Gothic Architecture

The social evolution which resulted in the enfranchisement of the communes had its origin in the eleventh century, though the consummation of this great political change was of...

The first steeples were round, on the model of the Greek and Byzantine cupolas, and modest in diameter, so that the bells they contained can only have been small ones. These bel...

The expression is clearly misleading as indicating the architecture of the Goths or Visigoths; for these tribes were vanquished by Clovis in the sixth century, and left no monum...

The distinctive character of military architecture in the Middle Ages must be sought in defensive fortification. In all other respects its constructive methods were identical wi...

Though confining ourselves to a brief historical abstract of the so-called Gothic period in architecture, without reference to Roman examples, we have said enough in the foregoi...

Civil architecture could boast no special characteristics before the close of the thirteenth century. Its earlier buildings bore the impress of religious and monastic types, as...

"The thirteenth century was so prolific in religious architecture as to leave little scope to those which followed. But even had the growth of great religious monuments been les...

The origin of painting dates from remote antiquity, and the art had already passed through many developments before it was applied by Gothic architects to the decoration of thei...

In the eleventh century a large number of monasteries had been built throughout Western Europe by monks of various orders, in imitation of the great monastic schools of Lérins,...

The first French castles of the mediæval period seem to have been built for the purpose of arresting invasion and affording shelter to communities decimated by the raids of the...

The Cathedrals of Rheims, Amiens, and Beauvais excited extraordinary enthusiasm in their time, not only in the provinces of France, but among neighbouring nations, notably in En...

The Benedictines, the Cistercians, the Augustinians, the Premonstrants, and notably the congregation of Cluny were all energetic builders, and the vast and magnificent structure...

The origin of monastic architecture is of no greater antiquity than the fourth century of the Christian era. The hermits and anchorites of the earliest period made their habitat...

The monasteries built throughout the twelfth century were provided with outer walls, by means of which the claustral buildings, offices, workshops, and even farms of the communi...

In the Middle Ages all the arts were auxiliary to architecture. The architect traced the details of his conception in the workshop, and superintended the construction; he direct...

The Cathedral of Rheims, which was begun soon after the destruction of the original building by the fire of 1211, is a supreme expression of the fusion of the three systems--tho...

The study of mediæval architecture is one of the most fascinating of pursuits, but it is one beset with difficulties. The obscurity in which the origin of our great monuments is...

The primitive method of vaulting adopted in the central provinces of France in the construction of churches with three aisles rendered such buildings of necessity low and heavy....

So early as the eleventh century churches were built with one or several aisles, and in this latter case the side aisles only had ribbed vaults, the nave being covered by a timb...

So-called Gothic architecture was no spontaneous and miraculous manifestation. Like all human activities, its end is easy to determine; but it is difficult to fix even an approx...

The new system derived from the domes upon pendentives, so brilliantly applied in Anjou and Maine in the first half of the twelfth century, was thenceforth the normal method of...

It is probable that the new methods propagated by the religious architects of Aquitaine and neighbouring provinces had excited the emulation of the Northern builders, more espec...