautiful white limestone from Caen which was perfect for making very fine carvings. In Italy, limestone was used for city walls and castles, but brick was used for other buildings. Because Italy had lots of beautiful marble in many different colours, many buildings have fronts or "facades" decorated in coloured marble. Some churches have very rough brick facades because the marble was never put on. Florence Cathedral, for example, did not get its marble facade until the 1800s. 

In Northern Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Baltic countries and northern Poland there was no good building stone, but there was clay for making bricks and tiles. So many of these countries have Brick Gothic churches and even Brick Gothic castles. In some parts of Europe, there were many tall straight trees that were good for making very large roofs. But in England, by the 1400s, the long straight trees were running out. Many of the trees were used for building ships. The architects had to think of a new way to make a wide roof from short pieces of timber. That is how they invented the hammer-beam roofs which are one of the beautiful features seen in many old English churches.Alec Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedrals of England

France
French cathedrals, and those in Germany and Belgium are often very high, both inside and outside. The transepts do not stick out far. The facades in France nearly always have three doors, a rose window and two towers. There are often facades with doors on the transepts as well as the front.

England
The thing that makes English cathedrals different from the others is that they are long, and look horizontal, like big ocean liners.
English cathedrals nearly all took hundreds of years to build, and every part is built in a way that is quite different to the next part. (Only Salisbury Cathedral was not built in lots of styles.)
The West window is very large and is never a rose window. The west front may have two towers like a French Cathedral, or none. There is nearly always a tower at the middle of the building, which may have a big spire.

Holy Roman Empire
In the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, the towers and spires are often very large even in comparison to other cathedrals. Sometimes they are so big that they could not be finished until modern times. The spires are quite different to English spires because they are made of lacy "openwork".
There are also many hallenkirke (or hall-churches) which have no clerestorey windows. The nave and the aisles are about the same height.

Spain and Portugal
Like an English Cathedral, a Spanish or Portuguese Gothic Cathedral is often built in many different ways. They are often wide. Spanish cathedrals often have chapels all around them. The roof often has many different sorts of towers and spires. Often the central towers are polygonal.

Italy
Italian Gothic cathedrals use lots of color, both outside and inside. On the outside, the facade is often partly designed with marble. On the inside, the walls are often painted plaster. The columns and arches are often decorated with bright coloured paint. There are also mosaics with gold backgrounds and beautifully tiled floors is geometric patterns.
The facades often have an open porch with a wheel windows above it. There is often a dome at the top middle of the building. The bell tower is almost never ever attached to the building, because Italy has quite a few earthquakes. The windows are not as large as in northern Europe and, although stained glass windows are often found, the favorite way of decorating the churches is fresco (wall painting).

Related pages
 Baroque
 History of Europe
 Byzantine architecture
 History of Christianity
 Gothic Revival architecture

References
Notes

Citations

Works cited







 , from Project Gutenberg









Other websites
 GothicMed. A virtual museum of Mediterranean Gothic architecture 
 Photographs of 1,700 gothic and romanesque churches

Category:Gothic architecture