romanesque architecture essay

Romanesque Architecture and Art

Summary of Romanesque Architecture and Art

Capturing the aspirations of a new age, Romanesque art and architecture started a revolution in building, architectural decoration, and visual storytelling. Starting in the latter part of the 10 th century through the 12 th , Europe experienced relative political stability, economic growth, and more prosperity during this time and coupled with the increasing number of monastic centers as well as the rise of universities, a new environment for art and architecture that was not commissioned solely by emperors and nobles was born. With the use of rounded arches, massive walls, piers, and barrel and rib vaults, the Romanesque period saw a revival of large-scale architecture that was almost fortress-like in appearance in addition to a new interest in expressive human forms. With the Roman Church as the main patron, Romanesque metalwork, stonework, and illuminated manuscripts spread across Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, creating an international style that was adapted to regional needs and influences. 19 th -century art historians who coined the term Romanesque thought the weighty stone architecture and the stylized depiction of the human form did not live up to the standards of the classical ideas of humanism (manifested later and powerfully in Renaissance Humanism ), but we now recognize that Romanesque art and architecture innovatively combined Classical influences, seen in the Roman ruins scattered throughout the European countryside and in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts and mosaics, with the decorative and more abstract styles of earlier Northern tribes to create the foundation of Western Christian architecture for centuries to come. While an immediate precursor to the Gothic style, the Romanesque would see revivals in the 17 th and 19 th centuries, as architects (masons) came to appreciate the clarity and formidable nature of the Romanesque façade when applied across a range of buildings, from department stores to university buildings.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

• Along with the new political and economic security, the spread of the Roman Church and the codification of rituals and liturgy encouraged the faithful to undertake pilgrimages, traveling from church to church, honoring martyrs and relics at each stop. The economic boon of such travel to cities led to rapid architectural developments, in which cities vied for grander and grander churches. Lofty stone vaulting replaced wooden roofs, main church entrances became more monumental, and decorative architectural sculpture flourished on the façades of the churches.
• While many churches continued to use barrel vaulting, during the Romanesque period, architects developed the ribbed vault, which allowed vaults to be lighter and higher, thus allowing for more windows on the upper level of the structure. The ribbed vault would be more fully developed and utilized during the subsequent Gothic period, but important early examples in the 11 th century set the precedent.
• During the Romanesque period, the use of visual iconography for didactic purposes became prevalent. As most people outside of the monastic orders were illiterate, complex religious scenes were used to guide and teach the faithful of Christian doctrine. Architects developed the use of the tympanum, the arched area above the doors of the church, to show scenes such as the Last Judgment to set the mood upon entering the church, and other biblical stories, saints, and prophets decorated interior and exterior doors, walls, and, capitals to shepherd the worshippers' prayers.

Artworks and Artists of Romanesque Architecture and Art

Church of Sainte-Foy

This pilgrimage church, the center of a thriving monastery, exemplifies the Romanesque style. Two symmetrical towers frame the west façade, their stone walls supported by protruding piers that heighten the vertical effect. A rounded arch with a triangular tablature frames the portal, where a large tympanum of the Last Judgment of Christ is placed, thus greeting the pilgrim with an admonition and warning. The grandeur of the portal is heightened by the two round, blind arches on either side and by the upper level arch with its oculus above two windows. The façade conveys a feeling of strength and solidity, its power heightened by the simplicity of decorative elements. It should be noted that this apparent simplicity is the consequence of time, as originally the tympanum scene was richly painted and would have created a vivid effect drawing the eye toward the entrance. The interior of the church was similarly painted, the capitals of the interior columns carved with various Biblical symbols and scenes from Saint Foy's life, creating both an otherworldly effect and fulfilling a didactic purpose. Saint Foy, or Saint Faith, was a girl from Aquitaine who was martyred around 287-303, and the church held a gold and jeweled reliquary, containing her remains. The monks from the Abbey stole the reliquary from a nearby abbey to ensure their church's place on the pilgrimage route. Over time, other relics were added, including the arm of St. George the Dragon Slayer, and a gold "A" believed to have been created for Charlemagne. The construction of the church was undertaken around 1050 to accommodate the crowds, drawn by reports of various miracles. The church was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 for its importance on the pilgrim route and also as a noted example of early Romanesque architecture.

Stone, wood - Conques, France

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry

This scene from the famous tapestry shows Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, carrying an oak club while riding on a black horse, as he rallies the Norman forces of Duke William, his half-brother, against the English at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Careful attention is given to the tack of the horses, the details of the men's helmets and uniforms, while the overlay of plunging horses, their curving haunches and legs, creates a momentum that carries the narrative onward into the next scene. In the lower border, a horse is falling, while its rider, pierced with a long spear collapses on the right. At both corners, other fallen soldiers are partially visible, and convey the terrible effects of battle, while the charge to victory gallops on above them. As art critic Jonathan Jones noted, "The Bayeux tapestry is not just a fascinating document of a decisive battle in British history. It is one of the richest, strangest, most immediate and unexpectedly subtle depictions of war that was ever created." The tapestry, about 230 feet long and 21 inches tall, is a sustained narrative of the historical events that, beginning in 1064 lead up to the battle, which ended in the Norman conquest of England and the rule of William the Conqueror, as he came to be known. The upper and lower borders, each 2-¾ inches wide, shown in this sample, continue throughout the tapestry, as does the use of a Latin inscription identifying each scene. The images in the borders change, echoing the narrative, as during the battle the pairs of fantastical animals in the lower border is replaced by the images seen here of fallen soldiers and horses. Similarly when the invasion fleet sets sail, the borders disappear altogether to create the effect of the vast horizon. The borders also include occasional depictions of fables, such as "The Wolf and a Crane" in which a wolf that has a bone caught in its throat is saved by a crane that extracts it with its long beak, which may be a subversive or admonitory comment upon the contemporary events. Though called a tapestry, the work is actually embroidered, employing ten different colors of dyed crewel, or wool yarn and is believed to have been made by English women, whose needlework, known as Opus Anglicanum , or English work, was esteemed throughout Europe by the elite. The Bayeux Tapestry was a unique work of the Romanesque period, as it depicted a secular, historical event, but also did so in the medium that allowed for an extended narrative that shaped both the British and French sense of national identity. As art historian Simon Schama wrote, "It's a fantastic example of the making of history." The work, held in France, was influential later in the development of tapestry workshops in Belgium and Northern France around 1500 and the Gobelin Tapestry of the Baroque era.

Linen, crewel - Bayeux Museum, Bayeux, France

Duomo di Pisa

The entrance to Pisa Cathedral, made of light-colored local stone, has three symmetrically arranged portals, the center portal being the largest, with four blind arcades echoing their effect. The round arches above the portal and the arcades create a unifying effect, as do the columns that frame each entrance. The building is an example of what has been called Pisa Romanesque, as it synthesizes elements of Lombard Romanesque, Byzantine, and Islamic architecture. Lombard bands of colored stone frame the columns and arches and extend horizontally. Above the doors, paintings depicting the Virgin Mary draw upon Byzantine art, and at the top of the seven round arches, diamond and circular shapes in geometric patterns of colored stone echo Islamic motifs. The upper levels of the building are symmetrically arranged in bands of blind arcades and innovatively employ small columns that convey an effect of refinement. The name of two architects, Buscheto, and Rainaldo, were inscribed in the church, though little is known of them, except for this project. Buscheto was the initial designer of the square that, along with the Cathedral, included the famous leaning Tower of Pisa, done in the same Romanesque style, visible here in the background, and the Baptistery. Following his death, Rainaldo expanded the cathedral in the 1100's, of whom his inscription read, "Rainaldo, the skilful workman and master builder, executed this wonderful, costly work, and did so with amazing skill and ingenuity." Dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the church was consecrated in 1118 by Pope Gelasius II. The church's construction was informed by the political and cultural era, as it was meant to rival St. Mark's Basilica then being reconstructed in Venice, a competing maritime city-state. The building was financed by the spoils of war, from Pisa's defeat of Muslim forces in Sicily, and it was built outside of the walls to show that the city had nothing to fear. The Pisa plaza became a symbol of the city itself, as shown by the famous Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio calling the square, "prato dei Miracoli," or "meadow of miracles" in 1910, so the plaza has been known since as the "Field of Miracles."

Masonry, marble - Pisa, Italy

The Temptation of Eve

Artist: Giselbertus

This relief sculpture shows an almost life-sized nude Eve, presumably reclining toward Adam (now lost) as if whispering to him seductively, while her left hand reaches back to grasp an apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The composition emphasizes sinuous line and serpentine form. The tree intersects vertically with her body, covering her pubic area, and the serpent in the foliage at the right echoes both the tree and the depiction of Eve herself. The work is famously the only large-scale nude of the medieval period, an era when Christian values discouraged the study of the naked human body. With this depiction, Giselbertus pioneered the rendering of Adam and Eve in the nude, a treatment that became a tradition in Christian art, as their nakedness was connected to their fall into sin. Originally Eve was paired with a nude Adam reclining on her left, and both figures were placed on the lintel over the portal. Above the lintel, Giselbertus also created the tympanum that depicted the Last Judgment, with Christ enthroned presiding over the saved and the damned and with attendant angels and devils. The viewers, who were largely illiterate, would have understood the didactic visualization that connected the Temptation, by which sin entered the world, and the scene of ultimate redemption. Giselbertus was trained by the master of Cluny around 1115 and was influenced by the cathedral reliefs that emphasized Christ's compassion. He worked at Autun from about 1125-1135, sculpting most of church's decorative elements. Unusually for the time, Giselbertus included in the tympanum, under Christ's feet, a Latin inscription reading, "Gislebertus made this." Most scholars have taken this for the sculptor's name, though some have suggested it may refer to the patron who commissioned the work. His work was innovative for the feeling conveyed by his stylized human figures and influenced contemporaneous Romanesque, and later Gothic, sculptors. However, by the late 1700s, due to a rising conservatism in religious and artistic thought, his work was thought to be both too primitive and licentious. Eve disappeared in 1769 when it was used as building material for a local house, and his Last Judgment tympanum was completely filled with plaster, which by a stroke of luck saved it from destruction during the French Revolution. Both Eve and the tympanum were rediscovered and restored only in the 1830s when the Romantic movement revived an appreciation of medieval art.

Stone - Musée Rolin, Autun, France

Christ Pantocrator

Artist: Master of Taüll

This vivid fresco shows Christ the Pantocrator (ruler of the universe), framed by a mandorla, or body halo, bordered in red, gold, and blue. Sitting on a throne, he faces the viewer with an intense gaze, while holding a book that reads in Latin "I am the light of the world," as his uplifted right hand makes the traditional symbol of blessing and teaching. Alpha and Omega symbols float above his shoulders, while two angels flank him, their long curved forms echoing the lines of the mandorla and drawing the focus to his haloed head. The greater scale of his figure, reflecting a Byzantine influence, is meant to emphasize his importance. The four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are depicted in a band of circles at his feet and turn to face him, gesturing. The work's innovative sense of composition, with its curving bands of blue, gold, and carmine, emphasize the semi-circular apse and focus on Christ in the center. The use of varying shades of blue to depict him, along with highlights of white and carmine dots, create a sense of movement as if he were emerging toward the faithful. Below him a number of other sacred figures are partially visible, including the Virgin Mary left of center, as she holds a chalice containing Christ's blood, a pioneering representation of the Holy Grail and indication of the cult of Mary that was developing at the time. Originally, the fresco covered the apse of the church of Sant Climent de Taüll in Vall de Boi in Catalonia. Consecrated in 1123, the basilica, with three naves and a Byzantine influenced seven-story bell tower, was known for its exceptional interior murals, all considered to be the work of the Master of Taüll, about whom little else is known. Over time, many of the murals were damaged but those remaining, including this one, were transferred to canvas for exhibition at the National Art Museum of Catalonia. This fresco influenced a number of 20 th century Spanish artists, including Francis Picabia and Pablo Picasso, who kept a poster of it in his studio.

Fresco - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Moses Expounding the Law

Artist: Master Hugo

This page from an illuminated manuscript shows two scenes in which Moses, depicted with a halo and horns, explains the law to the Israelites. In the upper scene, Moses stands, left of center, explaining the Ten Commandments, as he lifts his hand in a gesture of teaching and blessing toward the small group, seated on the ground and listening attentively. In the lower scene, he addresses a group of four men as he explains the dietary laws of the Jewish faith by pointing to a sheep which can be eaten and a pig which cannot. Two doves, representing the peace obtained from following God's law, face one another at the top of a tree on the right. Overall, the work has a calm but vital stylistic flow, derived from the curving lines and the blue, red, green, and gold palette that is echoed in the patterned borders. Master Hugo pioneered this style, which came to be called "damp fold," as clothing was painted as if damp to create both a sense of movement and a more realistic human form. Master Hugo was the first named artist in England, and he worked at Bury St. Edmund's Abbey, where he made this Bible for the Abbey around 1135. The Bible contains various paintings on full and half pages and decorative initials, which as art historian Thomas Arnold wrote, "have led to a general acknowledgement of Master Hugo as the gifted innovator of the main line of English Romanesque art." He is also credited with making the bronze doors of the Abbey church's western façade and two carved crucifixes, including the famous Cloisters Cross (c. 1150-1160).

Ink and tempera on vellum - Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

The Shrine of the Magi

Artist: Nicholas of Verdun

Nicholas of Verdun deliberately designed reliquary, believed to contain relics of the Magi who journeyed to the Nativity of Christ, to resemble the façade of a basilica. Christ in Majesty is depicted enthroned in the upper section, his right hand raised in blessing, his left holding the Gospel, as two apostles flank him. On the lower level, the Three Kings bearing gifts, kneel on the left, facing toward the Madonna and Child enthroned in the center. On the lower right, Christ's baptism is depicted.The figurative treatment is both realistic, as shown in the different poses of the Kings conveying movement, and refined, with its fine details and flowing draperies. This three level reliquary, also known as The Shrine of the Three Kings, is a masterpiece of Mosan metalworking, with its silver and gold overlay, filigree, and enamel work. The apostles are depicted on the horizontal sides of the shrine, not visible here, and overall the work contains 74 figures in vermeil, or silver relief. Viewed from the side, the shrine resembles a basilica, with small pairs of lapis lazuli columns standing at the corners and between each of apostles. Following the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's gift of the relics to Rainald of Dassel, the Archbishop of Cologne, the archbishop commissioned the shrine from Nicholas of Verdun and his workshop around 1180. The relics were of such religious importance, and the shrine considered such a masterpiece, that in 1248 construction of a new Cologne Cathedral was undertaken to suitably house the reliquary. The shrine was placed in the crossing, marking the high point of the church. As art historian Dr. Rolf Lauer wrote, "The Shrine of the Magi is the largest, most artistically significant, and, in terms of its content, most ambitious reliquary of the Middle Ages."

Gold, silver, filigree, precious stones, wood - Cologne Cathedral, Cologne Germany

Beginnings of Romanesque Architecture and Art

Vikings and insular art.

The many Viking invasions of Europe and the British Isles marked the era before the Romanesque period. Beginning in 790 with raids on Irish coastal monasteries, the raids became full-scale military excursions within a century as shown by the Sack of Paris in 845 and the Sack of Constantinople in 860. For the next two hundred years, the Vikings raided and sometimes conquered surrounding areas. With the conversion of the Vikings to Christianity, the era ended around 1066 when the Normans, themselves descended from Vikings, conquered England.

With the conversion to Christianity of the British Isles and Ireland, following from the mission of St. Augustine in 597, monasteries in Hibernia (present-day Ireland) and present-day Britain played a primary role in cultural continuity throughout Europe, developing the Insular, or Hiberno-Saxon, style that incorporated the curvilinear and interlocking ornamentation of Viking and Anglo-Saxon cultures with the painting and manuscript examples sent from the Roman church.

Stone crosses and portable artifacts such as metalwork and elaborate gospel manuscripts dominated the period. Masterpieces like the British Book of Durrow (c. 650) and the Irish Book of Kells (c. 800), created by monks, included extensive illustrations of Biblical passages, portraits of saints, and elaborately decorative carpet pages that preceded the beginning of each gospel. Insular art influenced both Romanesque manuscript illumination and the richly colored interiors and architectural decorative elements of Romanesque churches.

The Carolingian Renaissance

King of the Franks in 768 and King of the Lombards in 774, Charlemagne became Holy Roman Emperor in 800, effectively consolidating his rule of Europe. He strove to position his kingdom as a revival of the, now Christian, Roman Empire. Charlemagne was an active patron of the arts and launched a building campaign to emulate the artistic grandeur of Rome. Drawing from the Latin version of his name (Carolus), the era is known as the "Carolingian Renaissance." As art historian John Contreni wrote, his reign "saw the construction of 27 new cathedrals, 417 monasteries, and 100 royal residences." His palace complex in Aachen (c. 800) that included his Palatine Chapel modeled on the Byzantine St. Vitale (6 th century) became a model for subsequent architecture.

While Carolingian architecture drew on earlier Roman and Byzantine styles, it also transformed church façades that would have consequential effects throughout the Middle Ages. Emphasizing the western entrance to the basilica, the westwork was a monumental addition to the church, with two towers and multiple stories, that served as a royal chapel and viewing room for the emperor when he visited.

Carolingian murals and illuminated manuscripts continued to look to earlier Roman models and depicted the human figure more realistically than the earlier Hiberno-Saxon illuminators. This (early) naturalism had a lasting influence on Romanesque and Gothic art.

Cluny Abbey

In the early 900s, concern began to grow about the economic and political control that nobles and the emperor exercised over monasteries. With rising taxes imposed by nobles and the installation of relatives as abbots, the Cluny Abbey sought monastic reform, based upon the Rule of St. Benedict (c. 480-550), written by the 5 th -century St. Benedict of Nursia, that emphasized peace, work, prayer, study, and the autonomy of religious communities.

In 910, William of Aquitaine donated his hunting lodge and surrounding lands to found Cluny Abbey and nominated Berno as its first Abbott. William stipulated the independence of the Abbey from all secular and local authority, including his own. As a result, the Abbey was answerable only to the authority of the Pope and quickly became the leader of the Benedictine order, establishing dozens of monasteries throughout France. As part of its emphasis on prayer and study, the Abbey also created a rich liturgy, in which art played an important role.

Between the 10 th and the early 12 th centuries, three churches were built at Cluny, each larger than the last, and influencing architectural design throughout Europe. Not much is known of Cluny I, but it was a small, barnlike structure. After a few decades, the monastery outgrew the small church, and Cluny II (c.955-981) was erected. Based on the old basilica model, Cluny II employed round arches and barrel vaults and used small upper level windows for illumination. Designed with a cruciform plan, the church emphasized the west façade with two towers, a larger crossing tower (where the transepts and nave intersected), a narthex (an enclosed entrance area), a choir between the altar and the nave of the church, and chapels at the east end. All of these elements became characteristic of Romanesque architecture. With the building of Cluny III, completed in 1130, the church became the largest in Europe, rivaling St. Peter's in Rome, and a model for similarly ambitious projects.

First Romanesque or Lombard Romanesque

In the 10 th century, First, or Lombard, Romanesque was an early development in Lombardy region (now northern Italy), southern France, and reaching into Catalonia. Started by the Lombard Comacine Guild, or stonemasons, the style was distinctive for its solid stone construction, elaborate arching that advanced Roman models, bands of blind arches, or arches that had no openings, and vertical strips for exterior decorative effects. Particularly dominant in Catalonia, some of the best surviving examples are found in the Vall de Boí, a designated World Heritage Site in Catalonia.

Monastic Centers and Pilgrimages

During the Romanesque era, no longer under constant threat from Viking raids, monastic centers, which had provided cultural continuity and spiritual consolation through desperate times, became political, economic, religious, and artistic powerhouses that played a role in unifying Europe and in creating relative stability. Monastic centers that housed religious relics became stops on pilgrimage routes that extended for hundreds of miles throughout Europe to the very edge of Spain at Santiago de Compostela. Christians revered Santiago de Compostela as the burial site of Saint James, a disciple of Christ who brought Christianity to Spain, and thus deeply symbolic to Catholic Europe.

The faithful believed that by venerating relics, or remains of saints, in pilgrim churches they could obtain saintly intercession on their behalf for the forgiveness of their sins. Fierce competition for relics sometimes developed between churches and even resulted in the monks stealing relics from other churches, as was the case with the reliquary of St. Foy, in order to attract more pilgrims and, therefore, more money. As ever-larger crowds began to flock to sites, monastic centers expanded, providing lodging and food and farrier services to the pilgrims. As a result of this growth, various craft guilds were employed to meet the demand for Romanesque construction.

Romanesque Architecture and Art: Concepts, Styles, and Trends

Found throughout Europe and the British Isles, the Romanesque style took on regional variations, sometimes specific to a particular valley or town. The most noted sub styles were Mosan Art, Norman Romanesque, and Italian Romanesque.

Mosan Art, 1050-1232

Mosan art is named for the River Meuse valley in Belgium, where the style was centered around the town of Liege and the Benedictine monastery at Stavelot. Because of the region's location, it had many political and economic links to Aachen and was greatly influenced by the Carolingian Renaissance. The style became famous for its lavish and highly accomplished metalwork, employing gold and enameling in both the cloisonné technique, where metal is used to create raised partitions on the surface that are then filled with colored inlays, and the champlevé technique, where depressions are created in the surface and then filled. Noted metalworkers were Godefroid de Claire (de Huy), Nicholas of Verdun, and Hugo of Oignies. De Claire is credited with the creation of the Stavelot Triptych (1156-1158), both a portable altar and a reliquary containing fragments of True Cross, and Nicholas of Verdun's most noted work was his reliquary Shrine of the Magi (1180-1225). Mosan goldsmiths and metalworkers were employed throughout Europe by notable patrons and spread the style's influence.

Norman Romanesque (11 th -12 th centuries)

Norman Romanesque is primarily an English style named for the Normans who developed it after conquering England in 1066. Normandy, its name derived from the Latin Nortmanni, meaning "men of the north," became a Viking territory in 911, and the abstract decorative motifs of Norman architecture reflected the Viking love of such elements. Thomas Rickman in his An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation (1817) first used the term Norman Romanesque to refer to the style. Used for cathedrals and churches but also castles and keeps, Norman Romanesque was distinctive for its massive walls, its cylindrical and compound piers, and the Norman arch, employed to make grand archways. A wider and higher ceiling became possible, replacing the narrow limitations of the preceding barrel vault.

The style developed in Normandy, France, and England simultaneously, but in England it evolved into a distinctive sub-style that combined the austerity of the Norman style with a tendency toward decoration. A noted masterwork was Durham Cathedral (1093-1140) built under the leadership of William of St. Carilef. Though the cathedral was later redesigned in the Gothic style, some Norman elements, particularly the nave of the church, remain.

Italian Romanesque

Italian Romanesque is characterized by a distinctive use of gallery façades, projecting porches, and campaniles, or bell towers. Regional variations occurred; for instance, the Northern Italian style had wide and severe looking stone façades, as seen in San Ambrogio in Milan (1140). However, the most important regional style was the Pisan style, sometimes called the Tuscan, or Central, style, favoring classical and refined decorative effects and using gallery facades and projected porches with horizontal bands of colored marble. Decorative elements included scenes of daily life, hunting scenes, and classical subjects, and bronze doors were frequently employed. The Piazza del Duomo, or Cathedral Square, in Pisa, which included the Baptistery (1153) the Cathedral (1063-1092) and the Campanile (1172) is the most famous example.

Later Developments - After Romanesque Architecture and Art

The Romanesque style continued to be employed through most of the 12 th century, except in the area around Paris where the Gothic style began in 1120. Subsequently as the Gothic style spread, the Romanesque style was superseded and existent churches were often expanded and redesigned with new Gothic elements, retaining only a few traces of the earlier style. In more rural regions, however, the Romanesque style continued into the 13 th century. Romanesque design was foundational to the Gothic which continued using a cruciform plan, a western façade with two towers, and carved tympanums above the portals. Similarly, Gothic art was informed by the same movement toward a more realistic treatment of the human form that can be seen in the Romanesque Mosan style. Romanesque tapestries, like the Bayeux Tapestry, influenced the formation of tapestry workshops throughout Europe in the Gothic period and beyond.

Romanesque Revival styles first developed in England with Inigo Jones' redesign of the White Tower (1637-1638). In the following century Norman Revival castles were built for estates throughout the British Isles, and in the early 1800s, Thomas Pesnon developed a revival style for churches. Romanesque manuscript illumination, with its jewel-like colors and stylized motifs, also influenced and informed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Arts and Crafts movement in the middle and later 19 th century.

In Germany Rundbogenstil , or round-arch style, became popular around 1830, and the style was influential in America, as seen in the Paul Robeson Theater, formerly the Fourth Universalist Church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn (1833-34) and the former Astor Library, now the Public Theatre (1849-1881), in Lower Manhattan.

In America the first work of Romanesque Revival architecture was Richard Upjohn's Maaronite Cathedral of Our Lady of Lebanon (1844-1846) in Brooklyn. The American architect James Renwick's design for the Smithsonian Institute (1847-1851) was a prominent example. The style became known as Richardsonian Romanesque, as Henry Hobson Richardson actively promoted the style and designed notable buildings including the Marshall Field Wholesale Store (1885-1887) in Chicago and Trinity Church (1872-1877) in Boston. Harvard University commissioned Richardson to design several campus buildings, including Sever Hall (1878-1880), considered one of his masterpieces and designated a National Historic Landmark. As a result the style was adopted by other American universities in the following decades.

Useful Resources on Romanesque Architecture and Art

• Romanesque: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting Our Pick By Rolf Toman
• Romanesque Art: Perspectives Our Pick By Andreas Petzold
• The Stavelot Triptych , Mosan Art, and the Legend of the True Cross By Pierpont Morgan Library and Charles Ryskamp
• The Bayeux Tapestry Our Pick By Lucien Musset and Richard Rex
• Bayeux Museum Our Pick
• Immersive experience in a World Heritage Site Our Pick #Taull1123 is an immersive on-site experience that brings visitors of the Romanesque church of Sant Climent de Taüll
• Winchester BibleExhibition Blog Our Pick
• Super Art Gems of New York City By Thomas Hoving / ArtNet.com
• Ireland's Exquisite Insular Art Our Pick By James Wiener / Ancient History et cetera / October 30, 2014
• Bayeux tapestry: a brag, a lament, an embodiment of history's complexity Our Pick By Jonathan Jones / The Guardian / January 19, 2018
• The Bayeux tapestry: is it any good? By Jonathan Jones / The Guardian / January 17, 2018

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Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Valerie Hellstein

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Chapter 11: The Romanesque Period

This chapter contains:

Beginner’s Guide to the Romanesque

Romanesque Art

Romanesque Architecture

Medieval Churches: sources and forms

Pilgrimage Routes and the cult of the relic

Churches and Monasteries

Saint-Pierre, Moissac

Tympanum at Vezelay

St. Sernin, Toulouse

Fontenay Abby

St. Trophime, Arles

Casket with Troubadors

Virgin and Child in Majesty

Manuscript Production in the abbeys of Normandy

Basilica of San Clemente, Rome

Romanesque Churches of Tuscany

Art of Conquest in England and Normandy

The Second Norman Conquest

The English Castle

Bayeux Tapestry

Durham Cathedral

Peterborough Cathedral

Winchester Bible, Morgani Leaf

Architecture

Painted Apse of St. Climent, Taull, Christ in Majesty

“Throne of Wisdom” Sculptures

Virgin from Ger

Manuscripts

The Morgan Beatus

BEGINNER’S GUIDE

This section introduces the art, architecture, medieval churches and pilgrimage.

Romanesque art

San Miniato al Monte, Florence, begun 1013 (photo:  Rufus46 , CC BY-SA 3.0)

The first international style since antiquity

The term “Romanesque,” meaning in the manner of the  Romans , was first coined in the early nineteenth century. Today it is used to refer to the period of European art from the second half of the eleventh century throughout the twelfth (with the exception of the region around Paris where the  Gothic  style emerged in the mid-twelfth century). In certain regions, such as central Italy, the Romanesque continued to survive into the thirteenth century. The Romanesque is the first international style in Western Europe since antiquity—extending across the Mediterranean and as far north as Scandinavia. The transmission of ideas was facilitated by increased travel along the  pilgrimage routes  to shrines such as Santiago de Compostela in Spain (a pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place) or as a consequence of the  crusades  which passed through the territories of the  Byzantine empire . There are, however, distinctive regional variants— Tuscan Romanesque art  (in Italy) for example is very different from that produced in northern Europe.

Master of Taüll, apse painting, Sant Clement in Taüll, c. 1123 ( Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya , Barcelona)

Painting + sculpture + architecture

The relation of art to architecture—especially church architecture—is fundamental in this period. For example, wall-paintings may follow the curvature of the  apse  of a church as in the apse wall-painting from the church of  Sant Climent in Taüll  (also known as Saint Clement), and the most important art form to emerge at this period was architectural sculpture—with sculpture used to decorate churches built of stone.

Last Judgment Tympanum , c. 1130–46, Central Portal, West Façade, Cathedral of St. Lazare, Autun, France (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Many sculptors may have begun their career as stone masons, and there is a remarkable coherence between architecture and sculpture in churches at this period. The two most important sculptural forms to emerge at this time were the tympanum (the lunette-shaped space above the entrance to a church), and the historiated capital (a capital incorporating a narrative element usually an episode from the Bible or the life of a saint). One of the most famous tympanums is on the west entrance to  Autun Cathedral  which represents—appropriately for this part of the church—the Last Judgment. An inscription ( Gislebertus hoc fecit ” “Gislebertus made me”), at the base of the giant immobile figure of Christ at the center, records the name of the artist or head of the workshop which produced it, though it has been suggested that it may refer to the original patron who was responsible for bringing the  relics  of Lazurus to Autun in the  Carolingian period .

The influence of ancient Rome

Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew, c. 1160, marble, Sant Pere de Rodes monastery, Spain (photo:  Enric , CC BY-SA 4.0)

One influence on the Romanesque is, as the name implies, ancient Roman art—especially sculpture—which survived in large quantities particularly in southern Europe. This can be seen, for example, in a marble relief representing the calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew from the front  frieze  of the abbey church of Sant Pere de Rodes on the Catalonian coast. The imprint of the antique can be seen in the deep undercutting in the drapery folds, an effect achieved by the Roman device of the drill, and the individualization of the faces.

Classical influence was also frequently mediated through an intermediary—most importantly Byzantine art (especially textiles and painting), but also through earlier medieval styles which had absorbed elements of the classical tradition such as  Ottonian art .

The Bury Bible , c.1130–35, Bury St Edmunds, England, MS 2, fol. 94 ( Corpus Christi College , Cambridge)

The illustrations in  The   Bury Bible  have, for example, been convincingly compared to  Byzantine wall-paintings  in a church at Asinou in Cyprus which suggests that its artist—a certain Master Hugo (having the name of the artist is unusual during this period) had seen them or a similar source. Monasteries such as that of Bury St. Edmunds in East Anglia in England (where the  Bury Bible  was made) were important centers of production—especially for the writing and decorating of manuscripts. The Bury Bible is a good example of the remarkable achievements of monastic scriptoria in the Romanesque period.

Monasteries were not the only centers of production. Romanesque art is also associated with towns that were revived and expanded during this period—for the first time since the fall of the Roman empire—a consequence of broad economic expansion (examples include Assisi in Umbria with its Romanesque cathedral or the newly founded town of Puente La Reina in northern Spain on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela).

Casket with troubadours, c. 1180, copper, enamel, gold, from the court of Aquitaine, Limoges, France, 21 x 15.6 x 11 cm (©  The Trustees of the British Museum )

Romanesque art is for the most part religious in its imagery, but this is partly a matter of what has survived, and there are examples of secular art from the period. Unusual is a  casket  in The British Museum, a product of Limoges craftsmanship, which is made of wood with  champlevé  enamels attached to it (produced by heating powdered glass set into groves hollowed out of bronze plate). This is decorated with scenes to do with courtly love inspired by troubadour poets from Provence.

Stavelot Triptych , c. 1156–58, gold and enamel, 48 x 66 cm open ( The Morgan Library and Museum , New York)

The distinction between the fine and decorative arts is one that emerges only in the Renaissance and does not apply at this earlier period. If anything the most highly valued works of art during the Romanesque period were objects of  metalwork  made from precious metals that were frequently produced to house relics (characteristically the body part of a saint, or—in the case of Christ who, the faithful believe ascended to heaven—objects associated with him such as fragments of the so-called true cross on which Christ was thought to have been crucified).

An example of this is the reliquary known as the  Stavelot Triptych.  It consists of a central panel flanked by side wings that can be closed, a design format derived from Byzantine art but made at the Benedictine monastery of Stavelot in the Mosan region in present day Belgium in the mid-twelfth century. The triptych was commissioned by the abbot, a man called Wibald, whom we know travelled extensively and who acquired, during a trip to Constantinople, the two Byzantine enamel plaques incorporated into the center of the triptych that contain what were believed to be fragments of the true cross.

Master of Taüll, apse painting, Sant Clement in Taüll, c. 1123 ( Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya  , Barcelona)

A wall painting from San Clemente in Catalonia

The apse wall-painting from the church of San Clemente is a good example of the Romanesque style. The church is situated in a remote valley in northern Catalonia (north-east Spain today) and is typical of the handsome stone-built churches which sprung up in this region in the Romanesque period. The painting would have been painted onto fresh plaster applied to the walls of the church (it was transferred for safekeeping to the Museum of Catalan Art in Barcelona early in the twentieth century). The painting is dominated by the giant figure of Christ in a mandorla (a halo around the body of a sacred person), represented as he will appear at the end of time as described in the Book of Revelation.

Mary (detail), Master of Taüll, apse painting, Sant Clement ( Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya , Barcelona)

Christ is represented characteristically out of scale to the other figures to indicate his status. His head is distorted, elongated and highly geometric, and he has piercing hypnotic eyes. To either side of him are written the Greek letters “alpha” and “omega” (the beginning and the end), and with one hand he gestures in blessing, while the other holds an open book with the words  Ego sum lux mundi  (I am the light of the world) inscribed on it. Below him is an equally elongated and distorted figure of the Virgin Mary who holds a chalice with Christ’s blood, a representation of the Holy Grail which predates the earliest written description of the subject. Her presence in the scheme is symptomatic of the growing cult of the Virgin Mary at this period.

It would be just as much a mistake to regard the lack of  naturalism  found in this painting as indicating lack of artistic competence as it would be in a work by  Picasso . Rather it indicates that its artist (whose real name we do not know) is not interested in replicating external appearances but rather in conveying a sense of the sacred and communicating the religious teachings of the church. Picasso (who was brought up in Barcelona) greatly admired Catalonian Romanesque, and it is significant that later in his life he kept a poster of this painting in his studio in southern France. We live in a world saturated with images but in the Romanesque period people would rarely encounter them and an image such as this would have made an immense impression.

Additional resources

Romanesque art on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

Romanesque art at the National Museum of Catalan art (video).

Cite this page as: Dr. Andreas Petzold, “A beginner’s guide to Romanesque art,” in  Smarthistory , August 8, 2015, accessed November 10, 2023,  https://smarthistory.org/a-beginners-guide-to-romanesque-art/ .

Romanesque architecture

All through the regions that were part of the ancient Roman Empire are ruins of  Roman aqueducts  and buildings, most of them exhibiting arches as part of the architecture (you may make the etymological leap that the two words—arch and architecture—are related, but the Oxford English Dictionary shows arch as coming from Latin  arcus , which defines the shape, while arch—as in architect, archbishop, and archenemy—comes from Greek  arkhos , meaning chief and  ekton  means builder).

Interior of the Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne, Aachen, Germany, 792–805 (photo:  Velvet , CC BY-SA 3.0)

When  Charlemagne  was crowned  Holy Roman Emperor  in 800 C.E., the remains of Roman civilization were seen all over the continent, and legends of the great empire would have been passed down through generations after the fall of Rome in the fifth century. So when Charlemagne wanted to unite his empire and validate his reign, he began building churches in the Roman style—particularly the style of Christian Rome in the days of Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor.

After a gap of around two hundred years with no large building projects, the architects of Charlemagne’s day looked to the arched, or arcaded, system seen in Christian Roman edifices as a model. It is a logical system of stresses and buttressing, which was fairly easily engineered for large structures, and it began to be used in gatehouses, chapels, and churches in Europe.

Gloucester Cathedral, begun 1089 (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

These early examples may be referred to as pre-Romanesque because, after a brief spurt of growth, the development of architecture again lapsed. As a body of knowledge was eventually re-developed, buildings became larger and more imposing. Examples of Romanesque cathedrals from the early  Middle Ages  (roughly 1000–1200) are solid, massive, impressive churches that are often still the largest structure in many towns.

In Britain, the Romanesque style became known as “Norman” because the major building scheme in the 11th and 12th centuries was instigated by William the Conqueror, who invaded Britain in 1066 from Normandy in northern France. (The Normans were the descendants of Norse, or north men (“Vikings”) who had invaded this area over a century earlier.)  Durham  and  Gloucester  Cathedrals and  Southwell Minster  are excellent examples of churches in the Norman, or Romanesque style.

Gloucester Cathedral, nave, begun 1089 (ceiling later) (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The arches that define the naves of these churches are well modulated and geometrically logical—with one look you can see the repeating shapes, and proportions that make sense for an immense and weighty structure. There is a large arcade on the ground level made up of bulky piers or columns. The piers may have been filled with rubble rather than being solid, carved stone. Above this arcade is a second level of smaller arches, often in pairs with a column between the two. The next higher level was again proportionately smaller, creating a rational diminution of structural elements as the mass of the building is reduced.

Gloucester Cathedral, decorative carving on the nave arcade and triforium (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The decoration is often quite simple, using geometric shapes rather than floral or curvilinear patterns. Common shapes used include diapers—squares or lozenges—and chevrons, which were zigzag patterns and shapes. Plain circles were also used, which echoed the half-circle shape of the ubiquitous arches.

Early Romanesque ceilings and roofs were often made of wood, as if the architects had not quite understood how to span the two sides of the building using stone, which created outward thrust and stresses on the side walls. This development, of course, didn’t take long to manifest, and led from barrel vaulting (simple, semicircular roof vaults) to cross vaulting, which became ever more adventurous and ornate in the  Gothic .

Romanesque architecture from the Durham World Heritage site.

Corpus of Romanesque sculpture in Britain and Ireland.

Cite this page as: Valerie Spanswick, “A beginner’s guide to Romanesque architecture,” in  Smarthistory , August 8, 2015, accessed November 10, 2023,  https://smarthistory.org/a-beginners-guide-to-romanesque-architecture/ .

Medieval churches: sources and forms

Exterior view of the apse, Basilica of Santa Sabina, c. 432 C.E., Rome (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA)

Many of Europe’s medieval cathedrals are museums in their own right, housing fantastic examples of craftsmanship and works of art. Additionally, the buildings themselves are impressive. Although architectural styles varied from place to place, building to building, there are some basic features that were fairly universal in monumental churches built in the  Middle Ages , and the prototype for that type of building was the Roman basilica.

Floor plan of the Roman Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, 308–312 C.E. (photo:  Fb78 )

Prototype: The ancient Roman basilica

In ancient Rome, the basilica was created as a place for tribunals and other types of business. The building was rectangular in shape, with the long, central portion of the hall made up of the nave. Here the interior reached its fullest height. The nave was flanked on either side by a colonnade (a row of columns) that delineated the side aisles, which were of a lower height than the nave. Because these side aisles were lower, the roof over this section was below the roofline of the nave, allowing for windows near the ceiling of the nave. This band of windows was called the clerestory. At the far end of the nave, away from the main door, was a semi-circular extension, usually with a half-dome roof. This area was the apse, and is where the magistrate or other senior officials would hold court.

Because this plan allowed for many people to circulate within a large, and awesome, space, the general plan became an obvious choice for early Christian buildings. The religious rituals, masses, and  pilgrimages  that became commonplace by the Middle Ages were very different from today’s services, and to understand the architecture it is necessary to understand how the buildings were used and the components that made up these massive edifices.

View down the nave towards the apse—the row of windows above the nave arcade is called the clerestory, and there is an aisle on either side of the nave. Basilica of Santa Sabina, c. 432 C.E., Rome (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The church plan

Although medieval churches are usually oriented with the altar on the east end, they all vary slightly. When a new church was to be built, the  patron saint  was selected and the altar location laid out. On the saint’s day (the day on which a saint is particularly commemorated), a line would be surveyed from the position of the rising sun through the altar site and extending in a westerly direction. This was the orientation of the new building.

Medieval church floor plan (diagram:  Justinbb , CC BY-SA 3.0)

The entrance foyer at the west end is called the narthex, but this is not found in all medieval churches. Daily access may be through a door on the north or south side. The largest, central, western door may have been reserved for ceremonial purposes.

Inside, you should imagine the interior space without the chairs or pews that we are used to seeing today. In very extensive buildings there may be two side aisles, with the ceiling of the outer one lower than the one next to the nave. This hierarchy of size and proportion extended to the major units of the plan—the bays. The vault is the arched roof or ceiling, or a section of it.

The major arcade (row of arches) at the ground floor level is topped by a second arcade, called the gallery, which is topped by the clerestory (the windows). In later  Gothic churches , we sometimes see yet another level below the clerestory, called the  triforium .

The nave was used for the procession of the clergy (priests) to the altar. The main altar was basically in the position of the apse in the ancient Roman basilica, although in some designs it is further forward. The area around the altar—the  choir  or chancel—was reserved for the clergy or monks, who performed services throughout the day.

The cathedrals and former monastery churches are much larger than needed for the local population. They expected and received numerous  pilgrims  who came to various shrines and altars within the church where they might pray to a supposed  piece of the true cross , or a  bone of a martyr , or the tomb of a king. The pilgrims entered the church and found their way to the chapel or altar of their desire—therefore, the side aisles made an efficient path for pilgrims to come and go without disrupting the daily services.

View of the Lady Chapel, northeast transept, nave, and the Octagon (crossing tower), Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire, England, founded by Princess Æthelthryth (also Etheldreda) in 672 (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Development of this plan over time shows that very soon the apse was elongated, adding more room to the choir. Additionally, the ends of the aisles developed into small wings themselves, known as  transepts . These were also extended, providing room for more tombs, more shrines, and more pilgrims.

The area where the axes of the nave and transepts meet is called, logically, the crossing.

View of the apse with glimpses of the ambulatory and radiating chapels beyond behind the gate, Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont, and Renaud de Cormont, Amiens Cathedral, begun 1220, Amiens, France (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

An aisle often surrounds the apse, running behind the altar. Called the ambulatory, this aisle accessed additional small chapels, called radiating chapels or  chevets . Of course, there are many variations on these typical building blocks of medieval church design. Different regions had different tastes, greater or lesser financial power, more or less experienced architects and masons, which created the diversity of medieval buildings still standing today.

Physics of Stone Arches from NOVA

Cite this page as: Valerie Spanswick, “Medieval churches: sources and forms,” in  Smarthistory , August 8, 2015, accessed November 10, 2023,  https://smarthistory.org/medieval-churches-sources-and-forms/ .

Pilgrimage routes and the cult of the relic

Basilica Ste-Madeleine, Vézelay, France, dedicated 1104 (photo: Dr. Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The end of the world

Y2K. The Rapture. 2012. For over a decade, speculation about the end of the world has run rampant—all in conjunction with the arrival of the new millennium. The same was true for our religious European counterparts who, prior to the year 1000, believed the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, and the end was nigh.

When the apocalypse failed to materialize in 1000, it was decided that the correct year must be 1033, a thousand years from the death of Jesus Christ, but then that year also passed without any cataclysmic event.

Just how extreme the millennial panic was, remains debated. It is certain that from the year 950 onwards, there was a significant increase in building activity, particularly of religious structures. There were many reasons for this construction boom beside millennial panic, and the building of monumental religious structures continued even as fears of the immediate end of time faded.

Not surprisingly, this period also witnessed a surge in the popularity of the religious pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place. These are acts of piety and may have been undertaken in gratitude for the fact that doomsday had not arrived, and to ensure salvation, whenever the end did come.

Map of pilgrimage routes (image adapted from: Manfred Zentgraf, Volkach, Germany)

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Pilgrims from the tympanum of Cathedral of St. Lazare, Autun (photo: Holly Hayes, Art History Images)

For the average European in the 12th Century, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Jerusalem was out of the question—travel to the Middle East was too far, too dangerous and too expensive. Santiago de Compostela in Spain offered a much more convenient option.

To this day, hundreds of thousands of faithful travel the “Way of Saint James” to the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. They go on foot across Europe to a holy shrine where bones, believed to belong to Saint James, were unearthed. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela now stands on this site.

The pious of the Middle Ages wanted to pay homage to holy relics, and pilgrimage churches sprang up along the route to Spain. Pilgrims commonly walked barefoot and wore a scalloped shell, the symbol of Saint James (the shell’s grooves symbolize the many roads of the pilgrimage).

In France alone there were four main routes toward Spain. Le Puy, Arles, Paris and Vézelay are the cities on these roads and each contains a church that was an important pilgrimage site in its own right.

Why make a pilgrimage?

A pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela was an expression of Christian devotion and it was believed that it could purify the soul and perhaps even produce miraculous healing benefits. A criminal could travel the “Way of Saint James” as an act penance. For the everyday person, a pilgrimage was also one of the only opportunities to travel and see some of the world. It was a chance to meet people, perhaps even those outside one’s own class. The purpose of pilgrimage may not have been entirely devotional.

The cult of the relic

Pilgrimage churches can be seen in part as popular desinations, a spiritual tourism of sorts for medieval travelers. Guidebooks, badges and various souvenirs were sold. Pilgrims, though traveling light, would spend money in the towns that possessed important sacred relics.

Reliquary of St. Foy at Conque Abbey (photo: Holly Hayes, Art History images)

The cult of relic was at its peak during the Romanesque period (c. 1000 – 1200). Relics are religious objects generally connected to a saint, or some other venerated person. A relic might be a body part, a saint’s finger, a cloth worn by the Virgin Mary, or a piece of the True Cross.

Relics are often housed in a protective container called a reliquary. Reliquarys are often quite opulent and can be encrusted with precious metals and gemstones given by the faithful. An example is the Reliquary of Saint Foy, located at Conques abbey on the pilgrimage route. It is said to hold a piece of the child martyr’s skull. A large pilgrimage church might be home to one major relic, and dozens of lesser-known relics. Because of their sacred and economic value, every church wanted an important relic and a black market boomed with fake and stolen goods.

Portal, Cathedral of Saint Lazare, Autun, 12th century

Accommodating crowds

St. Sernin, Toulouse (plan)

Pilgrimage churches were constructed with some special features to make them particularly accessible to visitors. The goal was to get large numbers of people to the relics and out again without disturbing the Mass in the center of the church. A large portal that could accommodate the pious throngs was a prerequisite. Generally, these portals would also have an elaborate sculptural program, often portraying the Second Coming—a good way to remind the weary pilgrim why they made the trip!

A pilgrimage church generally consisted of a double aisle on either side of the nave (the wide hall that runs down the center of a church). In this way, the visitor could move easily around the outer edges of the church until reaching the smaller apsidioles or radiating chapels. These are small rooms generally located off the back of the church behind the altar where relics were often displayed. The faithful would move from chapel to chapel venerating each relic in turn.

Thick walls, small windows

The thrust of a barrel vault

Romanesque churches were dark. This was in large part because of the use of stone barrel-vault construction. This system provided excellent acoustics and reduced fire danger. However, a barrel vault exerts continuous lateral (outward pressure) all along the walls that support the vault.

This meant the outer walls of the church had to be extra thick. It also meant that windows had to be small and few. When builders dared to pierce walls with additional or larger windows they risked structural failure. Churches did collapse.

Nave, Tournus Cathedral, 11th century

Groin vault

Later, the masons of the Gothic period replaced the barrel vault with the groin vault which carries weight down to its four corners, concentrating the pressure of the vaulting, and allowing for much larger windows.

Cluny Abbey

The consecration of the main altar of Cluny III by Pope Urban II in 1095, in the presence of abbot St Hugh, from the  Miscellanea secundum usum Ordinis Cluniacensis , late 12th – early 13th century, folio 91r (Illuminated Manuscript no. 17716, Bibliotheque National de France, Paris)

The largest church in Christendom

The abbey of Cluny III (located  in Southern Burgundy, France ) started modestly enough—the first church being a relatively simple barn like structure. However, Cluny quickly grew to be home to the largest church in Christendom—a title it would hold for over 200 years.

Surviving Transept, Cluny Abbey (Cluny III), 12th-century, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France

But first things first, what exactly is an abbey? An abbey can refer to a Christian church, but the term generally goes beyond that to refer to the grouping of buildings that constitutes the housing and other necessary buildings for a society of Christian monks or nuns who were all living under a specific religious rule (the rule regulated their lives, specifying behavior and the organization of the monastery). In the case of Cluny, the rule the monks lived under was that of Saint Benedict of Nursia, who had, in the 6th century, advocated a life divided between prayer, rest, study, and work.

William of Aquitaine addressing two monks of Cluny, historiated initial, from the  Miscellanea secundum usum Ordinis Cluniacensis , late 12th – early 13th century, folio 85r (Illuminated Manuscript no. 17716, Bibliotheque National de France, Paris)

A gift from William I, Duke of Aquitaine

The site of abbey originally belonged to William I, Duke of Aquitaine and was home to his favorite hunting box (a hunting lodge for use during the hunting season). In the Middle Ages, a duke (the highest ranking member of the nobility) often wielded much more power and authority than a king (this was in part because the dukes held sway over the provinces, and power was decentralized). Dukes were often wealthier than the king (as the  Très Riches Heures  of the Duke of Berry  demonstrates). While a hunting box may conjure up visions of a one-room cabin, likely it was a large and stately home in its own right—so when, toward the end of his life, William I gave up the home, lands, and hunting rights (and several other parcels of land as well), so that charitable institutions could be built, it was a significant donation. The land that would become Cluny was placed into the hands of a venerable monk named Berno, who would become Saint Berno of Cluny.

Berno was the abbot of the newly founded Cluny from 910 to 925. The monastery was created to be a reform order that strictly adhered to the Rule of Saint Benedict.* Cluny sought to reform monastic life by returning to the Western monastic traditions of previous centuries which focused on peace, solitude, prayer, and work (such as caring for the poor). Importantly, William I of Acquataine (sometimes referred to as William the Pious), endowed the abbey with something more than land—he gave it independence. As a result, the abbey answered directly to the pope and did not have to obey any other dictates, or taxation, from local lords. This would help Cluny to become a wealthy center of the arts.

An artist’s rendering of the plan of the Monastery of St. Gall, as illustrated in Johann Rudolf Rahn,  Geschichte der bildenden Künste in der Schweiz: von den ältesten Zeiten bis zum Schlusse des Mittelalters  (Zürich, 1876), fig. 12 (Kloster S. Gallen nach dem Grundriss vom Jahre 830).

The first abbey at Cluny (Cluny I, which no longer exists aside from archaeological remains) developed quickly—becoming akin to small town, boasting over 200 monks. It was laid out in the style of the Saint Gall Plan—a large-scale architectural drawing of the “ideal” abbey that was created in Switzerland around 800 C.E. (above and annotated plan  here ). To our knowledge, no such abbey ever actually existed, but many abbeys appear to have been modeled on the plan—Cluny being one of them. The cloister (a quadrangular walkway where monks would stroll in meditation), is generally regarded as the spiritual center of an abbey. The Saint Gall plan places it literally in the center, and the other buildings, for example, workshops, domestic quarters, etc., surround it.

Plan of Cluny II annotated and adapted from Kenneth John Conant, “A History of Romanesque Cluny as Clarified by Excavation and Comparisons,”  Momentum , vol. 7 (1971)

As mentioned, the first church at Cluny was likely not much more than a simple place of worship. However, as the order prospered, something larger and more illustrious was called for. Soon after the passing of Berno, a monk named Odo took over as his successor and continued to expand the abbey. The second incarnation of the church at Cluny (Cluny II) was begun just decades after the first.

What we know of it is largely speculative—based on written records and excavations. This second iteration (plan, left) sported a narthex (an enclosed area at the entrance of a church) with two towers in the west, a choir (the area between the main body of church and the altar) with a tower and chapels in the east, in addition to the main basilica form (a  basilica  is a church plan consisting of a rectangular space, often divided into the central area, or nave, with aisles on either side). The choir had chapels in echelon, or stepped out one after the other—one of the first examples of an architectural form that would become extremely popular. It also had a projecting transept (which cuts perpendicularly across the main body of the basilica).

Vaulting in the nave of Saint Philibert, 10th and 11th century, Tournus, France

The church consisted of an illuminated barrel vault, not unlike that still in existence at Saint Philibert at Tournus, Cluny’s neighbor (above). That abbey, and a few others in Burgundy, had been experimenting with the barrel vault. It is good to remember that the work of these builders was largely trial and error. From what we are given to understand, this was very much in keeping with the Romanesque style of the region. As Cluny I and II no longer exist, much of what we have to go on comes from extensive excavation studies—particularly those done by Kenneth Conant.

Romanesque architecture is known for its regional styles—the look and feel of Romanesque churches could vary widely from region to region. Burgundy and the  pilgrimage churches  were particularly important influences on the style that would develop into Gothic. Gothic architecture began to take on a more “International,” style, sharing characteristics from region to region where Romanesque churches varied largely depending on their location and the local building practices. The only thing that almost all Romanesque churches shared was the use of the rounded stone barrel vault. The nature of a barrel vault, which exerts continual lateral pressure, is not conducive to piercing the supporting walls with windows, so barrel vaulted structures tend to be poorly lit. At Tournus—and likely Cluny II—the builders tried to circumvent this by placing small windows above the arcade. This was the first example of an illuminated vaulted church.

Vaulting, Cluny Abbey (Cluny III), 12th-century, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France

Cluny had a series of strong abbots, and Hugh of Semur was one of that line. He waited until he had been in that position for 40 years before beginning construction on the monumental project that would be Cluny III. It is thought he was intent on observing the latest trends—seeing what worked and what didn’t—before embarking on this great building project. Cluny III seems to have been built with the idea of plucking the best attributes from what had been created before and synthesizing them into a grandiose structure worthy of the prestigious order. It was not completed until 1130 (Hugh the Great died in 1109,) and when it was complete it stood as the largest in Europe—with five aisles (rivalling Old Saint Peter’s in Rome).

Tower, Cluny Abbey (Cluny III), 12th-century, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France

The structure was built from a combination of brick and ashlar (stone) which had hitherto been part of two separate traditions. In many ways, the church laid out was the same as its popular  Pilgrimage Route  cousins. In addition to the spacious basilica with five aisles, it had two transepts, an ambulatory, and radiating chapels at the east end. The crossings were surmounted by octagonal towers (above) with additional towers over the transept arms. Only a singular transept arm still survives today (top of page).

Plan and elevation of the church of the abbey of Cluny III (Burgundy, France) from an engraving of 1754

While only the foundation and some other bits and pieces remain, scholars have reconstructed what the interior would have looked like as well (below). Composed of a three story elevation consisting of slim aisles with pointed arches, blind arcade with three arches in each bay and a triple clerestory, it would have been a sight to behold. The slightly pointed dome rose to a height of 98 feet. This vaunting ambition may have helped lead to the partial collapse in 1125—.though quickly repaired by the time consecration took place in 1130.

Virtual reality panel, Cluny Abbey (Cluny III), 12th-century, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France

In many ways Cluny III followed, at least in plan, that of a colossal pilgrimage church and there are those who speculate that in fact Cluny was intent upon trying to compete with those medieval moneymakers. The abbey was in fact paid for in large part by money seized from Spanish Muslims who had been conquered by their Christian counterparts.

While William would help found many other monasteries, none would be so prosperous as Cluny. At its height Cluniac congregations numbered at over 1000. Berno was actually given the power to be the abbot of many abbeys, not just Cluny, and his successor, Odo, also began to gather more abbeys under Cluny’s rule. As one might imagine, this idea was not popular given these other abbeys were used to their own systems of rule. But the situation did help expand Cluny into the powerful institution it would become; it would be from Cluny that a number of Popes would be plucked. However, despite the Cluniac movement being a reform movement itself, by late 11th century another breakaway group had formed—the Cistercian movement and, like Cluny, it would be highly successful (see article on  Fontenay .) At the time of the Cistercian schism, the Cluniac order was suffering from corruption and excess (too much interest in things of the material world). A far cry from its devout beginnings!

*The foundation of the physical church of Cluny was the beginning of the Cluniac, or Benedictine Reforms. Theoretically, all Roman Catholic monks were meant to follow three simple rules set out hundreds of years earlier by Saint Benedict of Nursia. Essentially these precepts could be boiled down to peace, prayer and work. Cluniac monks also observed the traditional eight Benedictine hours of the Divine office: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Some of the most delightful (and still intact), artwork of Cluny III are the capitals representing the tones of the Gregorian chant, or plainsong. Rescued from the rubble of the choir, these marvelous sculptures show tones of the chant personified as small figures standing in their concave almond-shaped mandorlas. Some of the figures are playing instruments, some seem to be contorted into movements of a dance.

Monasticism in Western Medieval Europe on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Cite this page as: Christine M. Bolli, “Cluny Abbey,” in  Smarthistory , September 8, 2016, accessed November 10, 2023,  https://smarthistory.org/cluny-abbey/ .

South-side portal (detail), Church of Ste. Pierre, 1115-1130, Moissac, France (photo:  Simon , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

  The church of Ste. Pierre (St. Peter) in Moissac, France, dating from 1115-30, has one of the most impressive and elaborate Romanesque portals of the twelfth century. Carved images occupy the walls of the extended porch leading to the door, the door itself, and even the space over the door.

Pilgrimage routes

The church of Ste. Pierre was on one of the pilgrimage roads through France that led to Santiago de Campostela, in Spain.  As it was home to the remains of St. James Major, that Spanish church was one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Western Europe.  Ste. Pierre in Moissac was a popular stop for those making the long and arduous journey to Spain.

The parts of a Romanesque portal

Old Testament prophet (Jeremiah or Isaiah?), right side of the trumeau of the south portal of Saint-Pierre, Moissac, c. 1115-30 (photo:  Nick Thompson , CC BY-NC 2.0)

In order to understand what is depicted on the main areas surrounding the portal that leads into the church, let’s break it down into its constituent parts. The term portal refers to a doorway or entry into a building, and Romanesque portals have distinct architectural elements which were oftentimes carved with a variety of ornament and subject matter.

In the case of Ste. Pierre, the portal is divided in half vertically by the trumeau, which is decorated on three of its four sides. On the front, the viewer is faced with three pairs of intertwined lions and lionesses who are there to symbolically guard the entry into the sacred space of the church. Such symbolism comes from Early Christian imagery where the doors to Christ’s tomb are often shown with lion’s heads on them. On the east side of the trumeau is a representation of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah (some scholars suggest it is Isaiah), who holds a scroll in his hands. On the west side is a figure identified as St. Paul, from the New Testament.

The placement of these two figures on the sides of the trumeau was no doubt deliberate as they face two other figures on the door jambs (the outer walls of the portal where the doors are attached).  Across from St. Paul is a representation of St. Peter, also a New Testament saint (and the namesake of the church), and across from Jeremiah, is the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. The pairing of Old and New Testament figures was common during this period as a means of suggesting the fulfillment of Mosaic law (the law coming Moses) in the new Christian law under Christ.

Rosettes on the lintel, south portal, Saint-Pierre, Moissac, c. 1115-30

The trumeau has more than just a decorative function though as it is also supports the horizontal beam of stone above called the lintel. The lintel is decorated with ten rosettes that are bound together by a carved rope and have a repeated floral pattern at both the upper and lower spaces between each rosette.  Notice that on both the left and right ends of the lintel, the rope and rosette design is coming from the mouth of a fantastical animal of some sort (image, above)! Details such as these, with imaginative, hybrid animals are a common characteristic in Romanesque art from illuminated manuscripts to sculpture.

South portal, Saint-Pierre, Moissac, c. 1115-30 (photo:  Josep Renalias , CC BY-SA 3.0)

Just above the lintel is the lunette-shaped (semi-circular) tympanum, which has the majority of the sculpted decoration (and this is true in most Romanesque and Gothic portals).  In this case, the tympanum is surrounded by three decorative archivolts (arches), which have various foliate patterns carved into the individual blocks of stone, known as the voussoirs, which make them up.

Tympanum from the south portal, Saint-Pierre, Moissac, c. 1115-30 (photo:  Nick Thompson , CC BY-NC 2.0)

During the Romanesque and Gothic periods, there were two subjects which were popular for tympanum decoration. One was the subject of the Last Judgment, when Christ sits as judge over those who will be divided into the Saved and the Damned. An example of this can be seen at Autun.

The other oft-represented subject is known as the Maiestas Domini (Christ in Majesty), and here at Moissac we are presented with a very literal depiction of a passage from the Book of Revelation (4:2–7), which reads:

And immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne…And round the throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold…And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto a crystal; and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts…And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

The moment described in this passage, and represented here, is not a narrative in the sense that the Last Judgment is, but it is rather a more esoteric concept of the Second Coming of Christ and the End of Time.

Christ enthroned, Tympanum, south portal, Saint-Pierre, Moissac, c. 1115-30 (photo:  Nick Thompson , CC BY-NC 2.0)

In the very center of the composition is the figure of Christ, seated on a throne, with his right hand raised in gesture of blessing. In his left hand he balances a book on his knee, perhaps a reference to the Book of Revelation. His circular halo is inscribed with a cross (known as a cruciform halo), and we can just make out the suggestion of a larger, almond-shaped body halo (called a “mandorla” after the Italian word for almond) just visible as the pointed arch behind Christ’s haloed head.

Immediately to the left and right of the seated figure of Christ are the Evangelical Beasts, three animals and one human figure, who represent the four Evangelists who wrote the New Testament Gospels. Matthew, in the upper left, is represented by the winged man, Mark just below is shown as the lion, Luke on the bottom right is seen as the ox, and John the Evangelist is represented as the eagle. The representation of the four Evangelists as a tetramorph was common in sculpture, painting, and illuminated manuscripts.

Elders, from the south tympanum, Saint Pierre, Moissac, c. 1115-30 (photo:  Nick Thompson , CC BY-NC 2.0)

On either side of the Evangelical Beasts are two tall, elegant angels holding scrolls, as well as the twenty-four elders mentioned in the text from Revelations. They are arranged on three levels, two of which are divided by wavy lines, reminding us of the “sea of glass.” Each elder holds a small musical instrument in one hand and a chalice in the other (some of these have broken off over time). Very clearly all of the figures—man and beast—are turned toward the central figure of Christ, who stares serenely out toward the viewer. The twenty-four elders crane their necks and twist their bodies as do the Evangelical beasts. Even the lines of the drapery seem to be directing our attention toward the center.

Tympanum, Chartres Cathedral Tympanum, Chartres Cathedral, c. 1144-55 (photo:  Guillaume Piolle , CC BY 3.0)

A brief comparison between the style of the sculptures in this tympanum and that employed on the Early Gothic portal of Chartres Cathedral (above), which is also a Maiestas Domini,  clearly illustrates the very lively, almost agitated sense of the figures at Moissac. At Chartres, the twenty-four elders are now the voussoirs in the archivolts and the figure of Christ, seated frontally and surrounded by the mandorla, is flanked by the four evangelical beasts. Here, however, is a sense of clarity and three-dimensionality that is markedly different from the style seen at Moissac.

And as the road weary pilgrims would have approached the portal of the church Saint-Pierre, they were met with spectacular imagery that warned against sin, and reminded them of Christ’s sacrifice and his final coming. The portal at Moissac would have been a veritable feast for the Romanesque viewer’s eyes and souls.

Additional resources:

Moissac on Mapping Gothic France (Columbia University)

Tympanum, Cathedral of St. Lazare, Autun

Last Judgment,  Tympanum, Central Portal on West facade of the Cathedral of St. Lazare, Autun (France), c. 1130-46

URL:  https://youtu.be/PATkTJhAUhM

Church and Reliquary of Sainte-Foy, France

Imagine you pack up your belongings in a sack, tie on your cloak, and start off on a months-long journey through treacherous mountains, unpredictable weather and unknown lands. For the medieval pilgrim, life was a spiritual journey. Why did people in the Middle Ages take  pilgrimages ? There are many reasons, but visiting a holy site meant being closer to God. And if you were closer to God in this life, you would also be closer to God in the next.

Church of Sainte‐Foy, Conques, France, c. 1050–1130 (photo:  jean-louis Zimmermann , CC BY 2.0)

A Romanesque pilgrimage church: Saint-Foy, Conques

Located in Conques, the Church of Saint-Foy (Saint Faith) is an important pilgrimage church on the route to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. It is also an abbey, meaning that the church was part of a monastery where monks lived, prayed and worked. Only small parts of the monastery have survived but the church remains largely intact. Although smaller churches stood on the site from the seventh century, the Church of Saint-Foy was begun in the eleventh century and completed in the mid-twelfth century. As a  Romanesque church , it has a barrel-vaulted nave lined with arches on the interior.

Church of Sainte‐Foy, Conques, France, c. 1050–1130 (photo:  Velvet , CC BY-SA 4.0)

It is known as a pilgrimage church because many of the large churches along the route to Santiago de Compostela took a similar shape. The main feature of these churches was the cruciform plan. Not only did this plan take the symbolic form of the cross but it also helped control the crowds of pilgrims. In most cases, pilgrims could enter the western portal and then circulate around the church towards the apse at the eastern end. The apse usually contained smaller chapels, known as radiating chapels, where pilgrims could visit saint’s shrines, especially the sanctuary of Saint Foy. They could then circulate around the ambulatory and out the transept, or crossing. This design helped to regulate the flow of traffic throughout the church although the intention and effective use of this design has been debated.

Plan, Church of Sainte‐Foy, Conques, France, c. 1050–1130 C.E. ( adapted )

A warning in stone: The tympanum of the Last Judgment

When a pilgrim arrived at Conques, they would probably head for the church to receive blessing. Yet before they got inside, an important message awaited them on the portals: the Last Judgment. This scene is depicted on the tympanum, the central semi-circular relief carving above the central portal.

Church of Sainte‐Foy, Conques, France, c. 1050–1130 C.E. (photo: Tournasol7 , CC BY-SA 4.0)

In the center sits Christ as Judge, and he means business! He sits enthroned with his right hand pointing upwards to the saved while his left hand gestures down to the damned. This scene would have served as a reminder to those entering the Church of Saint-Foy about the joys of heaven and torments of hell. Immediately on Christ’s right are Mary, Peter and possibly the founder of the monastery as well as an entourage of other  saints .

Last Judgment tympanum, Church of Sainte‐Foy, France, Conques, c. 1050–1130 (photo:  Òme deu Teishenèir , CC BY-SA 2.0)

Below these saints, a small arcade is covered by a pediment, meant to represent the House of Paradise. These are the blessed, those have been saved by Christ and who will remain in Paradise with him for eternity. At the center, we find Abraham and above him notice the outstretched hand of God, who beckons a kneeling Saint Faith (see image below).

The blessed in paradise, with the hand of God above beckoning Saint Foy (Saint Faith) (detail), Last Judgment tympanum, Church of Sainte‐Foy, France, Conques, c. 1050–1130 (photo:  Holly Hayes , CC BY-NC 2.0)

On the other side of the pediment, a row of angels opens the graves of the dead. As the dead rise from their tombs, their souls will be weighed and they will be admitted to heaven or hell. This is the scene that we see right under Christ’s feet—you can see the clear division between a large doorway leading to Paradise and a terrifying mouth that leads the way to Hell.

The gates of heaven and the mouth of hell (detail), Last Judgment tympanum, Church of Sainte‐Foy, France, Conques, c. 1050–1130 (photo:  Holly Hayes , CC BY-NC 2.0)

Inside Hell, things aren’t looking very good. It is a chaotic, disorderly scene—notice how different it looks from the right-hand side of the tympanum. There is also a small pediment in the lower register of Hell, where the Devil, just opposite to Abraham, reigns over his terrifying kingdom.

Hell (detail), Last Judgment tympanum, Church of Sainte‐Foy, France, Conques, c. 1050–1130 (photo:  ricardo , CC BY 2.0)

A gluttonous man, detail of the Last Judgment tympanum, Church of Sainte‐Foy, France, Conques, c. 1050–1130 (photo:  ricardo , CC BY 2.0)

The devil, like Christ, is also an enthroned judge, determining the punishments that await the damned according to the severity of their sins. In particular, to the devil’s left is a hanged man. This man is a reference to Judas, who hanged himself after betraying Christ. Just beyond Judas, a knight is tossed into the fires of Hell and above him, a gluttonous man is hung by his legs for his sins. Each of these sinners represents a type of sin to avoid, from adultery, to arrogance, even to the misuse of church offices. Indeed, this portal was not only a warning for pilgrims, but for the clergy who lived in Conques as well.

Reliquary statue of Sainte-Foy (Saint Faith), late 10th to early 11th century with later additions, gold, silver gilt, jewels, and cameos over a wooden core, 33 1/2 inches (Treasury, Sainte-Foy, Conques) (photo:  Holly Hayes , CC BY-NC 2.0)

The reliquary

Pilgrims arriving in Conques had one thing on their mind: the reliquary of Saint Foy. This reliquary, or container holding the remains of a saint or holy person, was one of the most famous in all of Europe. So famous that it was originally located in a monastery in Agen but the monks at Conques plotted to steal it in order to attract more wealth and visitors. The reliquary at Conques held the remains of Saint Foy, a young Christian convert living in Roman-occupied France during the second century. At the age of twelve, she was condemned to die for her refusal to sacrifice to pagan gods, she is therefore revered as a martyr, as someone who dies for their faith. Saint Foy was a very popular saint in Southern France and her relic was extremely important to the church; bringing pilgrims and wealth to the small, isolated town of Conques.

Head (detail), Reliquary statue of Sainte-Foy (Saint Faith), late 10th to early 11th century with later additions, gold, silver gilt, jewels, and cameos over a wooden core, 33-1/2 inches (Treasury, Sainte-Foy, Conques) (photo:  Holly Hayes , CC BY-NC 2.0)

While the date of the reliquary is unknown, Bernard of Angers first spoke it about in 1010. At first, Bernard was frightened that the statue was too beautiful stating, “Brother, what do you think of this idol? Would Jupiter or Mars consider himself unworthy of such a statue?” He was concerned about idolatry—that pilgrims would begin to worship the jewel-encrusted reliquary rather than what that reliquary contained and represented, the holy figure of Saint Foy. Indeed, the gold and gem encrusted statue would been quite a sight for the pilgrims. Over time, travelers paid homage to Saint Foy by donating gemstones for the reliquary so that her dress is covered with agates, amethysts, crystals, carnelians, emeralds, garnets, hematite, jade, onyx, opals, pearls, rubies, sapphires, topazes, antique cameos and intaglios. Her face, which stares boldly at the viewer, is thought to have originally been the head of a Roman statue of a child. The reuse of older materials in new forms of art is known as spolia. Using spolia was not only practical but it made the object more important by associating it with the past riches of the Roman Empire.

The Church of Saint Foy at Conques provides an excellent example of Romanesque art and architecture. Although the monastery no longer survives, the church and treasury stand as a reminder of the rituals of medieval faith, especially for pilgrims. Even today, people make the long trek to Conques to pay respect to Saint Foy. Every October, a great celebration and procession is held for Saint Foy, continuing a medieval tradition into present day devotion.

Sainte-Foy at Conques on Mapping Gothic France (Columbia University)

Gigapixel image of the Tympanum on Mapping Gothic France (Columbia University)

Relics and reliquaries in Medieval Christianity (The Met)

Toman, Rolf, and Achim Bednorz,  Romanesque: architecture, sculpture, painting  (Köln: Könemann, 1997).

Pamela Sheingorn, Robert L. A. Clark, and Bernardus,  The Book of Sainte Foy  (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995).

Janetta Rebold Benton,  Art of the Middle Ages  (New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson, 2002).

Pentecost and Mission to the Apostles Tympanum, Basilica Ste-Madeleine, Vézelay (France)

URL: https://youtu.be/Dnxm4UQPDTo

Basilica of Saint-Sernin

St. Sernin, Toulouse, France, c. 1080-1120 with later additions (photo:  Holly Hayes , CC BY-NC 2.0)

The political center of Toulouse, France today is Place du Capitole, an open city square to the east of a beautiful eighteenth-century neoclassical building. Two major north-south roads traverse the western side of this square, and the names of these two thoroughfares have much to say about the history of the city. The street on the southern end of the square — Rue de Sainte-Rome — is named after a long since destroyed thirteenth-century Dominican church, Sainte-Romain. The street that proceeds northwards from the northwest corner of Place du Capitole — Rue du Taur — whispers the smallest of hints as to the most important church in the city, Saint-Sernin.

Place du Capitole, Toulouse, France (photo:  Benh LIEU SONG , CC BY-SA 3.0)

A martyred saint

This imposing Romanesque basilica was constructed in honor of St. Sernin (Saturninus in Latin), the first bishop of Toulouse. He was born in the early third century in Greece, and was one of seven bishops that Pope Fabian sent to different parts of  Gaul  to actively preach the Christian gospels to the pagans who lived in those areas. Many stories that pertain to the early Christian martyrs are fantastical, and we should take Sernin’s own narrative with the proverbial grain of salt.

According to legend, when Sernin entered the city of Toulouse, all of the pagan idols — which hitherto had regularly spoken to their priests — suddenly and disturbingly fell into silence. One day in 257, a great group had gathered around an altar, and a man pointed to Sernin as the cause of this divine silence, exclaiming, “There is the one who preaches everywhere that our temples must be torn down, and who dares to call our gods devils! It is his presence that imposes silence on our oracles!” Sernin was then chained to a nearby bull and drug through the city until his body was broken and skull crushed. His corpse was eventually deposited on a street that since those times has been called the Rue du Taur , the Road of the Bull.  A church appropriately called Notre Dame du Taur commemorates the spot where the bull finally deposited the lifeless body. About 300 meters further north is Saint-Sernin, the basilica where the martyred saint’s bodily remains are purported to reside. A pilgrimage church

Begun sometime around 1080 (approximately 825 years after the saint’s death), Saint-Sernin was formally consecrated as a church about a century later. The opening centuries of the second millennium were a time of great  religious pilgrimages , and one of the most important pilgrimage sites for the Catholic faithful — then as now — is the cathedral of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, a city in northern Spain. For the pilgrims commencing their journey in Italy, the path they travelled took them through the southern part of France, and one of the major stopping points on this section of the Santiago Trail — the Way of St. James — was the city of Toulouse and the basilica of Saint-Sernin, the church that held the relics of one of the most famous martyred saints of the area.

The Way of St. James — routes from France (image:  Vivaelcelta , CC BY-SA 3.0)

Saint-Sernin is an excellent example of a Romanesque pilgrimage church, a building that needed to accomplish two interrelated ends. First, the structure needed to provide a suitably inspiring shrine for the holy relics of the saint it was built to commemorate. Second, it needed to be large enough to accommodate the thousands of pilgrims who would arrive each day to pray before and venerate those relics. Fulfilling these two goals, Saint-Sernin is one of the best-preserved and perhaps the largest Romanesque churches in the world. Even almost 950 years after its construction was begun, it remains a religious structure that awes and inspires the pilgrims who still visit.

The Romanesque style is so called because the medieval architects who designed these buildings used a fundamentally Roman architectural language. Romanesque churches are notable for their thick walls with relatively few windows, Roman arches, barrel vaults, and the use of massive vaulting. In contract to the  Gothic buildings  that would become fashionable a couple of centuries later, Romanesque churches appear heavy and comparatively dark. Saint-Sernin is also an excellent example of a church with a Latin cross plan. A long central east-west nave is intersected by a shorter north-south transept, a shape that mimics the most recognizable symbol of the Christian faith.

Plan of St. Sernin, Toulouse

One of the best ways to fully appreciate a medieval church is to stroll around its exterior. Indeed, during this circumnavigation, one is not only transported back in time, but also through time. It often took centuries to construct churches of the size and scale of Saint-Sernin. By walking around the exterior of these churches an observant visitor can clearly see shifting architectural styles and changing sculptural aesthetics. Although construction was begun on Saint-Sernin by about 1080, slight changes in the proportion of brick and stone used during the course of its construction suggest the church went through a number of different building campaigns from its genesis until its ultimate conclusion, perhaps as many as four. Romanesque (and Gothic) churches are often a negotiation between what was dreamed and what came to pass; the final church often looks different from its original architectural plan.

Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, c. 1080-1120 with later additions (photo:  Guillermo Fdez , CC BY-NC 2.0)

This is evident when looking at the west façade of the church (in medieval churches, this is commonly referred to as the westwork). Most churches during the late medieval period were constructed with a tower on both the north and south ends of the westwork, and the extensive and massive buttressing on the corners of the west façade of the structure strongly indicate that such towers were part of the original plan of the church. In the absence of these vertical towers, the front of the church is instead dominated by its large central circular window, set into a shallow pointed arch recession. Underneath this window are five small Roman (round) arches that harmoniously frame the two large Roman arch entranceways. This central part of the façade — from the large entrances to the circular window — is framed by the vertical buttresses on the left and right sides.

Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, bell tower c. 1270-1470 (photo:  Guimsou , CC BY-SA 3.0)

Walking from the front of the church along one of the sides brings into focus the large bell tower over the  crossing . The octagonal tower is made of five layered tiers that are capped by a spire. The first three tiers feature Roman arches and were likely begun in the twelfth century. The much later uppermost tiers date from about 1270 — nearly two centuries after construction the church first began — and feature Gothic pointed arches. The spire at the top was finally completed around 1470 and measures 213 feet (65 m) in height. The bell tower alone is a visual lesson in the shifting architectural styles in fashion over the four centuries of a church’s construction.

Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, apse and radiating chapels, c. 1080-1120 with later additions (photo:  Pierre-Selim , CC BY 2.0)

If the bell tower and its spire are the elements of the church that are most visible around the city of Toulouse, it is the architectural elements on the eastern side of the church — the apse end — that made Saint-Sernin famous. It was common during the medieval era for the apse of the church to have small chapels for the placement of holy relics where pilgrims could come to visit and venerate them. But in Saint-Sernin, the entire eastern end of the church — from the north transept, around the apse, and concluding on the southern transept — is filled with nine radiating chapels. Even from an exterior view, it is clear that one of the primary roles of this structure was to house relics for pilgrims to visit.

Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, view of the nave toward the apse, c. 1080-1120 (photo:  PierreSelim , CC BY 3.0)

Chapels, sculptures, and the tomb of a saint

The plan of the interior of the church reinforces this function. The large  barrel-vaulted  central nave is flanked on each side by double side aisles. When standing in the nave the faithful look towards the same high altar that Pope Urban II consecrated on 24 May 1096.

The nave is 69 feet in height and is twelve bays in length from the entrance (the narthex) to the crossing. Each bay is twice as wide as it is long. Harmoniously, these same proportions are mirrored by each of the double side aisles that flank the nave, thus creating a profound architectural unity. This unity is likewise reflected by the arches that separate the nave from the innermost side aisle and the arches in the  triforium  that allow light to flood into the nave.

Elevation, St. Sernin, Toulouse, c. 1080-1120 (photo:  kristobalite , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

If the primary function of the nave was for the celebration of the Catholic mass, then the double side aisles allowed the throngs of pilgrims who arrived daily to visit the nine radiating chapels without interrupting any religious service in process. A pilgrim might enter the church, turn to their left, and then proceed down a side aisle and move along the transept. From there, they could worship and venerate at any of the nine radiating chapels and see the works of art located in the ambulatory. Of particular note is a large-scale relief of Christ in Majesty that dates from c. 1096. Jesus sits in a shallow  mandorla ; he raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing while his left hand holds a gospel with the words  Pax Vobis  — “Peace to You” in Latin — inscribed on the pages. Symbols of the four gospel writers look towards Jesus from the four corners.

Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, Christ in Majesty relief, c. 1096 (photo:  Frédéric Neupont , CC BY 2.0)

The main attraction of the basilica, however, is the tomb of Saint Saturnin that is located on the inner part of the ambulatory. To reach this space, a pilgrim would enter through a doorway where the lintel was carved with the head of Christ flanked by two scallop shells, visual symbols for the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela. Immediately underneath this lintel — on the iron gate that serves as a barrier — are the words  Non Est in Toto Sanctior Orbe Locus ; “There is no holier place on earth.”

Saint-Sernin also featured upper and lower crypts that could be visited while in the ambulatory, which contained various shrines and reliquaries. Concluding their visit, the traveling pilgrims would then walk along the side aisle opposite the one they had previously used and then exit the church.

Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, entrance to the tomb of Saint Saturnin, c. 1080-1120 (photo: Dr. Bryan Zygmont)

Looking to St. James

While the Basilica of Saint-Sernin may have served as a kind of stopping point for pilgrims on the Way of St. James, it became a kind of pilgrimage destination in its own right in the decades after its construction. Indeed, it is a near contemporary with the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (c. 1078), and there is some disagreement about which church is older, as some architectural historians date the groundbreaking for Saint-Sernin to 1077. Regardless of which is older, there is one important note that is generally well accepted: there is clear relationship between the two buildings. Both are Latin cross in plan, and both feature nine radiating chapels on the eastern side of the church. In arriving in Santiago de Compostela, those pilgrims who had traveled together along the southern path of the Way of St. James and had previously visited Saint-Sernin would have encountered a church that familiarly whispered to them.

Fontenay Abbey

Cloister, Fontenay Abbey, 12th century (photo:  Steven Zucker ,  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The  Romanesque  abbey of Fontenay (Abbaye de Fontenay) is located in Burgundy, France, and stands today as a prime architectural example of the Cistercian order. Who are the Cistercians, you ask? The Cistercian were (and still are) monks that broke away from the mainstream  Benedictines  (specifically the Cluniacs), at the end of the 11th century. They are sometimes referred to as the white monks, a reference to their clothing (habit)—a deviation from the Benedictine’s black robes—or as Bernardines, after Cistercian superstar Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

Illumination with St. Benedict delivering his Rule to St. Maurus, 1129, Monastery of St. Gilles, Nimes ( British Library , London, Additional 16979, f. 21v)

Essentially, the Cistercians felt the Benedictine monks had become too worldly and were no longer staying true to the Rules of Saint Benedict of Nursia. The Cistercians thought that the amount of time being devoted to manual labor was lacking. The goal of the Cistercians was to adhere strictly to the 6th century Rule of Saint Benedict. This Rule pronounced that a monk should divide his day equally between prayer, study, and manual labor, as well as live a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Most Cistercian abbeys were built to reflect this dedication to the Rule of Saint Benedict, with manual labor being an integral component. Fontenay, a fairly early addition to the order, and built directly under Bernard of Clairvaux, is no exception. Fontenay was the second “daughter house” of Clairvaux, and one of the four founding houses of the order. Saint Bernard held strong beliefs as to how abbeys should be built, and, as Fontenay was built under his auspices, it conforms to Saint Bernard’s dictates to a nicety.

Inside the walls, Fontenay Abbey, 12th century (photo:  Steven Zucker ,  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Self-sufficiency

Cistercians chose to locate their abbeys in remote areas, far from any sort of hubbub that might interrupt their spiritual meditations. In Fontenay’s case, it was originally founded on the site of an old hermitage. However, due to issues with that site, the abbey was forced to relocate in 1130 to its present location further along the marshy valley. Often Cistercian would take an inhospitable topography and make it livable, such as the marshy site of Fontenay. The Cistercian abbeys focused on complete self-sufficiency, and were akin to mini-towns, rendering the outside world obsolete. Ironically, given the success of the abbeys, they often became the economic hub of the area.

Chapter House, Fontenay Abbey, 12th century (photo:  Steven Zucker ,  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Cistercian abbeys were similar to those of the Benedictines, possessing a dormitory for sleep, a cloister for strolling, a chapterhouse for the monks’ morning meeting, and a caldarium, or warming room where the monks could read and transcribe (also sometimes referred to as a scriptorium). However, an additional feature found at Cistercian abbeys was a wing for lay brothers. Unique to the order, and one of the reasons for its popularity was the fact they would allow laymen to join. These men were required to adhere to most of the rules of the order, but their lives were slightly less strict, and lay brothers could never be ordained or hold office. Fontenay today is remarkably well preserved, though the refectory (cafeteria) was destroyed and the gatehouse restored in the 17th century; repairs have also been made to the roof. The abbey still possesses its medieval forge, with its tremendous hydraulic hammer. The forge was an important producer of iron tools and building components in its day.

View of chapter house (below left), dormitory (above left), and church apse (right), Fontenay Abbey, 12th century (photo:  Steven Zucker ,  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Harmony and proportion

The Cistercians were known to take an austere tone when it came to ornament. Bernard of Clairvaux felt decoration, whether in the church or in the cloister, would detract the monks from their heavenly ruminations. With this in mind, Bernard also nixed the  crossing tower , which was a common feature in other Romanesque churches, but something Saint Bernard found ostentatious and excessive. A small bell can be found on the roof, as it was a necessity for calling the monks to mass. The Cistercians did, however, lavish acute attention on the construction materials, the stones of the church themselves, generally only using the finest of  ashlar masonry .

West façade of the Church, Fontenay Abbey, 12th century (photo:  Myrabella , CC BY-SA 4.0 )

One enters the church through a singular portal almost completely devoid of ornament aside from the beautiful pink and brown coloring of the stones. The church is in the form of a Latin cross. The east end consists of a flattened  apse  flanked by two matching square chapels—a deviation from the more common semi-circular apse. Fontenay was dedicated in 1147, making it one of the oldest Cistercian churches in France.

Nave, Fontenay Abbey, 12th century (photo:  Steven Zucker ,  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

When a visitor enters the church, they are confronted with the symmetrical beauty that is quintessential to the Cistercian abbey. The harmony of proportions might almost make one think of a  Classical Greek temple , or the work of later Renaissance architects such as  Alberti . Cistercian architecture did inspire  Le Corbusier , pioneer of modern architecture. The eight-bay  nave  is flanked by aisles on either side. There is no  clerestory . Light only enters from the side aisles on the right, the windows at the east and west ends, as well as windows that pierce the East wall of the crossing  transept . The nave is a rounded barrel vault, ever so slightly pointed, and the side aisles are likewise supported by barrel vaults which are perpendicular to the nave. Engaged columns coursed into the nave wall connect to the transverse arches above to produce a quiet visual rhythm. As is the case with a number of Cistercian abbeys, the church at Fontenay anticipates the  Gothic  aesthetic in the way that the barrel vaults are gently pointed.

Fontenay Abbey seen from the cloister, 12th century (photo:  Steven Zucker ,  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Into private hands

Like so many abbeys, Fontenay was seized during the French revolution, at which point it ceased to function as a religious center. The property was auctioned off, and it became a paper mill in 1791. Later it was adapted for other industrial purposes until purchased by art collector Édouard Anyard, who restored its structures to their original purity. It remains in the Anyard family to this day and is open to the public for all to see. It stands as a sober, yet stunning, reminder of the reductive beauty of Cistercian architecture.

URL:  https://youtu.be/BBFUTbKx3qY

Fontenay Abbey.

Rule of St. Benedict at the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay at UNESCO.

Cite this page as: Christine M. Bolli, “Fontenay Abbey,” in  Smarthistory , August 8, 2015, accessed November 12, 2023,  https://smarthistory.org/fontenay-abbey/ .

Saint Trophime, Arles

Saint Trophime, Arles, 12th – 15th century (photo:  Elliot Brown , CC BY 2.0)

First impressions

When I first saw the church, somewhat inconspicuously wedged between two more recent structures, it struck me as rather non-descript. However, that impression only lasted a moment.

Facade, Saint Trophime (photo:  Claude Valette , CC BY-ND 2.0)

As I drew nearer, the magnificence of the portal, embellished with an elaborate sculptural program, came into view. Hapless souls, chained and bound, shuffle along to their ultimate doom while Christ in Majesty, surrounded by symbols of his apostles, looks stoically on (the sculptures on the facade depict, in part, the Last Judgment). This is perhaps the finest example of a Romanesque portal to be found in southern France.

Damned on right side of the portal, Saint Trophime (photo:  kristobalite , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The exterior of Saint Trophime was cleaned in recent years—for better or for worse. While it is a pleasure to see the sculpture without a thick black film of pollution, some think these sorts of restorations do more harm than good. The entrance to the cathedral consists of a single arched opening reminiscent of ancient triumphal arches. There are a number of triumphal arches that still stand not far from Arles, in nearby Saint Remy and Orange.

The entirety of the main portal projects outward and it is on this portion of the exterior that the bulk of the church’s sculpture can be found.

Tympanum and lintel, Saint Trophime (photo:  Claude Valette , CC BY-ND 2.0)

Known as the church of Saint Stephen in early Christian times, the church was renamed Saint Trophime when the relics of Saint Trophimus (the first bishop of Arles), in this case a variety of bones, were dug up and reinterred at the church site in 972. Typical for medieval churches, Saint Trophime was constructed over a long period of time and built in a series of campaigns. The structure that is seen today was started in the eleventh century and completed in the twelfth, with a few bits from earlier and later periods thrown in.

A pilgrimage church

The church of Saint Trophime was the first stop on the Via Tolosa, one of the main pilgrimage routes through France leading to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The church was also the episcopal seat, or home to the bishop’s chair, from the early fifth century until the early nineteenth century, giving this structure cathedral status.

Saint Trophime is Romanesque in style, as opposed to Gothic, and one way this can be seen is in the tell tale rounded arch of the front portal. Gothic structures tended to favor a tall pointed arch. Likewise, a heavy barrel vault covers the nave, as opposed to a pointed rib vault (which became a hallmark of Gothic architecture). It should be noted that the barrel vault at Saint Trophime is slightly pointed, perhaps hinting at the Gothic age to come.

Inside the church

The interior, though not as decorative as the facade, is just as impressive. When visitors enter Saint Trophime, they are greeted by a high nave (the long central hall). In fact, standing 20 meters/65 feet high, this is the tallest nave in Provence and is equivalent to a six story building.

Nave, Saint Trophime

The nave is flanked by tall, narrow side aisles, which are covered by half-barrel vaults. Side aisles are fairly unusual in medieval Provençal churches, the tendency being toward single nave buildings. Because Saint Trophime was a cathedral at the time of its construction, it may have warrented a more complex and expansive design (at least in comparison to nearby parish churches).

The nave of Saint Trophime is composed of five bays and communicates with the side aisles via arcades that are slightly pointed like the main barrel vault. The elevation is a straightforward two-story design, consisting of an arcade and a clerestory (the upper portion of the wall pierced by windows).

Despite this, Saint Trophime is still rather dark, perhaps due its large size. The nave and aisles are crossed by a transept, which creates the plan’s cruciform shape. There is a crossing tower above the intersection of the nave and trancept supported on squinches (support that help transition from the rectangular form of the bay up to the octagonal form of the tower), a common feature of Provençal churches.

Crossing Tower, Saint Trophime, Arles (Photo: SiefkinDR)

This tower reaches a stately height of roughly 42 meters or 137 feet! The east end terminates in three semi-circular apses. The central apse and ambulatory was rebuilt in the fifteenth century, and therefore reflects a Gothic sensibility in its use of pointed arches and rib vaults. The remainder of the church is a true Romanesque gem.

A regional style

Provence, along with many other regions, developed its own unique Romanesque style. Saint Trophime is a wonderful representation of some of the facets of this Provençal regional style. For example, it is built of finely dressed ashlar masonry, meaning it uses precisely cut stones and little or no mortar. Given the number of stones needed to create this building, this was no small feat! There would have been no speedy stone saws, only a mason’s trusty chisel and mallet.  Despite the time and labor involved, this was a common building practice in the area.

Many of these stones are emblazoned with prominent markings, often resembling letters of the alphabet. These are called mason’s marks and were also common to local masonic practice. Mason’s marks were used for a variety of purposes, including payment and placement of the stones.

The sculpture within

The interior of Saint Trophime is much more austere than the portal or cloister, another attribute typical to the Provençal Romanesque style. However, the interior of Saint Trophime is not without ornament.

Of special note are the classically inspired Corinthian columns (fluted columns surmounted by a scroll and acanthus leaf capital) that can be found just below the springing of the main nave vault. There is also a stringcourse molding running the length of the nave just above the clerestory carved in an acanthus leaf pattern. Both the Corinthian column and the acanthus leaf molding were favorites of the ancient Romans.Arles abounds with Roman ruins, including an arena, a theater and the remains of a bath complex. It is easy to see how local medieval builders may have been inspired by the Roman remains they would have seen daily.

The Last Judgment portal

The portal tympanum (illustrated above) displays Christ in Majesty surrounded by the four apostles represented in symbolic form: John (eagle), Matthew (angel), Luke (ox), and Mark (lion). This is also known as the tetramorph. Those chosen for heaven, including bishops and priests, sit at Christ’s right. At Christ’s left stands an angel brandishing a sword, effectively blocking the damned from paradise. The condemned souls, with hellfire licking at their legs, seem to be taking their damnation in stride (above). The carving, exquisite though it may be, does not convey the same strong emotions present in some contemporaneous churches such as at Moissac.

The Elect (blessed), Saint Trophime, Arles (Photo: Christine M. Bolli)

Angel and Damned at the Gates of Heaven, Saint Trophime, Arles (photo: Christine M. Bolli)

The Last Judgment and Second Coming are common subjects for Romanesque portals, particularly for those churches along the pilgrimage routes. The Saint Trophime version is notable in its overall stoicism despite the drama of the subject matter.

Th e portal is jam-packed with sculpture. There are a number of other biblical scenes included in addition to the Last Judgment, particularly from the early life of Christ. For example, if one looks at the lintel just to the right of the doorway, the Adoration of the Magi can be seen. Below those registers a host of saints, including Peter, John, Paul, Stephen and Trophime himself, glare into the middle distance, giving the viewer the sense that they too have been judged and been found wanting! The grand entranceway’s symmetrical organization into clear registers gives it an orderly and uniform appearance, everlasting hellfire not withstanding.

Saint Trophime was designated as a  UNESCO World Heritage site  in 1981 because of its status as a prime example of Romanesque architecture in France, and its importance as the starting point of one of the millennium-old pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The  World Monuments Fund  (WMF) has been a key supporter of ongoing efforts to preserve and restore the building.

After sponsoring the restoration of the building’s facade in the 1990s, the WMF began the project of documenting and restoring the cloister in 2009. Their efforts involved the application of new technologies—in particular, 3-D laser scanning and high-definition photography by the  non-profit organization CyArk  and the engineering firm Christofori and Partners. The resulting  documentation  of the building was used to consult with many international experts who contributed valuable knowledge to the restoration, and it also preserved the building in digital form, making the information available for users around the globe. The WMF then oversaw the cleaning and restoration of the interior stone work, sculptures, terracing, and columns, including a type of laser-cleaning that carefully removes layers of accumulated soiling on the delicate marble.

This project demonstrates not only the importance of continued maintenance for important monuments, but the benefits of digital documentation for both expert planning and research as well as for the wider public. The open accessibility of the 3-D models and photographs online  through CyArk  is a cutting-edge example of how cultural heritage, and its continued importance for everyone, can be emphasized and shared around the world.

Backstory by Dr. Naraelle Hohensee

Saint Trophime UNESCO World Heritage webpage

Saint Trophime on the World Monuments Fund webpage

Saint Trophime on CyArk

What is a tympanum?

Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture

Virgin and Child in Majesty, c. 1175-1200, made in Auvergne, France, walnut with paint, tin relief on a lead white ground, and linen,    31 5/16 x 12 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches / 79.5 x 31.7 x 29.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Video from  The Metropolitan Museum of Art .  URL:   https://youtu.be/IGS1Zkxe84c

View this work in the online collection .

Casket with troubadours

Casket with troubadours , 1180, copper, enamel, gold, from the court of Aquitaine Limoges, France, 21.7 x 11.6 x 16.5 cm (©  The Trustees of the British Museum )

This is one of the earliest Limoges caskets made for secular use (that is, not related to the church). It is decorated with lively scenes of combat, music, dance and love.

Detail of the lid,  Casket with troubadours , 1180, copper, enamel, gold, from the court of Aquitaine Limoges, France, 21.7 x 11.6 x 16.5 cm (©  The Trustees of the British Museum )

On the lid, these themes are contained within four roundels—a man on horseback is attacked by a lion (top left); a lover kneels before his lady (bottom left); a knight on horseback rides into battle (top right); a minstrel plays to a lady who holds a bird (bottom right). These images are developed on three of the four sides of the body of the casket.

Detail of the side with a lion and mythical beast,  Casket with troubadours , 1180, copper, enamel, gold, from the court of Aquitaine Limoges, France, 21.7 x 11.6 x 16.5 cm (©  The Trustees of the British Museum )

On the left side a dancer and a musician are placed alongside a combatant with a lion, while on the right side a lion and a mythical beast resembling a siren are set in opposition. The back panel is decorated with geometric and floral designs.

Front of the  Casket with troubadours , 1180, copper, enamel, gold, from the court of Aquitaine Limoges, France, 21.7 x 11.6 x 16.5 cm (©  The Trustees of the British Museum )

On the front of the casket two pairs of lovers display different aspects of the medieval rite of love. Birds fly around them as a minstrel plays a stringed instrument and his lady dances; a lover bends to kneel before his lady. She holds him with a halter around his neck with one hand, while with the other she holds a bird. The lover pays homage to his lady as he adopts the pose traditionally taken by a vassal before his lord. Much of the significance of these scenes is lost to a modern-day observer. The pairs of lovers are separated by a centrally placed figure, poised beneath the lock, holding a sword in one hand and a key in the other. What does this figure represent? Is he defending the contents of the casket? Or does he represent the principal theme of strength in combat versus strength in love?

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Manuscript production in the abbeys of Normandy

In the seventh century a set of monasteries was founded in the diocese of Rouen, in present-day northwestern France, under Saints Ouen (b. 641, d. 686), Wandrille (b.  c . 600, d. 668) and Philibert (b.  c . 617, d. 684). These abbeys, including Fontenelle, Jumièges and Saint-Ouen, rapidly became major spiritual and cultural centres under the  Merovingian  dynasty, which ruled in the territory similar to Roman Gaul.

Each established  scriptoria  for copying manuscripts and built up comprehensive libraries. However, from the mid-ninth century the region was devastated by Viking raids. Religious communities were sacked, and their possessions, including books, were scattered or destroyed. Few surviving Norman manuscripts from this period are known.

In 911, the Frankish king Charles the Simple (r. 898–923) granted the Scandinavian chieftain, Rollo (d.  c . 927) possession of the lands Rollo had invaded in what is now Normandy (or The land of the “North men” (Normands)). Restoration of the religious infrastructure was slow under the new rulers: only six Merovingian abbeys had been re-established by the year 1000. The earliest surviving manuscripts, from the abbeys of Mont Saint-Michel, Jumièges and Fécamp, date from this period.

Monastic reforms in the 11th and 12th centuries

The new Norman nobility began to found religious institutions in much greater numbers during the 11th century, so that by 1100 there were close to 40 Benedictine abbeys (both male and female) in the region. Monasticism flourished under Richard II, Duke of Normandy (r. 996–1026), nicknamed ‘the father of all monks’.

Reformers were brought from other parts of France and Europe to build monasteries and introduce new liturgical practices. Religious orders such as the Cistercians and Premonstratensians founded houses and established new traditions of monasticism. At least 16 Norman abbeys had libraries, furnished with books made in their scriptoria. Many of these manuscripts have survived to the present day.

There were close ties between Normandy and England from the early 11th century. Queen  Emma  (b.  c . 985, d. 1052), sister of Duke Richard II and consort of Kings Æthelred and then Cnut, was a benefactor of the abbey of the Trinity at Fécamp. She gave it luxury books like the Fécamp Gospels (now BnF, Latin 272), which includes  initial  letters written in red, green and gold.

St Jerome’s Prologue from the  Fécamp Gospels , 2nd half of the 10th century (BnF, Latin 272, f. 10v)

English manuscripts and the Winchester style in Normandy

Ties between the two territories were strengthened under Edward the Confessor (r. 1042–1066), the eldest son of Emma and Æthelred, who had spent much of his youth at the court of Duke Richard II. The abbot of Jumièges, Robert Champart, became bishop of London in 1044 and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1051. Robert donated a splendid  Sacramentary  (containing the prayers recited by the priest during Mass) to his former monastery of Jumièges (now Rouen, Bibliothèque municipal, Y 6).

The manuscript is decorated in the late  Anglo-Saxon  ‘ Winchester style ’, with frames of painted foliage and animal heads, in a style similar to that found in a  Psalter  copied by  Eadui Basan , a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury who is known to have been active between  c . 1012 and  c . 1023.

Illuminated initial ‘B'(eatus) and full border at the beginning of Psalm 1, in a manuscript copied at Christ Church, Canterbury,  Eadui Psalter , 1st half of the 11th century–mid 12th century (British Library, Arundel MS 155, f. 12r)

The new institutions founded in Normandy needed books, and key works had to be sourced for their scribes to make copies. These exemplars were borrowed from as far afield as Dijon and Corbie. There is also substantial evidence of books being brought across the Channel to Normandy from  monastic libraries  in England.

A framed pen-drawing of St Augustine attacking Faustus, St Augustine,  Contra Faustum Manichaeum , mid-11th century (BnF, Latin 2079, f. 1v)

For example, manuscripts illuminated at Fécamp and Mont Saint-Michel under the supervision of the scribe Antonius (fl.  c . 1060) show the influence of the Anglo-Saxon style on artists working at these two houses. The frontispiece from a Fécamp copy of  St Augustine ’s (b. 354, d. 430) work  Contra Faustum Manichaeum  ( Against Faustus the Manichean ) includes Winchester-style frames (BnF, Latin 2079). In the frontispiece the outline was drawn in ink, complete with an elaborate frame with stylised acanthus leaf decoration, but the page was left unpainted.

Interlace initial from the opening page of St Augustine’s  De civitate Dei , c. 1060 (The City of God) (BnF, Latin 2055, f. 1r, detail)

Two of St Augustine’s works were copied by the scribe Antonius himself and decorated in the Winchester style. The first manuscript contains  De civitate Dei  ( the City of God ), and the second contains  De Trinitate  ( The Trinity ). Both can be dated to between 1056 and 1065 (BnF, Latin 2055 and Latin 2088).

Interlace initial in a French copy of St Augustine’s  De Trinitate (The Trinity) , c. 1060 (BnF, Latin 2088, f. 78r)

English-style frames are also found in a number of luxury  Gospel-books  produced in Normandy between the last quarter of the 11th century and the first quarter of the 12th century. An example is a Gospel book from the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Préaux (British Library, Add MS 11850). This deluxe book features full-page  portraits of the four Evangelists  in rectangular frames in bright colours and gold, with foliate decoration.

Portrait of St Luke, Préaux Gospels, 1st quarter of the 12th century (British Library, Add MS 11850, f. 91v)

The Norman Conquest

William, Duke of Normandy (‘the Conqueror’) was crowned king of England in 1066 (r. 1066–1087). Following his accession to the throne, a number of senior Norman clerics including Lanfranc of Bec (b.  c . 1010, d. 1089) and Herbert Losinga of Fécamp (d. 1119) were appointed to key positions in the English Church. These churchmen brought manuscripts with them and also  ordered books that were unavailable in England from their former monastic houses in Normandy . English handwriting in particular was influenced by the more angular Norman style.

Text page with marginal notes from Ado de Vienne’s  Chronicon , 4th quarter of the 11th century (Chronicle of the Six Ages of the World) (British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXIII, f. 16v)

For example, the Norman scribe Scollandus was previously based in Mont Saint-Michel. He became abbot of St Augustine’s abbey in Canterbury in 1072. Two manuscripts that he brought to Canterbury from Mont Saint-Michel are now in the British Library. One manuscript contains a chronicle written by Ado of Vienne (d. 874) together with a list of the dukes of Normandy (British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXIII). Additions and corrections have been made in the margins in a script characteristic of scribes working at St Augustine’s, Canterbury around 1100.

The second manuscript that Scollandus brought to Canterbury also features historical material (British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXII). The book contains the  Historia Langobardorum  ( History of the Lombards ) written by Paul the Deacon (b.  c . 720, d. 799), followed by an excerpt from the chronicle of world history by Frechulf of Lisieux (d.  c . 850). These texts are similar to models that were in the library at Mont Saint-Michel and the decoration is typical of manuscripts copied there.

Dragon initial ‘S’ at the beginning of Paul the Deacon,  Historia Langobardorum  (History of the Lombards), 4th quarter of the 11th century, from Mont Saint-Michel (British Library, Royal MS 13 A xxii, f. 2v, detail)

These examples of artistic influence and circulation of books testify to the frequent exchanges across the Channel before and after 1066, as monks, scribes and artists travelled between monastic houses. These cultural exchanges contributed to the richness of manuscript production and decoration in both Normandy and England in the 11th century.

Written by Stéphane Lecouteux

Dr Stéphane Lecouteux is Head of the Bibliothèque patrimoniale d’Avranches, where he works on the conservation and enhancement of ancient books, notably from the Mont Saint-Michel abbey. His medieval research and publications focus on the history of texts and manuscripts, the history of ancient libraries, networks of confraternity, cultural transfers and Frankish and Anglo-Norman historiography.

The text in this article is available under the  Creative Commons License.

Originally published by  The British Library.

The Basilica of San Clemente, Rome

The Basilica of San Clemente, Rome, church rebuilt 1099-1119 (mosaic 1130s) with eighteenth-century renovations (photo:  Michael Foley , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

A shrunken Rome

By the twelfth century, the city of Rome was a shadow of its former, imperial Roman self. Pilgrims still flowed into the city from all over Europe in recognition of Rome’s status as the home of the pope and the burial place of apostles and the Early Christian martyrs, but the city itself had shrunk dramatically inside the old Roman walls. Rome was regularly sacked by invaders, including the Holy Roman Emperor, a northern noble supposedly appointed to protect Europe’s Christians. It was also damaged by battles between the city’s most powerful families. For parts of the twelfth century, two popes, each chosen by a rival faction, concurrently claimed to lead the  Western Church . Nonetheless, the city was gripped by a spirit of religious renewal that led patrons to rebuild several of its important churches. Romans were so proud of their city’s Christian past and current status as the capital of Western Christianity that these new buildings often closely copied the early churches they replaced.

Building on Roman foundations

The Basilica of San Clemente, located in the heart of medieval Rome, is an example of this faithful copying. It was rebuilt in the early twelfth century on the site of an Early Christian house church, using the existing  basilica church  already on the site as its foundations. The builders mimicked the earlier church in almost every way, copying its nave, aisles, arcades (arches) with columns made from Roman  spolia ,  clerestory windows , a simple  apse , and an  open wooden roof  (now hidden by an ornately decorated ceiling). They departed from the earlier model only by making the new structure slightly narrower and inserting  piers   halfway down the nave. To a medieval viewer, the ancient Roman heritage of the building would have been obvious, though today it has mostly been obscured by an exuberant eighteenth-century renovation.

The Basilica of San Clemente, Rome, church rebuilt 1099-1119 (mosaic 1130s) with eighteenth-century renovations (photo:  Dnalor 01 , CC BY-SA 3.0)

An old fashioned  schola cantorum —the choir enclosure where the men or boys who sang the words of the services would sit—is located in the middle of the church. At one time every Roman church would also have had a similar set of raised  ambos  (lecterns), a towering pedestal for the  paschal candle , and rows of seats facing each other so that the choir could sing in alternation between each prayer and reading.

Blending Christian and classical

The decoration of the church also looked back to earlier precedents. The artists of the apse mosaic adapted the pagan and Christian motifs found in Late Antique and Early Christian mosaics and sculptures still visible in Rome. On a field of gold, a luxuriant, leafy, flowering scroll springs from a base of acanthus leaves. Naked, winged cherubs ride dolphins or play instruments among the branches, baskets of fruit spring from their ends, and shepherds herd sheep and milk goats in the landscape below. Below the cherubs Early Christian church fathers teach and serve.

Apse mosaic, Basilica of San Clemente, Rome, 1130s (photo:  James Stringer , CC BY-NC 2.0)

Grafted onto this bucolic scene are explicitly Christian themes. Between the shepherds, peacocks, geese, ducks and deer lap up the healing waters from the four rivers of Paradise. At the center, Jesus hangs on a cross studded with twelve doves, symbolizing the apostles. At the base, twelve sheep walk from miniature depictions of the walled cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem towards an apocalyptic lamb with a  crossed nimbus  (below). An inscription at the bottom explains, “We liken the Church of Christ to this vine that the law causes to wither and the Cross causes to bloom.”

Left: Deer drink from the four rivers of paradise; Right: Christ on the cross with doves, Basilica of San Clemente, Rome, mosaic, 1130s (photos:  Darren & Brad , CC BY-NC 2.0;  Rita1234 , CC BY-SA 3.0)

On the spandrels of the arch, the prophets Saint Clement and Saint Lawrence and the apostles associated with Rome, Peter and Paul, wear the anachronistic uniform found in medieval depictions of holy figures: the  chiton ,  himation  and sandals worn by ancient aristocrats.

Left: Saint Lawrence and Saint Paul; Right: Saint Peter and Saint Clement, Basilica of San Clemente, Rome, mosaic, 1130s (photos:  Rita 1234 , CC BY-SA 3.0)

With the flanking figures, the mosaic argues that the Western Christian church, based in Rome, is more powerful than the secular forces that had recently sought to control it. And like the church of San Clemente itself, it demonstrates that, despite the precarious political situation in Rome during this time, its inhabitants looked to publicly display the city’s status as the center of Western Christianity.

Basilica of San Clemente on Google Arts and Culture

Richard Krautheimer,  Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308  (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980).

Michael G. Sundell,  Mosaics in the Eternal City  (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007).

The Romanesque churches of Tuscany: San Miniato in Florence and Pisa Cathedral

San Miniato al Monte, Florence, begun 1013 (photo:  Sailko , CC BY-SA 3.0)

Map of Roman roads on the Italian peninsula (source:  Eric Gaba, Agamemnus, Flappiefh , CC BY-SA 3.0)

Before the Italian peninsula was unified into a single nation in the nineteenth century, it was divided into numerous separate countries, papal-controlled territories, and city states with constantly shifting boundaries. Unlike regions north of the Alps, in Italy the durable old Roman roads that snaked down the length of the peninsula were preserved by mild weather and continuous use. The former Roman cities along these roads became hubs of trade. These included Florence on the Via Cassia between Rome and the old central Italian heartland, and Pisa, on the  Via Aurelia  between Rome and what was known as “Roman Gaul” (today France and Belgium).

Roman walls, aqueducts, monuments, and buildings dotted the landscape, and this Roman heritage profoundly impacted the appearance of the region’s churches. During the middle ages, residents of the cities of  Tuscany  valued their Roman past, particularly as it was associated with the origins of institutional Christianity. Although Tuscany was a  duchy  and controlled by the  Canossa family , in reality the cities of Tuscany soon established their own governments and civic identities.

Florence and Pisa are wonderful examples of this. During the eleventh century, each city’s Roman heritage was still visible in the form of roads and bridges, walls and cemeteries, but each city also took on its own character based on the preferences of its inhabitants and the sources of their economic strength. The architecture of San Miniato in Florence and the Cathedral of Pisa visibly express both their unique regional and civic qualities, as well as links to the Roman past.

A monastery on a hill

The church of the  Benedictine  monastery of San Miniato al Monte (above) lies outside the early medieval walls and across the  Arno  from Florence. It hovers over the city on the crest of a hill, or “ monte ,” where Florentines believed the  cell of Saint Minias, an Armenian Christian hermit who was allegedly martyred by the Roman Emperor Decius in the third century, once stood. By 1018, the  bishop  of Florence had ordered the construction of a church and installed a community of Benedictine monks there, following a familiar medieval pattern of locating monasteries outside, but within a short distance of, a city so that the monks could minister to the spiritual needs of the city’s inhabitants.

Crypt (below the high altar), San Miniato al Monte, Florence, begun 1013 (photo:  Rufus46 , CC BY-SA 3.0)

A synthesis of forms

View down the nave toward the raised chancel. Wooden trusses are visible above and diaphram arches can be seen spanning the width of the nave. San Miniato al Monte, Florence, begun 1013 (photo:  Waldstein , CC BY-SA 3.0)

The builders cleverly designed the church so that it could accommodate visitors to the tomb of Minias. Adapting a  basilica -stylestructure with its single  apse  and a  trussed timber roof , the builders incorporated an innovative raised  chancel . Central stairways allow visitors to see and visit the  crypt housing Minias’s relics, while flanking stairways lead to an elevated platform holding the altar and  choir used by the monks.

Corinthian capital, San Miniato al Monte, Florence, begun 1013 (photo:  Rufus46 , CC BY-SA 3.0)

A similar synthesis of ancient, Early Christian, and medieval forms is visible in the church’s walls. An  arcade of polished stone columns supporting  Corinthian capitals  march down the nave, above which colorful stone inlay brightens the surface—all reminiscent of Early Christian basilicas like  Santa Sabina  in Rome. Many of the capitals are Roman  spolia , noticeable because they are much narrower than the columns they crown.

The roots of Florentine style

Yet onto this traditional framework the builders grafted imposing  diaphragm arches  that divide the nave into three massive  bays , marked on the walls with attached columns and compound piers. The green and white stone inlay familiar from some Early Christian interiors clads the surfaces of the façade and the interior (though in some places, after money ran out, artists imitated the decorative stone in paint). This style of construction, joining modified basilican architecture with colorful, two-dimensional stone inlay, would become typical of the Florentine region.

The façade also references the Roman past. Although the component parts are flattened and rendered in pink, green and white stone, we can still identify an orderly row of columns topped by Corinthian capitals, crowned by a set of four Corinthian  pilasters  holding a triangular pediment that recalls a Roman temple front. In the fifteenth century, the Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, would use many of the same elements in crafting the typically Tuscan façade of  Santa Maria Novella , across town.

Baptistery, cathedral, and campanile, Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa, 11th-12th century (photo:  Massimo Catarinella , CC BY-SA 3.0)

Pisa and its “Leaning Tower”

Campanile (bell tower), Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa, begun 1173 (photo:  Nikolai Karaneschev , CC BY 3.0)

The Arno, the river that flows through Florence, eventually reaches the city of Pisa on its way to the Mediterranean Sea. In the Middle Ages, before the river’s silt deposits pushed the sea away, Pisa was located very near the coast. It was an important port city from Roman times onwards, and by the eleventh century it became a maritime republic (a city-state whose economic base was maritime trade), competing with the other Italian naval powerhouses like Genoa, Venice, and Amalfi to dominate Mediterranean trade. Pisa warred constantly with rival maritime powers in Corsica, Sicily, North Africa and on the Italian mainland. The cathedral for which it is now famous was built starting in 1063, in the wake of, and using booty from, Pisa’s naval victory over Palermo.

Like most cathedrals on the Italian peninsula, Pisa’s was built as an assemblage of freestanding buildings, including a  baptistery  and bell tower ( campanile ) in addition to the church. The Pisa cathedral complex was unusual, however, in that it was situated well outside the city walls in a grassy precinct that incorporated an ancient cemetery. Surrounded by the marshes of the Arno, the precinct’s damp soil contributed to unstable ground under the complex’s key structures, most noticeable in the  campanile , which began to lean even while it was still being built in the twelfth century.

Plan of Pisa Cathedral, begun 1063, from Georg Dehio,  Die kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes  (1887), plate 68 ( Heidelberg University Library )

Old meets new

Pisa Cathedral, like San Miniato, borrows heavily from the architectural past. It has a basilica footprint with double aisles separated from the nave by colossal Corinthian columns, a trussed timber roof, and a single semicircular apse, all perhaps intended to recall  Old St. Peter’s  in Rome. Each of the arms of the  transept repeats this basic formula on a smaller scale, with single aisles flanking a central space that leads to a smaller apse, creating a four-armed groundplan. This and the substantial  galleries below  clerestory  windows recall the basilicas of the early  Byzantine  east.

Interior, Pisa Cathedral, begun 1063 (photo:  Tango7174 , CC BY-SA 4.0)

The builders also added new features. Above the arcade and galleries and between the clerestory windows one finds expanses of cream and green striped wall. Although the pattern here is different from that found on the walls of San Miniato in Florence, both share the same complexity and conspicuous display of expensive materials.

An unusual dome

Although they probably originally planned a simpler wooden covering for the crossing, by the end of the eleventh century the builders had begun to construct a dome, perhaps to keep pace with contemporary domes built north of Tuscany in Lombardy, or even by Pisa’s economic rival, Venice. The unusual and complicated elliptical shape was dictated by the rectangular outline of the crossing created by the meeting of the nave, choir and transepts. The builders bridged the corners of this opening under the dome’s base with Byzantine-inspired  squinches that resemble those built at  Hosios Loukas  in Greece just a few years before. Above the squinches, subtlely incised   blind arcades  can be seen. The colorful fresco depicting the Assumption of the Virgin was added in the 17th century.

A virtual Holy Land

Pisa Cathedral, begun 1063 (photo:  Stefan Lew , CC 0)

Most impressive to medieval visitors would have been the exterior. The simple geometry of the façade immediately recalls San Miniato’s stack of rectangles and triangles, all resting on a shallow arcade with Corinthian capitals that frame three doors. At Pisa, though, above the ground floor, the façade becomes dramatically three-dimensional, with open arcades that screen a wall decorated with grey and white stripes.

Pisa Cathedral, begun 1063 (photo: ©  José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro  / CC BY-SA 3.0)

On the church’s sides, transept, and apse, the grey and white stone has been embellished with blind arcades and colonnades (rows of columns). Lozenges, roundels, and rectangles of multicolored stone inlay dot the exterior.

Reused stones covered with inscriptions and sarcophagi imported from Rome are inserted seemingly at random: a testimony to the builders’ desire to invent an ancient heritage for the building and demonstrate the wealth and power of Pisa.

Spolia on the exterior of Pisa Cathedral (photo:  Lucarelli , CC BY-SA 3.0)

The other buildings in the complex, built starting in the twelfth century after the Pisan navy participated in the  First Crusade,  complete this sumptuous display. The centrally-planned, domed  baptistery  may have been intended to imitate the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It and the leaning campanile are completely encased in stacked arcades, mirroring those on the cathedral. The “Camposanto,” an enclosed cemetery, was filled with earth imported from the Holy Land in the holds of Pisan ships. Pisans may have imagined this collection of buildings, with its many references to ancient Christian sites, as a virtual Holy Land, a site they were then trying to reconquer.

Each a product of its particular region, San Miniato and Pisa Cathedral speak to the ways that medieval builders sought to express their cities’ unique identities through both ancient allusions and innovative forms.

San Miniato al Monte on Google Arts and Culture

Plan and elevation of San Miniato al Monte at the Courtauld Institute

Piazza del Duomo, Pisa on the UNESCO World Heritage website

Photos and 3-D models of Piazza del Duomo from CyArk

Diane Cole Ahl, “Camposanto, Terra santa: Picturing the Holy Land in Pisa,”  Artibus et Historiae  24 (2003), pp. 95-122.

Kenneth John Conant,  Carolingian and Renaissance Architecture 800-1200  (New York: Penguin, 1978), pp. 372-382.

ENGLAND (c. 1000-1200 C.E.)

The Normans crossed the channel and invaded England in 1066. The works that followed testify to the power of art and architecture as a tool for colonization.

The Art of Conquest in England and Normandy

by  DR. DIANE REILLY

The invasion

On September 28, 1066, the tiny community of Pevensey (on the south-east coast of England), huddled inside the ruins of a late Roman fortification. They would soon be overwhelmed with the arrival of William, Duke of  Normandy , and an army intent on invasion. Thousands of invaders had crossed the English Channel from Normandy on hundreds of open  longships  that were big enough to carry cavalry horses and the supplies needed to lay siege to the coastal cities guarding England.

Map showing the coasts of Normandy (in present-day France) and the location of the Battle of Hastings, in England

William had been preparing for the invasion since the last  Anglo-Saxon  king of England, Edward the Confessor, had died without a direct heir months earlier.

Edward had been succeeded by a newly appointed ruler, Harold Godwinson, but both William and the King of Norway, Harold Hardrada, also laid claim to the throne. Harold Hardrada had crossed the North Sea to invade near present-day Newcastle in the north of England, arriving at almost exactly the same time as William’s army made land further south. Forced to defend two coasts almost three hundred miles apart in quick succession, Harold Godwinson succeeded in defeating the king of Norway, but fell on the field at the Battle of Hastings, just up the coast from Pevensey, shot through the eye with an arrow. Harold’s sizeable army was no match for the mounted warriors William had brought from Normandy. His forces quickly marched west, to Dover and Canterbury, then east, leaving devastation in their wake. By Christmas, 1066, William the Conqueror had been crowned king of England, but facing a rebellion, he continued to lay waste to a huge swath of the country before he had all of England firmly within his grasp.

The death of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Museum)

Weaving a Norman tale

The works of art and architecture made in the wake of this invasion testify to the power of art as a tool for colonization. Perhaps the most famous of these is the  Bayeux Tapestry . Within twenty years of the Norman Conquest of England, needle-workers embroidered dozens of scenes describing the invasion onto this 230-foot-long linen strip using wool and linen yarn. Between narrow upper and lower borders populated by animals, people and objects that act as a subtle commentary on the central narrative, a history of the Norman Conquest unscrolls from left to right, ending abruptly with a tattered, incomplete scene of mace-wielding Anglo-Saxon foot soldiers fleeing the victorious Normans. Embroidered Latin titles help to identify people, places and events.

Wounded soldiers and horses (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Museum)

Scholars have never pinned down where or by whom the embroidery was carried out, or where it was meant to be displayed—a mystery compounded by the fact that this is the only storytelling textile strip of this sort preserved from the Middle Ages. In it, William is portrayed ordering his men to build a fleet of longships, stock them with arms and armor, food, wine, and horses, and set sail for England, where they feast, plan, and finally attack. The ensuing slaughter is unflinchingly rendered: in the lower border, dismembered bodies are stripped by battlefield looters. The style of the tapestry, with its gangly-limbed, beaky-nosed figures, agitated gestures, stolid drapery folds, abrupt changes in scale, and multicolored trees made of rubbery, interlaced fronds, has similarities to other works found on both sides of the Channel. Anglo-Saxon England and the Duchy of Normandy had been exchanging artwork, artists, clergy, and nobles well before the Conquest (their rulers were closely related—King Edward the Confessor’s mother, Emma of Normandy, was William the Conqueror’s great aunt).

Normans first meal in England, at the center is Bishop Odo, who gazes out as he offers a blessing over the cup in his hand (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Museum)

If we can’t use style to judge where the tapestry was made, we can instead turn to the story, which displays an indisputably Norman bias, to identify its intended audience. Many medieval texts retold the events of the invasion from both the Anglo-Saxon and Norman perspectives, but Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William’s half brother, figures prominently in the Bayeux tapestry, where he is shown blessing a feast on the eve of battle, advising William, and rallying the troops. It is likely, then, that Odo commissioned the tapestry to celebrate his brother’s victory, and the tale that unfolds along its length highlights William’s (and Odo’s) valor and the supposed wrongdoings of Harold Godwinson, who is depicted swearing an oath to be William’s  vassal , but then allowing himself to be crowned King of England. The tapestry completely ignores Harold’s victory over the Norwegian king, instead focusing on events of interest to Normans.

Preparations for war, including the building of a motte-and-bailey (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Museum)

Motte-and-bailey castles

While the tapestry’s renditions of ships, weapons, horses, feasts and buildings have been mined by historians for information about daily life and military campaigns, many details are doubtless the result of artistic license. Still, the tapestry showcases some important Norman innovations. After the feast presided over by Bishop Odo, the invaders are shown shoveling dirt onto a striped mound crowned by a structure labeled  “ Hesteng ceastra “  (above). This is the castle of Hastings, one of several such castles (including one at Dover, discussed below, as well as the Tower of London) that William had built during and after his invasion. With these, he imported into England a type of defensive structure that was typical in Normandy and became essential for establishing control over his new English subjects.

The simplest of Norman castles comprised a mound, or  motte,  of alternating layers of earth and stones, topped with a wooden  palisade  and an enclosed residence, or  keep , and surrounded by a ditch. Either surrounding this or contiguous with it was an open yard, or  bailey , ringed with a wooden defensive barrier. Such defenses could be thrown up quickly and made use of existing land features. They provided security for the soldiers, horses, and equipment necessary to subdue the surrounding inhabitants, a vantage point from which to observe potential foes, and a looming presence to intimidate them.

Model of a motte-and-bailey (Carisbrooke Castle, 14th century, England) (photo:  Charles D. P. Miller )

Lacking a standing professional army that could defend the walls of a city, medieval rulers like William appointed nobles to subdue parcels of the countryside in return for land and goods. If a castle’s location proved to be advantageous in the long term, the wooden structure on top was replaced with a  masonry  keep that provided permanent and more comfortable housing for the governing lord and his family. Round, rectangular, or faceted, these could be hollow shell keeps with buildings clustered against an exterior wall, or solid great towers, like the keep at Dover (below).

Aeriel view of Dover Castle, 12th century (Kent, England)  (photo:  Lieven Smits )

Topping these structures one often sees  crenellations , which allowed archers to defend the perimeter while sheltering behind a stone wall. At Dover, as was typical, the wooden palisade surrounding the bailey was over time replaced by multiple concentric stone walls, a moat, and a  barbican  (an outer fortified gate).

With its towering presence, the motte-and-bailey castle combined the practical functions necessary to govern a rural population or the inhabitants of a conquered city with the symbolism of domination.

Durham Cathedral on the River Wear, Norman construction founded 1093 (Durham, England) (photo:  Domstu )

A Norman cathedral

William the Conqueror had first visited Durham Cathedral—then an Anglo-Saxon stone church—on its peninsula in a bend of the River Wear (above) on his first northern campaign. Durham Cathedral was an important touchstone of Anglo-Saxon national identity, holding the  relics  of Cuthbert, their patron saint. Recognizing its strategic importance, William fortified one end of the site with a motte-and-bailey castle, and invited another Norman, William of Saint-Calais (who then became Bishop William), to take over the venerable cathedral and remake it in the image of a Norman church. Bishop William expelled the clergy he found there and replaced them with  Benedictine monks . By 1093, he had begun construction on the largest and most technically innovative Norman church of its time.

Edward the Confessor’s body being carried into Westminster Abbey, Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Museum)

The Anglo-Saxons were already familiar with some Norman building practices and styles. In the Bayeux Tapestry, we see Edward the Confessor’s body carried to Westminster Abbey, which had been dedicated just days before his death. The church is depicted as a substantial structure with arcades (here, rows of columns topped with arches),  clerestory  windows, a  transept  and multiple towers. Edward had built it to be his own burial church, and excavations show that it probably resembled a Norman abbey near where Edward had spent much of his youth. At the time, observers described Westminster Abbey’s style as new and unusual. In the wake of the Conquest, however, major English churches were built or rebuilt only in this style rather than in the then prevalent Anglo-Saxon style, marking Norman control of the Church in starkly visual terms.

William the Conqueror and his wife, Matilda, had already commissioned impressive church buildings in their Norman capital city, Caen, that showcased the key characteristics of the Norman style. We can also see these at Durham, begun after William’s death but still part of the legacy of his invasion. A façade with two monumental towers looms over the fortifications and the steep banks of the Wear surrounding Durham’s peninsula. Behind this façade, a broad  nave  is separated from  aisles  by massive arches framed with complex decorative stone moldings, sitting on gigantic alternating piers.

Interior of Durham Cathedral, Norman construction founded 1093 (Durham, England) (photo:  Oliver-Bonjoch )

Heavy stone, cleverly disguised

The clerestory windows of the nave and transept sit behind an interior passage and yet another arcade that create the effect of a multi-layered wall. Soaring over this multitude of arches are gargantuan ribbed  groin vaults  that covered the broad main area of the church, were probably the earliest and certainly the widest in Norman architecture. Their lightness and clever variations in curvature and height attest to the technical prowess of the builders. Stonemasons embellished the arches and piers with intricately carved patterns, and incised the outer wall of the aisle with interwoven arches. With these layers and details, the cathedral’s builders and masons emphasized the colossal weight of stone that supports the vaults, while at the same time diffusing this effect of weightiness using surface ornamentation. Together the technically demanding vaults and the wealth of hand-carved decoration broadcast the power of the cathedral and its bishop, who had the means to command the materials and artisans necessary to build such a monument.

Interior of Durham Cathedral, Norman construction founded 1093 (Durham, England) (photo:  Simon Varwell )

Led by a decisive ruler, the Norman invaders at the beginning of the eleventh century brought with them a rich set of artistic and architectural approaches that helped them display their new power and authority over the Anglo-Saxon population.

The Second Norman Conquest | Lanfranc’s Reforms

URL:  https://youtu.be/KDmeJ1Zucd8

The English castle: dominating the landscape

Goodrich Castle, view of the courtyard from the keep

The traditional view of a medieval English castle is that it was designed for warfare, suggesting that medieval lords were perpetually either at war or preparing for it. Until recently castles were mostly studied by military men or at least by men with a military background who had fought in one of the two world wars. Their work on castles extended their interest in warfare back to an earlier period and into an area which had been little studied in comparison with religious architecture. For these men, castles were defined as strongly fortified residences, and both elements, fortification and accommodation, must be present if a building is to be a castle. More recently many scholars have argued that castles had more to do with factors other than warfare, such as dominating the landscape, and that they are best seen as an architectural expression of the social status of their owners.

It is accepted by the archaeologists who have excavated them that castles were introduced to England by the Normans (who came from Normandy in Northern France, and  conquered England  in 1066). The typical form was a wooden keep (a fortified tower) built on top of a motte (a mound of earth), the whole surrounded by a ditch.

Mountfitchet Castle, Essex (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

A reconstruction of a Castle has been created at Stansted Mountfitchet (in Essex), by building a fence made of chestnut wood  palings  around the top of a motte which dates to the time of the Normans, and calling it a “Medieval Experience.” Only a few Norman mottes ever became fully fledged stone castles (the earliest Norman castles were built of timber and earth).

Distribution of Norman mottes – each dot is a motte

A glance at the distribution map shows that there was a heavy concentration of mottes along the borders between England and Wales and Scotland, but otherwise they were evenly spread across populated areas. Apart from the strategic border castles that were genuinely intended either to guard against invaders or to act as garrisons for raids into Wales, mottes were built in cities, boroughs and practically every town of any size. It was not that the Normans were expecting attacks from the townspeople or even those of the neighboring town. Rather they were building physical statements of their dominance. These mottes are not very high as a rule, and they didn’t need to be to tower over a cluster of surrounding buildings that were little more than huts made of wattle and mud.

Hedingham Castle keep from the Southwest (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Hedingham Castle

Hedingham Castle in Essex is one of the strongest and most impressive castles in Eastern England, and it was built by one of the richest and most powerful families, the de Veres, Earls of Oxford, most probably in the 1140s. It was an expensive project: there is no suitable local stone, and the high-quality limestone used to build it had to be carted eighty miles from the quarries at Barnack in Northamptonshire. Its tall keep rises to a height of almost 100 feet and dominates the flat surrounding landscape for miles in every direction. This business of height is important. The taller a building, the less stable it is. A genuinely defensive building should be low and squat. But at Hedingham visual prominence is the important factor.

A close examination of the keep shows that a lot of the height is fake.

Hedingham Castle keep showing floor levels

There is an undercroft (a lower hall at the level of the main doorway), and a double-height upper hall with two rows of windows, and that is all. The row of windows at the top were originally above the roof so that this whole upper storey was open to the sky. It was later roofed in and called the dormitory, but the roof is modern, and the inner walls were never plastered because they were outside.

Hedingham Castle top floor (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

The false upper storey was not unusual in the Norman period—the  White Tower , William the Conqueror’s keep at the Tower of London, was just the same.

This is not the whole story, of course. Castles were luxurious residences too. The luxury is not usually obvious because most castles are ruined nowadays, but the evidence is there to be found. At Hedingham there are richly chevron-decorated arches, fireplaces with carved capitals. and plastered walls, sometimes with traces of painted decoration still surviving.

Hedingham Castle, upper hall (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Rochester Castle

Castles could also be genuinely defensible, but not without preparation and a special effort. During the  Barons’ War  against King John in the early thirteenth century Rochester Castle in Kent was held by a large garrison of about 100 of the barons’ men.

Rochester Castle keep with the cathedral in the background (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Portcullis slots at Corfe Castle, Dorset (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Rochester Castle was reputed to be the strongest castle in the kingdom—a coastal castle genuinely built for defense. It was besieged by the king for almost fifty days by a large force with engines, battering rams and crossbows, but held out.

Eventually the king employed miners with picks to dig underneath the foundations, propping up the tunnels with timbers, and then setting fire to them using pig-fat to feed the flames. The tunnels collapsed and the tower above them fell, but the defenders continued to hold out in the ruin until they were starved out. Later, however, the barons called on the help of Prince Louis of France, who landed in Kent and proceeded to take all the chief castles of south-east England in rapid succession: Berkhamsted, Cambridge, Colchester, Hertford, Norwich, Orford, Winchester, Hedingham and Pleshey.

This suggests that castles could resist a siege, but only under special circumstances, and those include siting—Rochester is at the mouth of the River Medway, which limits the attackers’ means of approach—and it had a large garrison as well as defensive architectural features. These features could include ditches or moats crossed by bridges with removable central sections, or gatehouses with drawbridges and  portcullises , battlements with walkways and machicolations (an opening  through which stones or burning objects could be dropped on attackers), and plans designed to make would-be invaders into sitting targets by ensuring that the only access route to the castle was exposed to archers on the battlements. This could be done by building the castle on a man-made or natural hill, and using a moat to slow their progress.

Fortification and Residence

As explained above, the traditional definition of a castle is that it is a fortified residence, and both elements—fortification and residence—are essential before something can be called a castle. The work of recent writers like Robert Liddiard, Oliver Creighton, and Matthew Johnson presents a very different and more complex idea of how castles worked. First there has been a tendency to downplay the military aspect, not least by pointing out that most castles were never under siege. The rules of medieval warfare were designed to avoid genuine sieges. A full-scale siege required enormous resources of men and horses, siege engines had to be constructed and dragged into position, and men committed for weeks or months to operating them and finding suitable ammunition. If the defenders surrendered, they should be allowed to march away unharmed, while the attackers gained only a ruined castle. In practice a siege was usually unnecessary because castles could simply be bypassed by invading forces wishing to advance.

John Goodall has suggested a new definition of a castle as “the residence of a lord made imposing through the architectural trappings of fortification, be they functional or decorative” (Goodall, 2011, p.6). This introduces the idea of fortification as an architectural style, which has much to commend it.

Goodrich Castle

Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire is strategically placed on a sandstone outcrop overlooking the river Wye, near the border between England and Wales. Goodrich reached its full medieval development in the fifteenth century. It was never under siege or serious attack until the English Civil War of the seventeenth century.

To properly understand the way castles worked it is important to try to see them as their users saw them, which can be difficult because there are always additions and losses and, most importantly, there are no longer any inhabitants.

Plan, Goodrich Castle

A knight visits the castle

Let’s try to put ourselves in the position of a medieval visitor of high status — a knight in the fifteenth century.

View #1:   the approach to Goodrich Castle (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Goodrich: the approach to the castle

As usual there is just one main approach road. The lower orders might do something slightly different, but our knight simply follows the road and is led by the clues it gives. He approaches from the south with his retinue and gains his first view of the castle. In the center he sees a big square building (the keep), obviously older than the rest, which tells him that the castle is ancient—he is visiting a venerable family (in fact the Talbot Earls of Shrewsbury).

View #2:  Goodrich Castle, east side (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) ( Google street view )

The knight follows the road to the right, around the south-east tower, and sees the east side of the castle, originally reflected in the water of the moat, doubling its size. It has an impressive curtain wall with battlements and arrow slots. Immediately beyond the round corner tower, he sees a newly installed three-seater garderobe or privy — the last word in late-medieval plumbing. Imagine the sight and the smell as he rounds that corner and sees the human waste staining the walls as it drops into the moat. Matthew Johnson has argued that this was an important part of the castle experience, and that all that shit and food waste would have impressed the visitor with the wealth of the occupants and the lavishness of their table. Throughout the ride along the east side, our knight is separated from the castle by a deep moat, but he is observed by watchers on the battlements who will give warning of his approach. An attacking force would be most vulnerable at this stage.

View #3:  the approach to Goodrich Castle from the Barbican (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) ( Google street view )

The knight rides on and reaches the barbican—a fortified outwork where he sees the gateway ahead and must dismount. No horses were allowed inside the castle. Retainers dressed in the Talbot family livery take his horse to the stables. All the servants wear the badge of the Lord so our knight can never forget whose roof he is under. To the left of the gateway he sees a chapel — recognizable by its traceried window.

He walks under the gateway and sees murder holes overhead. Perhaps he looks upwards and feels nervous as he sees the portcullis and the murder holes, through which molten lead could be poured on invaders.

Goodrich Castle gateway with murder holes overhead (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

These so-called defensive features were not designed to deter a large force (which would probably bombard the walls rather than using the gatehouse), but to impress a single man or a small group.

View #4:  Goodrich Castle: the courtyard seen from the gatehouse (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) ( Google street view )

The knight emerges into the central courtyard and immediately knows where he is — even if he has never been here before— because the elements of a castle were the same everywhere. The building on the right is the  Great Hall , with the dining hall in the centre, the Lord’s lodgings at this end, the high end, and the kitchen at the far end.

As a visitor our knight will use the entrance at the low end, between the kitchen and the hall itself, but he cannot simply walk in. There is a lobby area with benches for visitors to wait until the Lord is ready to receive them.

Goodrich Castle: lobby at the low end of the Great Hall (Great Hall on right, kitchens on left) (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Courtly life was ritualized in this period. The retainers wore their costumes, and the Lord had his part to play like anyone else. A castle was the stage on which social relations were played out, and it was important that all the actors knew their moves and their lines. The similarities between castles were vital to the maintenance of correct social relations, which is why the component parts of a castle were designed to be easily recognizable: the tall window recesses in the Great Hall gave away its function from the exterior, as did the elaboration of the Lord’s private quarters and the traceried windows of the chapel.

Great Hall, Goodrich Castle (photo: Ron Baxter, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

A castle visit can be a haunting experience; the crumbling walls evoking thoughts of medieval warfare and lost grandeur. But also, for historians who can read their messages, castles provide valuable evidence of the way life was lived in the Middle Ages. The problem is how to interpret what we see. Churches and cathedrals still operate today; we know what they do and how the various parts fit together as a setting for the liturgy. Even a ruined monastery is not such a puzzle that we cannot work it out. But castles like those I have looked at here function today as tourist destinations and occasionally as wedding venues. They can be settings for pleasure, ritual, and feasting, but not as they were originally conceived. Their value for the historian is that they provide the physical setting for social life in the Middle Ages, and the effort made to interpret them is generously repaid by the understanding these ruins provide.

Reconstructed aerial view of Goodrich Castle from Historic England

Plan of Goodrich Castle from Historic England

Motte and Bailey Castles and the Norman Conquest | Windsor Castle Case Study

This video explores how motte and bailey castles helped William I consolidate his conquest of England, looking at Windsor Castle as an example. Made with the help of the Royal Collection Trust.

URL:   https://youtu.be/WwlPffoXH84

The Bayeux Tapestry

Viewing the Bayeux tapestry at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum; Bayeux tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Museum; photo:  boris doesborg , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Map showing the location of the Battle of Hastings (underlying map © Google)

Measuring twenty inches high and almost 230 feet in length, the Bayeux Tapestry commemorates a struggle for the throne of England between William, the Duke of  Normandy , and Harold, the Earl of Wessex. The year was 1066—William invaded and successfully conquered England, becoming the first Norman King of England (he was also known as William the Conqueror).

The Bayeux Tapestry consists of seventy-five scenes with Latin inscriptions ( tituli ) depicting the events leading up to the  Norman conquest  and culminating in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The textile’s end is now missing, but it most probably showed the coronation of William as King of England.

Falconer (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry—11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, Ensicaen, Photos: 2017—La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie)

Although it is called the Bayeux Tapestry, this commemorative work is not a true tapestry as the images are not woven into the cloth; instead, the imagery and inscriptions are embroidered using wool yarn sewed onto linen cloth.

The tapestry is sometimes viewed as a type of chronicle. However, the inclusion of episodes that do not relate to the historic events of the Norman Conquest complicate this categorization. Nevertheless, it presents a rich representation of a particular historic moment as well as providing an important visual source for eleventh-century textiles that have not survived into the twenty-first century.

Normans with horses on boats, crossing to England, in preparation for battle (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry—11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, Ensicaen, Photos: 2017—La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie)

The Bayeux Tapestry was probably made in Canterbury around 1070. Because the tapestry was made within a generation of the Norman defeat of the  Anglo-Saxons , it is considered to be a somewhat accurate representation of events. Based on a few key pieces of evidence, art historians believe the patron was Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Odo was the half-brother of William, Duke of Normandy. Furthermore, the tapestry favorably depicts the Normans in the events leading up to the battle of Hastings, thus presenting a Norman point of view.

Bishop Odo rallying William the Conqueror’s troops at the Battle of Hastings (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum)

Most importantly, Odo appears in several scenes in the tapestry with the inscription ODO EPISCOPUS (abbreviated “EPS” in the image above), although he is only mentioned briefly in textual sources. By the late  Middle Ages , the tapestry was displayed at Bayeux Cathedral, which was built by Odo and dedicated in 1077, but its size and secular subject matter suggest that it may have been intended to be a secular hanging, perhaps in Odo’s hall.

We do not know the identity of the artists who produced the tapestry. The high quality of the needlework suggests that Anglo-Saxon embroiderers produced the tapestry. At the time, Anglo-Saxon needlework was prized throughout Europe. This theory is supported by stylistic analysis of the depicted scenes, which draw from Anglo-Saxon drawing techniques. Many of the scenes are believed to have been adapted from images in manuscripts illuminated at Canterbury.

The death of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry—11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, Ensicaen, Photos: 2017—La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie)

The artists skillfully organized the composition of the tapestry to lead the viewer’s eye from one scene to the next and divided the compositional space into three horizontal zones. The main events of the story are contained within the larger middle zone. The upper and lower zones contain images of animals and people, scenes from  Aesop’s Fables , and scenes of husbandry and hunting. At times the images in the borders interact with and draw attention to key moments in the narrative (as in the image above of the battle).

The seventy-five episodes depicted present a continuous narrative of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the battle itself.  A continuous narrative presents multiple scenes of a narrative within a single frame and draws from manuscript traditions such as the scroll form. The subject matter of the tapestry, however, has more in common with ancient monumental decoration such as  Trajan’s Column , which typically focused on mythic and historical references.

Servants preparing food (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry—11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, Ensicaen, Photos: 2017—La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie)

The embroiderers’ attention to specific details provides important sources for scenes of eleventh-century life as well as objects that no longer survive. In one scene of the Normans’ first meal after reaching the shores of England, we see dining practices. We also see examples of armor used in the period and battle preparations. To the left of the dining scene, servants prepare food over a fire and bake bread in an outdoor oven (above). Servants serve the food as the tapestry’s assumed patron, Bishop Odo, blesses the meal (below).

The Normans’ first meal in England, at the center is Bishop Odo, who gazes out as he offers a blessing over the cup in his hand.(detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry—11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, Ensicaen, Photos: 2017—La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie)

Immediately after dining, William and his half-brothers Odo and Robert meet for a war council. Preparations for battle flank both sides of the first meal episode (below).

Preparations for war, including the building of a motte-and-bailey (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry—11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, Ensicaen, Photos: 2017—La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie)

Here we see visual evidence of eleventh-century battle gear and the construction of a motte-and-bailey to protect the Normans’ position. A  motte-and-bailey  is a fortification with a keep (tower) situated on a raised earthwork (motte), surrounded by an enclosed courtyard (bailey). Images of battle horns, shields, and arrows as crucial ammunition shed light on military provisions and tactics for the time period.

Cavalry and foot soldiers in battle (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry—11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, Ensicaen, Photos: 2017—La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie)

William’s tactical use of cavalry is displayed in the “Cavalry” scene. The cavalry could advance quickly and easily retreat, which would scatter an opponent’s defenses allowing the infantry to invade. It was a strong tactic that was flexible and intimidating. Although foot soldiers are included in the tapestry, the cavalry commands the scene, thus presenting the impression that the Normans were a cavalry-dominant army.

Wounded soldiers and horses (detail), Bayeux Tapestry, c. 1070, embroidered wool on linen, 20 inches high (Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Official digital representation of the Bayeux Tapestry—11th century. Credits: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, Ensicaen, Photos: 2017—La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie)

In addition to depicting military tactics used in the Norman Conquest, the scene also provides visual evidence for eleventh-century battle gear. Cavalrymen are shown wearing conical steel helmets with a protective nose plate, mail shirts, and carrying shields and spears whereas the foot soldiers are seen carrying spears and axes. Representations of the cavalry show that the soldiers were armored but the horses were not. The brutality of war is evident in the battle scenes. Figures of mortally wounded men and horses are strewn along the tapestry’s lower zone as well as within the main central zone.

The Bayeux Tapestry provides an excellent example of Anglo-Norman art. It serves as a medieval artifact that operates as art, chronicle, political propaganda, and visual evidence of eleventh-century mundane objects, all at a monumental scale. This astounding work continues to fascinate.

Panorama of the full Bayeux Tapestry

The Bayeux Museum

A list of “scenes” with corresponding image and caption

The Bayeux Tapestry, from BBC

Video from BBC One  URL: https://youtu.be/F8OPQ_28mdo

The Animated Bayeux Tapestry

Animation by David Newton, sound design by Marc Sylvan. Copyright Potion Pictures Limited. Video from Potion Pictures.

URL:   https://youtu.be/LtGoBZ4D4_E

The title “Bayeux Tapestry” (1066-82) is a bit of a misnomer — the textile is embroidered wool on linen, and not actually a woven tapestry. The wool was dyed using the plants Woad, Madder, and Rocket. The linen canvas measures 20 inches in height by 230 feet in length (50 cm x 70 m), and supports the narrative embroidery that tells of the Norman invasion of England — though very much from the Norman perspective.

The tapestry depicts Duke William of Normandy’s conquest of Harold Godwinson — England’s new and ill-fated King. The conquest is portrayed as fully justified, and Harold is represented as an opportunist who broke his oaths to Edward the Confessor, former King of England, and to William himself. Although first known as William the “Bastard” (he was the illegitimate son of Robert the Magnificent and Herleva of Falaise), a name change accompanied his military success: he became known as William the “Conqueror.” The Norman conquest is a key turning point in Western history, and the English language still reflects this dominance of French over Saxon culture.

Durham Cathedral (Durham, England), begun c. 1093. Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris

Durham Cathedral from the northwest, begun 1093 (photo: mattbuck, CC BY-SA 2.0)

A building boom

Despite being perched, somewhat snugly, between a cliff above the River Wear to its west and an abrupt incline to the east, the cathedral complex at Durham (begun 1093) was built almost to the largest proportions its tiny peninsula would allow. With walls regularly exceeding three meters in thickness and a final length of more than four hundred feet, it was once counted among the largest and most ambitious structures, not only of its generation, but almost of any following the decline of Roman imperial power in western Europe.

Between the late fifth and early twelfth centuries in fact, only three churches in western Europe could rival the size of  Old St Peter’s in Rome.  That enormous church was begun by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 318 C.E., soon after the Roman Empire (which included England) became officially Christian. In England, however, ground was broken on nine such giants—including Durham—in less than a generation. What sparked this building boom in the late eleventh century?

In September 1066, thousands of invaders led by William, the Duke of Normandy (also known as William the Conqueror) crossed the English Channel from Normandy (Northern France). The last pre-Norman King of England (Edward the Confessor) had died without a direct heir. By Christmas, 1066, William had been crowned King of England.

Durham Cathedral is one measure of the swift and profound transformation brought about by the Norman Conquest in England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries: not only a new art and architectural style—what is variously referred to as Anglo-Norman or English Romanesque—but an unprecedented and almost military-industrial mode of construction. Another was the sudden influx of architectural elements such as rounded arches, supremely thick walls,  alternating piers and columns ,  barrel vaults , and decorative arcading, among other motifs, that defined Norman and early Christian architecture on the Continent. “England was being filled everywhere with churches,” wrote one bishop named Herman from Ramsbury, “. . . they were magnificent, marvellous, extremely long and spacious, full of light and also quite beautiful.” [1]

Durham Cathedral (photo:  alljengi , CC BY-SA 2.0)

No written sources from the period are known to argue that a cathedral should be made large or, for that matter, why. And yet it is obvious from their sheer concentration that architectural gigantism must have been thought to carry a very powerful socio-political endowment. Dozens of fortified strongholds, castles, and halls followed within eighteen months of the invasion, and many hundreds of smaller parishes, priories, chamber blocks, water mills, and houses rose in tandem. It was, in all likelihood, nothing less than the most prodigious building program in Europe, by volume, per capita, prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Galilee chapel (begun 1175), Durham Cathedral (photo:  Nick Thompson , CC BY-NC 2.0)

A new kind of sculptural decoration

And yet, despite having the plan, the scale and elevation of a more or less classic Norman cathedral, Durham was also exhaustively dressed in a curious new kind of atypical sculpture. Bold linear carvings abounded: chevrons (or zigzags), lozenges, and even spirals.

Inside the cathedral there was scarcely any surface—from the vaults to the arcading to the piers—that was not extravagantly embellished in some way (whether by chisel or by brush). In fact, by almost every standard, not only of design but of execution—the proficiency of jointing and angling, the near metronomic consistency of stone cutting, as well as the sheer finesse and precocity of its ornamentation—the masons’ work at Durham looks as if belongs in an entirely different world.

Intersecting arches. Left: Great Mosque, Córdoba (9th–11th century); Aljafería in Saragossa (11th century); Durham Cathedral (12th century)

Exactly which world has long been a matter for debate. Some art and architectural historians have made connections with earlier medieval Spain, Germany and France. The intersecting arcades at  Aljafería  in Zaragoza and, before it, the Great Mosque of Córdoba both make for intriguing alliances. Several cathedrals (including those at Mainz and Speyer) are interesting also for their shared size and extravagance. [2] None of these can be easily ignored (and I hesitate to rush through them). But there is still something like a broad if often quiet consensus that very few, if any, of these connections can be thought to be definitive (and certainly not singular influences) on Durham’s plan or execution.

Precisely where and/or when Durham’s masons derived any inspiration notwithstanding—and it’s probable, of course, that we’ll never know for sure—these analyses only stand to shed so much light on how and why these carvings actually functioned in practice. A better question might be: how they were encountered, how were they thought about by medieval men and women?

Spiral columns in the transept (Google Street View)

On the one hand, Durham’s uniquely elaborate surfaces could simply have been ornamental—that’s to say  l’art pour l’art  (art for art’s sake). It’s certainly been argued that the richer articulation of early medieval sculpture and painting was often commensurate with a desire to flaunt status or worth. Not insignificant therefore is the fact that the east end, the chancel,  Saint Cuthbert’s  shrine, his altar and the transepts—the spaces that most closely surrounded the saint’s remains—were the most ornate. Cuthbert, whose body was said to have been unearthed from its grave still flawless and even sweet-smelling (more than ten years after his death), was easily the most renowned saint in the north of England. The additionally lavish embellishment of his resting place may therefore have reflected a fitting relationship between decoration and dignity.

Arch in the cloister, Durham Cathedral (photo:  Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

On the other hand, might these extraordinarily idiosyncratic forms also have embodied some kind of information or message, a means perhaps to communicate? Witnesses and evidence are in short supply, with a single shining exception. Symeon of Durham was a monk and, for some time, the  Cantor  at Durham Cathedral. He is one of fewer than a dozen people known to have been in attendance at the building’s ground-breaking in 1093 as well as the formal interment of St. Cuthbert’s body, just over a decade later. Symeon effectively alleged that the destruction of the old church, and this new church—with its  reformed clergy —is what Cuthbert would have wanted all along. Perhaps like Symeon, the new cathedral’s masons (and he may have been one of them) were largely working without precedent towards the evocation of the architecture of Cuthbert’s ancient past.

That being said, many other decorative motifs that did survive from seventh- and eighth-century Northumbria—the years during and immediately after Cuthbert’s lifetime—do share a similar and pronounced interest in the complex interplay of line, pattern and surface texture.

Carpet page for the Gosepl of Saint Matthew, Lindisfarne Gospels ( British Library, MS Cotton Nero D.iv , fol. 26v)

The carpet page opening the Gospel of St Matthew in the early eighth-century Lindisfarne Gospels is a classic and exceptional example, as is, of course, the St Cuthbert Gospel itself. Having been placed in Cuthbert’s tomb in 698 on the occasion of his translation to the high altar at Lindisfarne (in Northumbria), this book and its original binding was unexpectedly found—or so the story goes—only eleven years after construction at Durham began. In the bold plastic articulation of the raised interlace on its upper cover, and especially in the schematic square settings of its lower cover it is easy to get a sense of a shared tradition.

Front and back cover, St. Cuthbert Gospel ( British Library, Additional MS 89000 )

Evoking an earlier, imagined medieval style?

Put another way, Durham’s strange new sculpted forms may appear familiar yet unspecific, evocative yet alien, or they might seem only loosely reminiscent of some kind of earlier medieval style—now as then—because they weren’t so much copied as they were imagined. If, like its southern counterparts—Canterbury (begun 1067), Winchester (begun 1079), Ely (begun 1079), St Augustine’s (begun c. 1080), or Old St Paul’s (begun 1087)—the massive chassis of Durham Cathedral did indeed function as something like its “hard” power then its interior fabric, its extraordinarily ornate surfaces, perhaps hinted at a much “softer” kind of meaning.

This extraordinary building is regularly described as a kind of brilliant late-Romanesque lynchpin, linking with and pre-empting the nascent proto-Gothic style in its use of pointed arches. On account of its sheer precision, its scale, its vaulting and—in particular—its precocious pointed ribs, Durham has come to represent a sparkling new apogee, not only to the first generation of post-Conquest building, but to a continent-wide narrative of “progressive” structural experimentation. Do bear all of these twentieth-century assessments in mind when you visit the cathedral. And yet, perhaps take at least one further moment to imagine how the twelfth-century masons at Durham may actually have spent much of their time looking, not to the new, nor to the future, but somewhat nostalgically to a very foggy and distant past.

[1] For a modern translation, see Richard Gem, ‘The English Parish Church in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries: A Great Rebuilding?’, in  Minsters and Parish Churches: The Local Church in Transition, 950-1200 , ed. by John Blair (Oxford: Oxford University Press,1988), p. 21.

[2] Among other possible precedents are the columns painted in imitation of veined marble at Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe (begun c.1050) and Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand (begun c.1050). Durham may also have shared a common prototype, now lost, with the small parishes of pre-Conquest Wittering (begun ca. 1050), Stow (begun ca. 1040), Great Paxton (begun ca. 1050), St Wystan’s (begun ca. 725), or St Botolph’s (begun 1020).

Durham Castle and Cathedral at UNESCO

URL: https://youtu.be/TkcZdUMNQpk

The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint Andrew, 1118–1237 (15th century retrochoir), Peterborough, England. Speakers: Dr. Ron Baxter, Fabric Advisory Committee, Peterborough Cathedral and Dr. Steven Zucker

A Peterborough Cathedral timeline

Explore the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland

The Morgan Leaf  from The Winchester Bible

The page above, known as the  Morgan Leaf,  comes from the Winchester Bible, one of the most magnificent illuminated manuscripts to have been made in England in the twelfth century. The  Morgan Leaf,  which is now in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York (hence its name) was originally inserted as a  frontispiece  to the Book of Samuel in the Winchester Bible.

The Winchester Bible (below) was made at the Cathedral priory of St. Swithun’s at Winchester, England and is still at Winchester (where it is normally on display—though without the  Morgan Leaf ).

The Winchester Bible is an example of a type of book known as a giant bible, a large format manuscript that originated in Italy in the mid-eleventh century and contained the entire text of the Christian bible from the Book of Genesis to Revelation. Giant bibles were deemed to be essential to monastic communities during the Romanesque period. Its importance should be seen within the context of the Gregorian reform movement, named after Pope Gregory VII, who ruled from 1073 until 1085. Gregory initiated reforms in the late eleventh century requiring that monks have access to an accurate version of the entire text of the Bible. Prior to the eleventh century, entire texts of the Bible were relatively rare.

It is generally assumed that the patron of the Winchester Bible was Henry of Blois, the bishop of Winchester, and one of the most powerful men in England. There is, however, no conclusive proof of this, and his patronage has recently been questioned with the alternate suggestion that King Henry II may have played a role in supporting production of this lavish manuscript. Royal patronage may explain some of the imagery seen in the  Morgan Leaf .

The Winchester Bible is written on parchment made from  calf skin . It has been estimated its production would have required the skin of over 250 calves, and so this would have been an exceptionally expensive book to produce—not even accounting for the skilled labor of the scribe and the illuminators. The entire text of the Bible was written in one beautifully rounded hand (which can be seen on the  verso  of the  Morgan Leaf ). The writing would have been a formidable task, and it has been estimated that the project would have taken at least four years. The scribe was most probably a monk from the monastic community at St. Swithun’s, though lay scribes have also been recorded at work at Winchester.

Illustrating the Winchester Bible appears to have been a more complicated affair. The intention was to prefix each book of the Bible with an historiated initial (one with a figurative illustration in it), usually related to the text. As an afterthought, full-page frontispieces to three books of the Bible were added (one of which is the  Morgan Leaf ). The illustrations were drawn and painted by at least six different artists, probably working in two separate and consecutive teams, yet in spite of this, the program of illustrations was left incomplete, with many illustrations left half-painted or only under-drawn. The six artists remain anonymous, but names have been invented to distinguish their different styles. The two responsible for the  Morgan Leaf  are know as the Master of the Apocrypha Drawings and the Master of the Morgan Leaf.

The scenes on the  Morgan Leaf  are set against colored, paneled backgrounds that visually project them forward. The artist uses a characteristic narrative device of the period, arranging scenes in pairs, with the first representing the scene before, and the second the scene after. The scene in the top register on the left, for example, represents the diminutive figure of David who is shown slinging the stone at the giant Goliath, while on the right, he cuts off the head of Goliath as the Philistines flee.

Notice that David is represented clothed but without armor, conforming to the biblical account, but not, as in  later Renaissance representations , naked. In the second register, David is represented on the left, playing the harp in front of King Saul, who in a fit of jealousy throws a spear at him. In the pendant image on the right, David is anointed Saul’s successor by the priest Samuel, after Saul commits suicide. In the bottom register on the left, Absalom, the son of David, is put to death, and in the final scene, to the right, David is informed of the death of his son and weeps in grief.

It has been suggested that this event parallels one in the life of King Henry II as his own son and heir, Henry the Young King, revolted against him and in the process lost his life, which caused Henry great grief. One distinctive feature is the striped, chequered, and chevron patterns on the shields. This has been identified as a form of proto-heraldry, which had its origins in the practice of attaching cloth coverings to shields so as to distinguish between combatants dressed in armor who would otherwise not have been easily identifiable.

In its execution, there is a division of labor in the illumination of the leaf, with the underdrawing done by the Master of the Apocrypha Figures, and the painting largely done by the Master of the Morgan Leaf. Of these, the more traditional was the Master of the Aprocrypha drawings, who belonged to the first team of artists, and, it has been suggested, worked earlier at the monastery of St. Albans north of London. The more precocious of the two artists, the Master of the Morgan Leaf, belonged to the second team. The Master of the Morgan Leaf appears to have been a more cosmopolitan artist than his predecessor. The painter was almost certainly a lay professional, an itinerant artist who moved from one international center to another.

It has been postulated that the Master of the Morgan Leaf had seen the monumental mosaics in Sicily in the Palatine chapel at Palermo and the abbey at nearby Monreale, which had only recently been installed. It is thought that he translated the Byzantine style and imagery he had seen there into the medium of manuscript illumination. His hand has also been identified in the wall-paintings in the royal convent of Sigena in Aragon in northern Spain, which must have been painted after he left Winchester.

During this period, England, Sicily, and Aragon were closely linked through dynastic ties and England was far more open to international influences than in the previous Anglo-Saxon era, with the Angevin empire of Henry II extending as far as the south of France. The painting of the Morgan leaf is unprecedented in English art in its naturalism and representation of human emotions, especially pathos and grief. This artistic expressiveness anticipates, by a century, the work of Duccio in Italy.

The chronology of the Bible’s execution has been the subject of dispute. It is generally thought to have been begun about 1160, but its terminal date is more controversial, with some experts favoring a date in the 1170s, corresponding to the death of Henry of Blois in 1171, while others think work may have continued beyond this date into the 1180s. The recto of the  Morgan Leaf  is divided into three horizontal registers, a format that recalls the great gospel books made at the monastery of Echternach, now in Luxembourg, which in the eleventh century formed part of the Holy Roman Empire. One of these manuscripts may have been in England in the twelfth century and functioned as an exemplar for the page format for the  Morgan Leaf .

The  Morgan Leaf  at the Morgan Library & Museum Claire Donovan,  The Winchester Bible  (British Library: London, 1993)

Christopher Norton, “King Henry II, St Hugh, and the Winchester Bible,” in  Romanesque patrons and processes : design and instrumentality in the art and architecture of Romanesque Europe , edited by Jordi Camps i Sòria, Manuel A. Castiñeiras, John McNeill and Richard Plant (London: Routledge, 2018)

National Manuscripts Conversation Trust regarding the manuscript

Morgan Library & Museum conservation poster regarding the  Morgan Leaf

The Winchester Bible exhibition blog at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Three lectures on The Winchester Bible (2015)  with: • Charles T. Little, Metropolitan Museum of Art • Stephen Murray, Columbia University • Christopher de Hamel, University of Cambridge

Santiago de Compostela

A Visit to the Cathedral

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/a-virtual-visit-to-the-cathedral-of-santiago-de-compostela-cathedral-of-santiago-de-compostela/IQVBcpdeUMCMqw?hl=en-US   or

https://g.co/arts/ZgNYVPJkWYXmWE9H6

The Painted Apse of Sant Climent, Taüll, with Christ in Majesty

Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), c. 1123, outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain (photo:  Vicente Maza Gómez,  CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Map of the Vall de Boí, a valley nestled within the Pyrenees mountains in the Catalonia region of north-east Spain

Medieval travelers through the Vall de Boí, a valley nestled within the Pyrenees mountains in the Catalonia region of Spain, encountered a towering terrain dotted with rural village churches. Built or rebuilt between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, these small stone churches have similar architectural features (for example, square multi-story bell towers). In contrast to the churches’ humble exteriors, the interiors contained striking painted programs. The wall painting of Christ in Majesty in the  central apse  of the church of Sant Climent (Saint Clement in  Catalan ), outside the village of Taüll, is the most outstanding example from the Boí valley. The smaller apses on either side were also brightly painted.

The paintings are frescoes: the composition was marked into the fresh plaster and layers of paint were applied. When the wall dried, further details were added.

Interior, with a focus on the central apse. Faint traces of the Christ in Majesty fresco are visible, c. 1123, Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain (photo: Anabelle Gambert-Jouan)

What did medieval people see when they entered Sant Climent? 

A few windows dimly illuminated the modestly-sized interior of Sant Climent. From the shadows, paintings in bold colors, bright blues, reds, yellows, and greens would appear, covering the walls, arranged against a background of broad horizontal bands. The most striking image was located in the central apse, the semicircular space behind the altar. There, the medieval viewer saw the monumental image of the  Maiestas Domini  or Christ in Majesty looking down towards the churchgoer. A scene of Christ in Majesty typically shows Christ seated on a throne surrounded by the symbols of the four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). The Christ in Majesty and the accompanying painting program in this apse conveyed complex theological ideas through figurative imagery and symbols from the Book of Revelation (the last book of the  Christian Bible ), as well as visions of Old Testament prophets.

Mapping Sant Climent de Taüll  from Mapping Sant Climent de Taüll on Vimeo

Today, the original paintings are no longer inside the church, although some ghostly traces remain. At one point, reproductions of the paintings were inside the church. Nowadays, visitors are treated to a video projection onto the walls that conveys some of the image program’s former glory.

Christ in Majesty, c. 1123, fresco, originally in the central apse in Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Column with painted inscription, c. 1123, Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (photo: Anabelle Gambert-Jouan)

Today, Christ in Majesty and the majority of paintings from Sant Climent are preserved in the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, in Barcelona where the main sections of the church’s interior structure are recreated as a support for the relocated frescos. The display includes the frescoes from the central apse, a row of angels from the north apse, and a Latin inscription painted on a column in commemoration of the consecration of the church in 1123.

The artists who painted the church of Sant Climent are not known but, traditionally, art historians refer to the painter of the central apse as the “Master of Taüll.” Scholars have determined that the  angels in the north apse  are by another hand, since they have a more rudimentary quality.

Christ in Majesty, c. 1123, fresco, originally in Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

A vision of Revelation and the end of time

At Sant Climent, Christ hovers above the altar as he sits on a band decorated with gold  foliate  motifs inside a blue  mandorla . Christ’s head is framed by a bright white halo, his facial features elongated and symmetrical. He looks forward and raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing. In his left hand, Christ holds an open book revealing the words “EGO SUM LUX MUNDI” (“I am the light of the world”) from the Gospel of John, written in capital letters. The Greek letters “Alpha” and “Omega” are painted in white on each side of Christ’s shoulders (the letters refer to the Book of Revelation where Christ describes himself as “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” to express his all-encompassing nature).

Christ is surrounded by the  tetramorph  representing the four Evangelists. The symbols are the Lion for Mark, the Ox for Luke (presented by angels in roundels or round frames), the Eagle for John (presented by a standing angel), and an Angel for Matthew.

The program at Sant Climent also draws on the apocalyptic visions of Old Testament prophets. According to the Old Testament, Ezekiel saw the “likeness of four living creatures” (the symbols of the Evangelists) bearing God’s chariot, and Isaiah saw the “Lord sitting upon a throne” with two seraphim (celestial beings with six wings). Elements of these visions, such as the symbols of the Evangelists and the seraphim, are represented in the apse at Sant Climent. In addition, two roundels, each in an arch preceding the apse (see image below), contain pictorial representations of the Hand of God and the Lamb of the Apocalypse (a lamb with seven eyes described in the Book of Revelation). Apocalyptic imagery—imagery that described the end of the world as told in the Book of Revelation—was popular in  Romanesque art  of southern Europe, such as we see in places like the  Church of St. Pierre , Moissac.

Dynamism and movement in monumental painting

At Sant Climent in Taüll, the artist understood how the curved space of the apse affected the appearance and visual impact of images there. If the Christ in Majesty had been painted on a flat surface, Christ’s lower body would have appeared much smaller than his upper body. However, in the concave space of the apse, Christ appears more proportional. Although Christ sits in a frontal pose, he is not static, as the draperies swell around his knees and elbows. This unique visual effect was achieved by adding bright blue and white paint on top of  black for the mantle and tunic. The alternating thick and thin black lines on Christ’s blue mantle and the white highlights on his gray tunic help to create the illusion of movement.

An angel reaching for the leg of a winged lion, symbol of St. Mark. The eyes on the winged lion come from a reference in the Book of Revelation. Christ in Majesty (detail), fresco, originally in Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

The painter also experimented with the relationship of figures to their frames. Christ’s right hand, his feet, and his halo extend past the outline of the mandorla that surrounds Christ’s body. Beneath Christ, the medallions containing half-length angels do not appear as flat circles but as volumetric rings that maintain their spherical shape against the curved recess of the apse. This is achieved through the shading of the inner and outer faces of the rings in complementary blue and gold tones. The angels break from their frames to reach the leg of a lion (Mark) and the tail of an ox (Luke). Although the angels appear stern, the interplay with the animals illustrates how Romanesque art is able to combine seriousness and playfulness.

Christ in Majesty, fresco, originally in Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Master of La Seu d’Urgell, from the central apse from Sant Pere de La Seu d’Urgell, second quarter of the 12th century, fresco, Spain, 720 x 500 x 260 cm, now in the Museu Nacional d’art de Catalunya

Beneath Christ in Majesty are Christ’s apostles and the Virgin Mary, who stand between columns with arches above. The inclusion of standing figures beneath a monumental image of Christ or the Virgin Mary in an apse or dome derives from  Byzantine art . Traveling artists from Byzantium promoted this representational form, which was adopted initially in the Italian peninsula, and spread to Romanesque wall painting across Western Europe, including Catalonia. In Catalonia, other examples can be found in the apses from Sant Pere (Saint Peter in Catalan), La Seu d’Urgell, and  Santa Maria de Mur.

At Sant Climent, the standing figures are identified by their name in the band above their heads. Some painting fragments from additional figures like Peter, Cornelius, and Clement have been recovered and are currently visible inside the church (not pictured here). The Virgin Mary, near the central window, holds a vessel containing red liquid from which fine red rays emerge. This represents the blood of Christ, which in the church environment has a  Eucharistic  meaning.

Left: Master of Pedret, Apse of Sant Pere, El Burgal, end of 11th century–beginning of 12th century, fresco, 670 x 400 x 200 cm, now in the  Museu Nacional d’art de Catalunya ; right: Female figure or saint (the Virgin Mary?), c. 1125, wood with traces of polychrome and gesso, 145.1 x 35.6 x 30.2 cm, found behind the altar of the church of Santa Maria de Taüll in Catalonia, Spain, now in the  Harvard Art Museum

This attribute appears in other twelfth-century paintings of the Virgin Mary in the Pyrenees, for example in the apse of Sant Pere, El Burgal. Similarly, a wood sculpture of a holy woman made for one of the churches in Taüll shares the Sant Climent Virgin’s round headdress and elongated facial features.

Christ in Majesty, with images of the hand of God and the lamb of the apocalypse above, fresco, originally in Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (photo: Anabelle Gambert-Jouan)

Narrative scenes

The program on the arches preceding the apse contained primarily narrative scenes, however many do not survive. The best-preserved image comes from a parable told by Jesus.

Detail of Lazarus, fresco, originally in Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

It shows the beggar Lazarus laying on his side, languishing in front of a door which is bolted shut while a dog licks his sores. The door belongs to a rich man who refused to allow Lazarus to eat at his table. Parts of the table, richly adorned with golden vessels,  can be seen  on the opposite side of the arch inside the church. Ultimately, the rich man goes to hell for his actions, while Lazarus goes to heaven.

Detail of Cain, fresco, originally in Sant Climent (Saint Clement in Catalan), outside the village of Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Other scenes dealt with similar themes of Redemption and Fall. Next to Lazarus, on the arch closest to the central apse, Cain sits holding his head in his hand. His downturned eyes and mouth show his sorrow and anger after God rejected his offering and accepted only that of his brother Abel. Remnants of the image of the tragic aftermath—Cain’s killing of Abel—are visible  in situ  (still on location in the church), on the opposite side of the arch.

From the medieval church to the modern museum 

Although the Boí valley was fairly isolated because of its geographic location in the Pyrenees, in the Middle Ages the mountain range was one of the main ways of accessing the Iberian peninsula, today Spain and Portugal, from the rest of Europe (another option was by sea). Due to this location at the crossroads of  Romanesque Europe , artists and architects came to the region from across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as from France and Italy, as attested by the Lombard (North-Italian) style of the Sant Climent bell tower (visible in the photograph at the top of the essay). This artistic convergence can also be seen in the materials used in the frescoes. Some pigments came from local sources in the Pyrenees, while others were imported, like cinnabar that came from Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain).

Sant Climent’s consecration is recorded in 1123 (see the image of the column with the commemorative inscription above). However, there is no documentation about the church’s earlier foundation and construction. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Boí valley was ruled by the lords of Erill, local feudal lords who had gained wealth and status through their participation in the Spanish  Reconquest  of the Iberian Peninsula .  The lords of Erill fought for the king of Aragón, alongside Christian forces, to capture important cities like Zaragoza, which had been under Muslim control since the eight century. The wealth accrued by the lords of Erill seems to have motivated their patronage of religious art and architecture in villages across the Boí valley. Their patronage included the building or rebuilding of Boí valley churches like Sant Climent. Although little is known about how these churches were used in the twelfth century, it was customary for village communities in the Pyrenees to have one or more churches intended for use by local inhabitants.

Central apse painting with  Virgin and Child Enthroned , c. 1123, church of Santa Maria de Taüll, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain,, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Animal figure, c. 1100, 240 x 106 cm, church of Sant Joan (John in Catalan) de Boí, Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça, Spain, today in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Churches throughout the Pyrenees in Catalonia are now recognized and renowned for some of the best preserved examples of twelfth-century European monumental wall painting, like the San Climent Christ in Majesty. In the Boí valley, wall paintings survive from the neighboring churches of Sant Joan, Boí, and Santa Maria, also in Taüll. They show scenes from the Old and New Testaments and, in the case of Sant Joan, include depictions of real and imaginary animals, similar to medieval  bestiaries .

Many twelfth-century wall-paintings from Pyrenees churches, including San Climent,  are now housed at the National Museum of Art of Catalonia. The apse paintings were removed from Sant Climent in the 1920s using a technique called “strappo” that allowed experts to pull the thin painted layer of plaster off the wall so that it could be transferred to canvas without damaging the images. This was done at Sant Climent and in other Catalan churches after  monumental Romanesque paintings  had been stripped from the walls of other churches and sold on the international art market. In the museum, the Christ in Majesty from Sant Climent has become an icon of Romanesque art. In 1934, the painter Pablo Picasso visited the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, and became enamored with the Sant Climent wall paintings, even producing a tile painting based on the Christ in Majesty (now in a private collection). Since the Middle Ages, the wall paintings from Sant Climent, Taull have dazzled, enchanted, and captured the imaginations of visitors from across the world.

Otto Demus,  Romanesque Mural Painting  (London: Thames and Hudson, 1970).

Milagros Guardia , Sant Climent de Taüll: la ricerca versus la icona / Saint Clement of Taüll: Research Versus the Iconic Legacy  (Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, 2017). Bilingual edition.

Joseph Goering,  The Virgin and the Grail  (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005)

Juan José Lahuerta and Emilia Philippot,  Romanesque Picasso  (Barcelona: Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, 2016).

The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500-1200  (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993).

“Throne of Wisdom” sculptures

Left:  Virgin from Ger , second half of the 12th century, wood, tempera, and stucco, 51.8 x 20.5 x 15.5 cm (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona) ; right:  Virgin , c. 1330-40, carved alabaster with remains of polychrome and gold leaf, 42.5 x 112 cm (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona)

Palmesel  (or palm donkey, refers to the statue of Jesus on a donkey), 15th century, German, limewood with paint, 156.2 x 60.3 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Enthroned Virgin and Child , 1150-1200, Auvergne, France, walnut with gesso, paint, tin leaf, and traces of linen, 27 inches (Cloisters Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

The cult of relics

Detail,  Virgin from Gósol,  2nd half of the 12th century, wood carving with polychrome and remains of varnished metal plate, 39.5 x 32 cm (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona)

Role in medieval theatre

It has been proposed that the sculptures also played an important role in the early days of medieval liturgical drama in which stories from the bible were enacted in a church for the mostly illiterate audience. One of the earliest plays was the Adoration of the Magi in which clerics dressed as the three kings and approached the Throne of Wisdom sculpture bearing gifts for the Christ Child.   Explain Adoration of the Magi.

Additional Resources:

Enthroned Virgin and Child  at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Virgin from Ger ,  Virgin from Gósol  and other medieval sculpture from Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, MNAC, Barcelona on the Google Art Project

Pilgrimage Routes and the Cult of the Relic

The Cult of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cite this page as: Berfu Durantas, ““Throne of Wisdom” sculptures,” in  Smarthistory , January 22, 2016, accessed November 24, 2023,  https://smarthistory.org/throne-of-wisdom-sculptures/ .

Virgin and Child in Majesty, c. 1175-1200, made in Auvergne, France, walnut with paint, tin relief on a lead white ground, and linen, 31 5/16 x 12 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches / 79.5 x 31.7 x 29.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Video from  The Metropolitan Museum of Art .  View this work in the online collection . 

URL:  https://youtu.be/IGS1Zkxe84c

Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere

“The power that this sculpture has is precisely in the fact that it’s not always concerned with naturalism and it’s really concerned with telling a story.”

Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere , ca. 1115–20, León, Spain, i vory, traces of gilding, 27 x 13.4 x 1.9 cm.  Video from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

URL: https://youtu.be/QHT2VMayiz4

Cite this page as: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere,” in Smarthistory , March 5, 2021, accessed November 12, 2023,  https://smarthistory.org/plaque-journey-to-emmaus-noli-me-tangere/ .

ARTS 101: Art and Architecture from the Prehistoric World through the Medieval World Copyright © 2024 by Karen Brown. All Rights Reserved.

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Architecture of Cities

Romanesque Architecture and the Top 15 Romanesque Buildings

Of all the great architectural movements that swept across Europe since antiquity, Romanesque Architecture was the first to emerge after the fall of the Romans. When the Western Roman Empire fell in the 5th century , there was a huge decline in significant building projects for hundreds of years. But at the end of this period now known as the Dark Ages, a new style of architecture emerged. Borrowing heavily from older forms of Roman Buildings, Romanesque Architecture emerged to be the dominant building style in Western Europe, long before the arrival of the Gothic Age .

Definition of Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque architecture and art was a form of design that borrowed extensively from Ancient Roman art and architecture and was used throughout Europe from 500-1200 CE .

Timeline of Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque architecture was the dominant building style in Europe from roughly the point after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Gothic Era in the 13 th century .

Developing from religious structures such as churches, monasteries, and abbeys, the Romanesque Style eventually spread into almost all types of buildings. The Dark Ages and Early Middle ages were the major periods that heavily utilized this style.

Romanesque Architecture Characteristics

Rounded Arches or “Roman Arches”

Photo by W. Bulach from Wikimedia Commons

By far, the most dominant feature in Romanesque Architecture is the round arch. Also referred to as the Roman Arch, the round arch predates the pointed Gothic arch. It had already been used in architecture for hundreds of years at the start of the middle ages, most notably in Ancient Roman Architecture. In the photo above you can see the entire west facade of Maria Laach Abbey in Germany is decorated with different forms of the same round arch,

Thick Walls with Small Windows

Photo by Nuno Cardoso from flickr

Overall Romanesque Architecture is full of stout, bulky, heavy, and sturdy-looking buildings. Walls had to be thick with small windows, to take the full weight of the roof above. The entire exterior of Pisa Cathedral shows how even the most monumental and impressive Romanesque buildings were built this way. Later on in architectural history, Flying Buttress allowed architects to build taller buildings with walls full of huge windows – which became the foundation for the Gothic Style .

Barrel Vaults

Photo  by  Benh Lieu Song from flickr

Earlier in the Romanesque age, the Naves of most churches were capped with wooden roofs. This was a format that dated all the way back to the ancient Roman Basilica. Eventually, the cathedrals of Europe started to get more sophisticated, constructing archways over their naves. Builders would essentially compress multiple stone arches together, to create a barrel vault. Stone barrel vaults also made churches sturdier and helped out with fire protection too, since there were no exposed wooden timbers in the roof to burn. The barrel vault within the Basilica of Saint-Sernin was one of the largest ever constructed in the Romanesque Age.

Lack of Ornamentation and Detail

Photo by Anna & Michal from flickr

Many Romanesque Churches share a distinct lack of ornamentation when compared to churches built in the Gothic Age. Although there are a few exceptions, most Romanesque buildings are stark and bare, and they only have intricate stonework in a few isolated spots. This lack of detail is especially apparent early on in the Romanesque age, before the year 1000 CE . Vézelay Abbey in France was built mostly in the early 1100s , but here you can see some sculptural elements start to appear, particularly in the column capitals.

Romanesque vs. Gothic

Romanesque architecture came before Gothic architecture. The Romanesque period lasted from the 6 th -12 th century , while the Gothic Period lasted from the 13 th -16 th century .

• (left) Rounded arches at Speyer Cathedral in Germany
• (right) Pointed arches at Milan Cathedral in Italy
• Right Photo by © J osé Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro  /  CC BY-SA 4.0

There are many differences between the two styles. A lot of these differences have to do with European history during the middle ages. Technology was advancing, and people were able to build larger more graceful buildings during the Gothic Period.

New building techniques like the pointed arch and the flying buttress allowed architects to build taller and larger churches. The buttresses allowed the weight of the roof to be spread outward with the help of the pointed arches.

• (left) Side of Pisa Cathedral, with flat walls that have small windows with round arches
• (right) Side of Reims Cathedral, with flying buttresses which allow for huge windows with gothic arches
• Left Photo by Jordiferrer from Wikimedia Commons

So now, instead of having thick stone walls with tiny windows to support your roof, like in a Romanesque building, you could use the buttresses to take the weight of the roof. This allowed architects to use these beautiful massive stained glass windows that would let incredible amounts of light into the interior space.

• (left) The interior of Vézelay Abbey in Vézelay, France. Notice the vaulted ceiling, rounded arches, heavy windows with a lack of natural light, and the lack of excessive detail and artwork.
• (right) The interior of Sainte Chappelle in Paris, France. Notice the ribbed ceiling, the pointed arches, and the massive stained glass windows filled with intricate artwork.
• Left Photo by Jörb Bittner Unna from Wikimedia Commons
• Right Photo by Artmch from Wikimedia Commons

Romanesque architecture also does not include the copious amount of detail that you find in Gothic architecture. Below you will see some simple geometric stonework in a Romanesque church, compared to the elaborate carvings in a Gothic building.

• (left) Romanesque detailing at Bamberg Cathedral in Bramber, Germany
• (right) Late Gothic detailing at the Colegio de San Gregoria in Valladolid, Spain
• Left Photo by Reinhard Kirchner from Wikimedia Commons
• Right Photo by Rafael Tello from Wikimedia Commons

Again, the discrepancies in the detailing had a lot to do with European history. Religious authorities in the middle ages were often opposed to excessive art and details, as they were thought to distract from the services of the church. But eventually, these practices were slowly abandoned, and art was made more openly, so long as it told the message of the church and the bible.

It’s scaled back, but in Romanesque architecture, you can see fine details and carved stonework. You will find stories from the bible, depicted mostly around column capitals and within the Tympanum, the main archway above the entrance to a church. Gothic architecture took this a step further and showed even more intricate depictions of various religious motifs.

• (left) Tympanum at Vézelay Abbey in Vézelay, France
• (right) Tympanum at Notre Dame in Paris, France
• Both carvings depict the scene of the last judgment, however, the Gothic version is much more intricate and detailed, with significant improvement in the realism of the sculpture. The carvings also leave the area of the Tympanum and cascade down and around the doorway and into the rest of the building.
• Left Photo by Gerd Eichmann from Wikimedia Commons
• Right Photo by Guilhem Vellut from Wikimedia Commons

Interested in Romanesque Architecture? Check out some of our other related articles!

What are the Best Romanesque Buildings?

Below is a list of buildings that are often regarded as the best examples of Romanesque architecture. These buildings show all of the key features of the Romanesque style.

Rather than just focusing on churches, this list will also incorporate secular buildings as well to give a cohesive look at Romanesque Architecture. This list will focus on size, innovation, and overall beauty to determine what are the best Romanesque buildings that can still be found in Europe today.

1. Pisa Cathedral  –  Pisa, Tuscany, Italy

Pisa Cathedral may be known for its leaning tower, but it’s also one of the greatest examples of Romanesque Architecture on earth. The cathedral, baptistery , and bell tower are all built with white marble. The front elevation shows many of the standard elements of Romanesque architecture, with dozens of round arches surrounded by geometric stonework. Although the church’s exterior has a lot of windows, all of them are small and they don’t provide a lot of natural light. The walls of Pisa Cathedral are the only thing supporting the roof above, and that’s why they had to be built thick and sturdy, with just small openings for windows.

The interior of Pisa Cathedral shows a blend of a few different styles. The arches and columns you see are all romanesque, and they date from the original construction of the cathedral which took place from 1063-1092 . But the golden-detailing you see in the coffered ceiling was added later on, during the 17th century . Today the leaning tower of Pisa and Pisa Cathedral bring in millions of visitors every year, and they are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites .

2. Cathedral of Monreale  –  Monreale, Sicily, Italy

Much like other churches in Sicily, the Cathedral of Monreale was constructed by the Normans . Its located just outside of the Sicilian capital Palermo and is regarded as one of the greatest churches on the island. Construction began in 1172 and most of the architecture is Norman, although various additions were added in other styles. The church is famous for its Byzantine Mosaics . The church is part of a large grouping of UNESCO Listed sites found throughout the area around Palermo.

The church is famous for its Byzantine Mosaics . These mosaics cost the Normans vast amounts of wealth to build. Not only were the tiles made with fragments of real gold, but the mosaics themselves were also painstakingly assembled by Byzantine Craftsmen, some of whom traveled all the way from the Eastern Mediterranean lands of the Byzantine Empire.

3. San Miniato al Monte  –  Florenc e , Tuscany, Italy

Just like Pisa Cathedral, San Miniato al Monte is an incredible Romanesque Church, located in the Italian Region of Tuscany. Work started in the church back in 1013 , and today it looks largely the same way it did back in the 11th century . The exterior is richly decorated with white and green marble, in a color scheme similar to that of Florence Cathedral, although the cathedral was built centuries later.

The interior of the church features more intricate stonework, with colored marble to match the exterior. The church also features a wooden roof, which was the main material used for the roofs of early Romanesque buildings. The beams and joists are all richly decorated with painted geometric designs. Although San Miniato al Monte is one of the smaller churches in Florence , it’s still an incredible work of Romanesque Architecture in a city mostly known for its Renaissance buildings.

4. Speyer Cathedral  –  Speyer, Rhinlenad-Palatinate, Germany

Speyer Cathedral is a Romanesque Cathedral located in southwestern Germany. Construction on the cathedral began in 1030 , and the exterior is built with a distinct red sandstone. Most of the church is from the later stages of the Romanesque age, but the Narthex and the front facade of the were both added in the 19th century . The work was done in a Neo-Romanesque fashion, which gives the church a pretty cohesive appearance.

The interior of the Speyer Cathedral features one of the tallest naves from the Romanesque Age. The church also features a Barrel Vault, which was an important innovation in Romanesque Architecture, which evolved into the Gothic Ribbed Vault. Speyer Cathedral and the city of Speyer itself were both repeatedly involved in the conflict of the 30 Years’ War , but despite these turbulent times, the church is still remarkably preserved considering its incredible age.

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5. Basilica of Saint-Sernin  –  Toulouse, Occitanie, France

While Speyer Cathedral in Germany may be the largest Romanesque cathedral in the world, the title of the largest Romanesque building in the world goes to the Basilica of Saint-Sernin in France. The church was constructed from 1080-1120 and was originally part of a much larger abbey. The interior features a vaulted roof made of stone, which was a huge technological achievement over the flat wooden ceilings you will find on many other Romanesque buildings. Additionally, the stone vault was a huge leap forward in fire protection.

6. Trier Cathedral  –  Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Trier Cathedral stands on the foundation of several Roman buildings that were built in the 4 th century CE . The majority of the church that is seen today dates from the 11 th century from 1016-1041 . The church is famous for its several towers which were often replicated in other Romanesque buildings throughout Europe.

7. Maria Laach Abbey  –  Andernach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Abbeys and Monasteries were some of the wealthiest and most powerful establishments of the middle ages. All of that wealth and power often resulted in fantastic architecture. Maria Laach Abbey in Germany is one of the most cohesive examples of Romanesque Architecture in Europe. The exterior is particularly void of other building styles, unlike other churches on this list.

8. Ca’ Loredan and Ca’ Farsetti  –  Venice , Veneto, Italy

During the chaos and instability that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, a group of refugees began a small settlement in the Venetian Lagoon. By the early middle ages, their settlement grew into one of the most powerful cities in all of Europe, Venice . Venice was the capital of the mighty Republic of Venice , a maritime republic that controlled most of the trade in the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas. The Ca’ Loredan and Ca’ Farsetti, are two incredible works of Romanesque architecture that were financed by this impressive trade network. They are located right next to one another overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice.

9. Church of the Holy Sepulchre  –  Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has a long and complicated history, stretching from the time of the Roman Empire all the way until today. Much of the church is built in a distinct Romanesque Style and dates from the 12 th -13 th century . The Crusaders , who took the city of Jerusalem in the year 1099 , renovated and added to the church giving it its distinct Romanesque appearance.

10. Lund Cathedral  –  Lund, Scania, Sweden

Lund Cathedral is the only Romanesque building on this list located in Scandinavia. The church was built in the early 12 th century and remains one of the oldest stone buildings in all of Sweden. At the time it was built, Lund was ruled by Denmark so it can technically be seen as a work of Danish Romanesque Architecture.

Interested in the Romanesque Architectural Style? Check out some of our related articles!

11. Cefalù Cathedral  –  Cefalù, Sicily, Italy

The Normans, which also controlled parts of modern-day France and England, conquered Sicily and southern Italy in the early middle ages. They created important works of Norman architecture there, which is a subcategory within Romanesque architecture. Not only was the church built as a place of worship, but the architects also designed it as a fortification to help defend the town from invaders. Today, Cefalù Cathedral is the most notable landmark in the city of Cefalù and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

12. Parma Cathedral  –  Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Another incredible Romanesque church is Parma Cathedral in Italy. Begun in 1059 , the cathedral contains a separate baptistery, church, and bell tower. This was a similar design to many other churches in Italy. The baptisteries, in particular, were kept separate because no one was allowed to enter the church until after their baptism.

13. Vézelay Abbey  –  Vézelay, Burgundy, France

The Vézelay Abbey was constructed over a 30 year period from 1120 to 1150 . One of the more ornamental churches on this list, the front elevation features multiple stone statues and sculptures. Traditionally, Romanesque buildings only had sculptures in the portal of the church. (the part directly over the main entrance, also known as the Tympanum) But Vézelay Abbey is known for having additional details throughout.

1 4. Aachen Cathedral  –  Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Aachen Cathedral is one of the greatest Romanesque Cathedrals on this list. The building was built by the great Charlemagne. Charlemagne is regarded as the most influential ruler of the early middle ages. He was able to create a massive empire that stretched through modern-day France, Germany, and Italy. Charlemagne often ruled from Aachen and was responsible for a large portion of Aachen Cathedral.

1 5. Tower of London  –  London, England, United Kingdom

William the conqueror was the Duke of Normandy during the early 11 th century . He gained his nickname after he crossed the English Channel and defeated the previous ruler of England to become the first Norman King of England. To help maintain control of his new kingdom, William began construction on the Tower of London. Overlooking the Thames River in London, the building is a great example of a Romanesque style fortification.

Romanesque Architecture Today

Although not as popular as it was at the end of the 19th century , Romanesque Architecture still lives on today in the form of the Romanesque Revival Style . A great example of a Neo Romanesque building is the Fisherman’s Bastion located in Budapest, Hungary .

During the early 19th century , the Neo-Classical style became extremely popular. It was utilized by several world powers to construct important government buildings that recalled the power and strength of the Ancient Roman government system.

Ironically, just as Romanesque architecture evolved from the architecture of the Roman Empire, Neo-Romanesque became quite popular in the aftermath of the golden age of Neo-Classical architecture .

Richardsonian Romanesque

Richardsonian Romanesque is a term coined to describe the distinct Romanesque Revival buildings of H.H. Richardson and other American Architects in the late 19th century . Some of the most notable works are Trinity Church in Boston as well as the Winn Memorial Library in Woburn Massachusetts.

Although much different thanks to new technologies in masonry construction, Richardsonian Romanesque utilizes many of the distinct principles of Romanesque architecture. The heavy and bulky forms, paired with the rounded arches greatly resemble the Romanesque buildings that were popular in Europe during the middle ages.

Romanesque Architecture’s Legacy

Architecture as a whole was greatly influenced by the Romanesque style. Romanesque architecture represents a clear link to the architecture of the Roman Empire and Gothic Architecture.

So many of Europe’s greatest cathedrals were built in the Gothic style , and all of the innovations that made those buildings possible were learned during the Romanesque period.

• About the Author
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• He is an avid traveler and photographer, and he is passionate about buildings and building history.
• Rob has a B.S. and a Master’s degree in Architecture and has worked as an architect and engineer in the Boston area for 10 years.

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September 23, 2017

Romanesque Architecture

In the early nineteenth century, antiquarians coined the term “Romanesque” to describe all medieval architecture that predated the Gothic style and that bore formal similarities to buildings from the bygone Roman Empire. Thus the category Romanesque could include buildings ranging from the 5 th through the 12 th centuries. While the term Romanesque has continued, scholars have considerably refined its meaning over time. The term is now seldom used as a blanket descriptor applied to European architecture stretching back to the fall of Rome. Instead it is generally limited to a much narrower time frame starting in the mid-eleventh century, when large-scale masonry construction and monumental sculptural practices returned around much of Europe.

Following several tumultuous centuries characterized by economic decline and the invasions of Vikings, Moors, Magyars and other groups, the eleventh century witnessed greater economic prosperity, a reinvigorated urban culture, the rise of the merchant and artisan classes, and increased trade and travel. This same period saw a marked rise in popularity of the pilgrimage routes around Europe, with Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, becoming the preeminent destination in western Europe.

Though France, and specifically the region of Burgundy, has long been viewed as the principle hub for the spread of Romanesque architecture, later in the 19th century, scholars noted an earlier phase of Romanesque building, often in brick rather than stone, which was dubbed the “Lombard Romanesque.” Similarly, in the early 20th century, Spanish scholars coined the term “First Romanesque” to describe a cluster of early Romanesque churches in northeastern Spain, especially around northern Catalonia, dating from as early as the mid-10th century. There is no shared consensus regarding the primacy of France, Italy or Spain for the initial waves of Romanesque.

Link to essay on Romanesque art and architecture at the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (for the curious).

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Head of King David

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Scenes from the Legend of Saint Vincent of Saragossa and the History of His Relics

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Diptych with the Coronation of the Virgin and the Last Judgment

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Diptych with Scenes of the Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, and Resurrection

Chasuble (Opus Anglicanum)

Julien Chapuis Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2002

“Then arose new architects who after the manner of their barbarous nations erected buildings in that style which we call Gothic ( dei Gotthi ).” Florentine historiographer Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was the first to label the architecture of preceding centuries “Gothic,” in reference to the Nordic tribes that overran the Roman empire in the sixth century. Vasari implied that this architecture was debased, especially compared to that of his own time, which had revived the forms of classical antiquity . Long since rid of derogatory connotations, the label is now used to characterize an art form based on the pointed arch, which emerged around Paris in the middle of the twelfth century, was practiced throughout Europe, and lingered in some regions well into the sixteenth century.

Gothic architecture is the result of an engineering challenge: how to span in stone ever-wider surfaces from ever-greater heights? While most early medieval churches were covered with timber ceilings, many Romanesque buildings have either stone barrel vaults (i.e., semi-circular) or groin vaults (i.e., bays of barrel vaults crossing at a right angle). Their walls are necessarily thick to counter the outward thrust of the vault, and they allow only small windows. From 1100 onward, architects experimented with innovations that, once properly combined, allowed the dissolution of the wall and a fluid arrangement of space. For example, they adopted the pointed arch, which has a lesser lateral thrust than the round arch and is easily adaptable to openings of various widths and heights. They also developed a system of stone ribs to distribute the weight of the vault onto columns and piers all the way to the ground; the vault could now be made of lighter, thinner stone and the walls opened to accommodate ever-larger windows. Equally important, flying buttresses began to appear in the 1170s, whose vertical members (uprights) are connected to the exterior wall of the building with bridge-like arches (flyers). These external structures absorb the outward thrust of the vault at set intervals just under the roof, making it possible to reduce the building’s exterior masonry shell to a mere skeletal framework.

The new architectural grammar was first coherently articulated in the ambulatory ( chevet ) of the royal abbey church of Saint-Denis , north of Paris, built under Abbot Suger between 1140 and 1144. Two concentric aisles are separated by slender columns : the outer aisle is covered by five-part and the inner aisle by four-part rib vaults. The resulting effect is one of clear spatial distribution and organic lightness: the bays are opened on all sides and the walls of the radiating chapels, no longer load-bearing, have large openings filled with stained glass.

With growing assurance, architects in northern France, and soon all over Europe, competed in a race to conquer height. The vault of each new cathedral strained to surpass that of its predecessors by a few meters. The dramatic collapse in 1284 of the tallest among them, Beauvais , marked the vertical limits of Gothic architecture. Its choir and transept were rebuilt soon afterwards to the original 48 meters, now supported by twice as many flying buttresses .

The typical elevation of a Gothic cathedral interior , with storey upon corresponding storey, draws the gaze to the highest point in the vault, in an irresistible upward pull symbolic of the Christian hope of leaving the terrestrial world for a heavenly realm. Such a transcendent experience of architecture is reinforced by the rich stained-glass windows , sometimes spanning the entire height of the edifice. Decorated with scenes from the Bible, the lives of the saints (Scenes from the Passion of Saint Vincent of Saragossa and the History of His Relics, 24.167a-k ), or with larger figures of prophets and other personages, stained-glass windows were central to the perception of the cathedral as a compendium of the Christian faith. Throughout the thirteenth century, an obligatory feature in most cathedrals was the monumental rose-window with God, Christ, or the Virgin at its center surrounded by the cosmos. The shimmering, colored light called to mind the heavenly Jerusalem described in the Book of Revelations (the Apocalypse) as a city of gold and precious stones.

The Last Judgment often carved on the tympanum of the main portal was a stark reminder of the solemnity of the space the faithful were about to enter. It is on the west facade of Saint-Denis , around 1140, that portals were first flanked by standing figures, known as jamb statues (Head of King David, 38.180 ), a format repeated ever since. With their insatiable demand for figurative sculptures to adorn portals, archivolts, tympanums, choir screens (Head of an Angel, 1990.132 ) and foliate capitals for the interior, cathedrals and churches were crucibles of sculptural innovation. Teams of sculptors labored for years on the decoration of a cathedral, before moving to another site, thereby disseminating styles over wide regions. Some of the sculptors active on the west facade of Reims Cathedral, for example, later contributed to the sculptural program of Bamberg Cathedral, several hundred miles away. The stylistic language first formulated in stone on a monumental scale resonated in other media. In their elongated curved pose and enigmatic smile, the wooden altar angels at The Cloisters ( 52.33.1 ), and several like them, ultimately derive from their cousins on the west facade of Reims Cathedral .

Gothic vocabulary gradually permeated all forms of art throughout Europe. Pointed arches, trefoils, quatrelobes, and other architectural ornaments were adopted on metalwork, such as reliquaries and liturgical vessels ( 17.190.360 ), on rich ecclesiastic vestments ( 27.162.1 ), on precious diptychs intended for private devotion ( 1980.366 ; 1970.324.7a,b ), on illuminated manuscripts ( 1990.217 ), as well as on secular items such as furniture, combs, or spoons. Subject to regional and temporal variations, Gothic art shaped human perception in Europe for nearly four centuries.

Chapuis, Julien. “Gothic Art.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mgot/hd_mgot.htm (October 2002)

Further Reading

Baxandall, Michael. The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.

Williamson, Paul. Gothic Sculpture: 1140–1300 . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

Additional Essays by Julien Chapuis

• Chapuis, Julien. “ Romanesque Art .” (October 2002)
• Chapuis, Julien. “ Late Medieval German Sculpture .” (October 2002)
• Chapuis, Julien. “ Late Medieval German Sculpture: Materials and Techniques .” (October 2002)
• Chapuis, Julien. “ Patronage at the Early Valois Courts (1328–1461) .” (October 2002)
• Chapuis, Julien. “ Patronage at the Later Valois Courts (1461–1589) .” (October 2002)
• Chapuis, Julien. “ Late Medieval German Sculpture: Images for the Cult and for Private Devotion .” (October 2002)
• Chapuis, Julien. “ Late Medieval German Sculpture: Polychromy and Monochromy .” (October 2002)

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Medieval Europe + Byzantine

Course: medieval europe + byzantine   >   unit 9.

• Throne of Wisdom sculptures

A beginner's guide to Romanesque art

• A beginner's guide to Romanesque architecture
• Medieval churches: sources and forms
• Pilgrimage Routes and the Cult of the Relic
• A look at modern veneration from the British Museum

The first international style since antiquity

Painting + sculpture + architecture, the influence of ancient rome, a wall painting from san clemente in catalonia, want to join the conversation.

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Romanesque art

Pilgrimages, crusades and the first international style of art since antiquity: the Romanesque.

c. 1000–1200 C.E.

Beginner's guide

What makes the Romanesque, Romanesque?

• A beginner’s guide to Romanesque art
• A beginner’s guide to Romanesque architecture
• Medieval churches: sources and forms
• Pilgrimage routes and the cult of the relic
• A look at modern veneration

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The creation of enormous monasteries, pilgrimage churches, bejeweled reliquaries, and the delivery of inspiring sermons in favor of the crusades—it all happened in France.

Cluny Abbey

Last Judgment , Tympanum, Cathedral of St. Lazare, Autun

Basilica Ste-Madeleine, Vézelay

Church and reliquary of Sainte-Foy

Fontenay Abbey

Leaning towers, churches with green and white facades and byzantine-inspired mosaics: the Romanesque in Italy.

The Basilica of San Clemente, Rome

San Miniato in Florence and Pisa Cathedral

The Normans crossed the channel and invaded England in 1066 and the art and architecture that followed testify to the power of art and architecture as a tool for colonization.

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Virgin from Ger

Throne of Wisdom sculptures

Historiated capitals from the crossing of the Church of Sant Miquel, Camarasa

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The Romanesque is the first international style in Western Europe since antiquity—extending across the Mediterranean and as far north as Scandinavia.

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Jong-Soung Kimm: Romanesque Architecture Photo Essay

January 22, 2020 6–8 p.m. S. R. Crown Hall, North Core Register Here

Jong-Soung Kimm (B.ARCH. ’61, M.S.ARCH. ’64) is a Korean-born architect with roots in Chicago as both an Illinois Institute of Technology alumnus and a former employee of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s architecture firm. On January 22 Kimm will present and discuss his new book, Architect Jong-Soung Kimm’s Romanesque Architecture Photo Essay—Germany and Belgium , at the College of Architecture.

Kimm came of age as an architect during a heyday of Modernist architecture. He started his career by working on Mies projects such as the Toronto-Dominion Centre and the Brown Pavilion at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts while working at Mies’ firm during its later years, from 1961 to 1971. Kimm was also a faculty member at the College of Architecture starting in 1966, teaching for 12 years and serving as assistant and interim dean.

Soon after, Kimm moved back to Seoul, South Korea; opened his own design consultancy, SAC International; and created contemporary works such as the Olympic Weightlifting Gymnasium for the 1988 Olympic Games and the Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art in Gyeongju, South Korea. In 2014 Kimm was awarded the Korean Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the Order of Merit by the Korean government.

Despite his Modernist roots, Kimm is fascinated by the architectural space of Romanesque architecture of the Middle Ages. An especially adept photographer, Kimm has visited and photographed Romanesque churches and monasteries in Europe since 2002. Those photos are presented in " Romanesque Architecture Photo Essay ," which provides insight into how these structures influence conceptions of architectural space and volume that transcend architecture’s various genres.

The event—co-sponsored by the College of Architecture and the Mies Society—is free, but registration is required . A reception will follow the presentation.

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History and Art of a Romanesque Revival Architecture in Latin America: Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá’s Parish Church Building (Lobatera, Táchira State, Venezuela)

2018, Revista Paramillo

This essay examines the inter-relationships between art, Latin America religious architecture and restoration. Its objective, at short term, has been the study, description and valuation of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá’s Church building (Lobatera– Táchira State - Venezuela) and recent restoration. In fact, all this guided through a historic and artistic reconstruction and artistic-formal analysis of their architectural elements, representatives of the Tachiran ritual and Romanesque Revival architecture, and its diverse elements, altogether drawn from the common Roman heritage. Long term, it searches to be an intent to consolidate a functional descriptive corpus, in the fields of art and architectural/urban history studies, that is basis as starting point for the structuring of later works that they include to the all Tachiran religious building and art with a study typological and historic as Venezuela Heritage of Cultural Interés and Cultural Heritage of the Church, marking a turning point of extraordinary significance for its knowledge and preservation.

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Neo-Gothic architecture had a wide spread in South America between the three last decades of the nineteenth century and the first three of the twentieth, leaving numerous examples: chapels, parish churches, sacral interiors, exterior renovations, funeral elements, civil works, and even great cathedrals. A presence that can be explained, because it became the constructive solution, according to the policy developed by the Catholic Church in those years. Also, although to a lesser extent, it was a building solution for the various Protestant churches that settled in South America. Likewise, this style was felt more punctually in civil works, both in houses and mansions of the economic and political elites, and in other infrastructures such as hospitals, banks, or schools. Here, with other ideological considerations more focused on the representativeness and legitimacy of the power vested by capital management, the exploitation of certain natural resources and the incipient industrialization abounded

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Nóra Horváthné Németh

Antal Hofhauser was a descendant of an old stonemason family in Buda. Sacral architecture played an important role in lifework. There is good reason to suppose that his work and position as a teacher played a very important role, increased his authority and the appearance of his entries was far more beautiful than that of other entries. Teaching certain subjects for long decades enabled him to vary the already existing solutions easily. His authority and his good reputation from previous principals may have helped him on several occasions, that he was able to win assignments from the second rank, or a supervisor position. Based on his studies in Vienna and his interest in urban architecture, he always adapted his churches to the current situation and possibilities. Not too inventively, but fulfilling the principals requirements, he varied and vested the fundamental towered, longitudinal, Latin-cross-shaped, which had one or three naves, a polygon-closed sanctuary and was canonised f...

Marótzy Katalin , Németh Nóra

Antal Hofhauser was a descendant of an old stonemason family in Buda. Sacral architecture played an important role in lifework. There is good reason to suppose that his work and position as a teacher played a very important role, increased his authority and the appearance of his entries was far more beautiful than that of other entries. Teaching certain subjects for long decades enabled him to vary the already existing solutions easily. His authority and his good reputation from previous principals may have helped him on several occasions, that he was able to win assignments from the second rank, or a supervisor position. Based on his studies in Vienna and his interest in urban architecture, he always adapted his churches to the current situation and possibilities. Not too inventively, but fulfilling the principals requirements, he varied and vested the fundamental towered, longitudinal, Latin-cross-shaped, which had one or three naves, a polygon-closed sanctuary and was canonised from the Middle Ages, with well-known elements chosen from medieval styles. This layout, and similar constructions, like fundations can also be observed in the case of Bátaszék and Békéscsaba. Based on the cover he used in general, his style could be called "Backsteingotik" (Brick Gothic), however, the forms he used and the building materials he replaces evoke the architecture of French territories instead.

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Can the history of sacred architecture be summarized in universal principles? They would need to be ones to which the builders of early Christian basilicas, Gothic cathedrals, and baroque chapels could accede. In previous ages, these principles were tacitly understood and did not need to be articulated. In this paper, I propose five universal principles that apply to sacred architecture of all times, all places, and all styles, with examples from the great buildings of history and my own creative work. I also propose that while fundamental to the revival of sacred architecture, they are not a formula, and must still be applied by a talented architect.

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Actas de Arquitectura Religiosa Contemporánea

Samuel Goyvaerts , Nikolaas Vande Keere , Bie Plevoets

Due to a process of secularization many parish communities need to redefine their church use, reducing the liturgical space and bringing in other functions. In this contribution, we elaborate on the process of adapting existing churches to this reality. We argue that the spatial concepts developed by the Liturgical Movement in the context of Vatican II can become sources of inspiration. First, we define the relevant characteristics of the reform, instigated by figures like theologian Romano Guardini and architect Rudolf Schwarz. Second, we show how these characteristics can be applied in the case study of the Magdalena church in Bruges (Belgium). Rather than restoring the 19th century Gothic Revival church, we tried to translate its typology and layered quality into a contemporary space for liturgy and community, while at the same time opening up the church to its environment.

Anna-Maria Moubayed

Built between 1884 and 1887, Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue is a Roman Catholic Victorian Neo-Gothic church situated in the heart of Vieux-Longueuil, on the south-shore of Montreal. Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-Cathedral has never been studied in depth and no significant research explaining the church's architectural importance in terms of style, decoration, liturgical functions and cultural identity has ever been published until this date. The thesis will demonstrate that Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-Cathedral's architectural style evokes its cultural history, illustrates Catholic ideals, beliefs and hopes, and forms its cultural identity. I will argue that the choice of the church's architectural style is not only appropriate to the main artistic trends of the period, but that it also reflects the church's historical reality composed of both French and English cultures. Furthermore, I will assert that Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-Cathedral's Neo-Gothic architecture suits pe...

Ayca Arslan

ABSTRACT Romanesque architecture was a style of buildings existed strongly in West Europe between Roman and Gothic architecture about ca.850-1200 periods. It was a style of Medieval Europe which was famous with its semi-circular arches and especially cross-in-square churches at ca 1000-1200 and at late Middle Byzantine period ca.850-1200. We can say that Romanesque architecture is a combination style of Byzantine and Roman periods. Romanesque architecture is an style of Medieval Europe known by semi-circular arches and cross-in-squre churches at ca. 1000-1200 late Middle Byzantine period ca. 850-1200. Romanesque is a style that it can be determined from exterior by its clear main characters, as the connection of parts from smaller to largest, forming readable geometrical shapes which relate one to another in an understandable way. Starting date of Romanesque architecture seems to be ranging from 6th to the 10th century and it significantly developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style characterized by pointed arches. Romanesque architecture samples can be found across the continent with the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman Architecture. And Romanesque architecture is traditional referred to as Norman architecture. And when we consider of the borders of Romanesque architecture through literature researches, it is assumed to have been began and developed on Western Europe. And borders of style are thought to be Spain, southern Italy, the German Empire, and Scandinavia. And the boundaries get its shape natural to the north and west and cultural to the south and east, marked respectively by the Arctic, the Atlantic, Islam, and Orthodoxy. Keywords: Romanesque style, architecture, medieval period, Cyprus

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Comparing Romanesque and Gothic Styles in Architecture Essay

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The single most remarkable difference pertains, certainly, to the reimagined façade of the Gothic cathedrals: airy, impressively high, and vertical-oriented. Several principles of the previously dominant Romanesque were violated in the Gothic style at the time of its conception in the 12 th century (“Gothic Art”). These include thick walls, round, often “a full semi-circle” arches, and small windows, rounded at the top as well (“Gothic” 0:58). Romanesque buildings gave the impression of stability and authority, with minimal ornamentation in the form of the same kind of semi-circular arches – and oftentimes, supported by a colonnade of piers (“Romanesque Architecture”). Arches, being a similarity between the two styles, however, present themselves in a strikingly different appearance. Contrary to the Romanesque arches typically being round, only sometimes being “slightly distorted”, the Gothic style introduced pointing arches – lancet arches — with a closer resemblance to a triangular form (“Gothic Art”). Now, pointed arches are considered the most characteristic aspects of Gothic architecture, present in every regional variation.

The presence of an arch, and, subsequently, the arcade – a set of arches – is a persistent aspect of both cathedral styles; however, the reason Gothic was so revolutionary in its time deals with the inclusion of natural light. The windows of a Gothic cathedral are enormous, mesmerizing, and let in a generous amount of sunlight – unlike the Roman style. The Romanesque cathedrals, namely the ones like Speyer Cathedral or Abbey Church of St. James in Hungary, are all closed-off structures with a defensive quality about them (“Romanesque Architecture”). Their narrow and small windows let only a limited amount of light, producing a feeling of exclusion from the rest of the world; the idea that was intensified by the thick walls of the cathedral. These were “robust structures, with small paired windows and groin vaults” (“Romanesque Architecture”). Unlike Gothic cathedrals, Romanesque buildings showed greater simplicity and visual stability in structure, with a closed-off, protected interior.

The creations of the newly invented style, Gothic, still excite the minds of its admirers today – it is barely possible to imagine the impression it had on a 12th-century person. The structure feels high and airy, with large windows that allow the interplay of natural light with the interior vaults. The greatest example would also be the most famous one – a true masterpiece of Gothic – the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. It is said that “it helped change architecture forever, ushering in the Gothic style” (“The History of France’s Notre Dame Cathedral” 0:46). Remarkable architectural features, made the Gothic structure possible are the “ribs” – supporting structures of both Gothic and Romanesque vaults; and “flying buttresses” – supporting structures on the outside of the cathedral walls, that bore the majority of the structure’s weight. According to CBS News, “the only thing that could weaken the structure was water”, which was, in the example of Notre Dame, brilliantly solved via the installation of creative drain pipes (“The History of France’s Notre Dame Cathedral” 2011). The cathedral remains the most famous and notable example of Gothic architecture known to the public.

It is easy to disregard the effect Notre Dame de Paris produced and the enormous amount of effort that was put into its construction of it. Apparently, the original construction from the year 1183 took 200 years to complete – ending in 1345 (“The History of France’s Notre Dame Cathedral”). During the course of its long life, the building has seen many devastations and was partially destroyed on multiple occasions. The famous “rose windows” made out of intricate stained glass, which is characteristic of a Gothic style as well, were removed “in the fear of Nazi vandalism” (“The History of France’s Notre Dame Cathedral” 1:14). Thus, the look of the Gothic style had different connotations throughout the ages – from being highly innovative to lacking modernity to being immensely appreciated again.

Generally, the majority of stylistic features that mark the differences between Gothic and Romanesque styles pertain to the visual impression the cathedrals give. Roman architecture is notable for its structural and visual stability, with its thick walls and squat façade; as well as “round arches, sturdy piers, groin vaults, large towers” (“Romanesque architecture”). It descends from an architectural tradition of the Roman empire, which is noticeable through the visual clues of characteristically Greco-Roman columns and piers. Romanesque buildings have minimal decorations, often abstract-themed. Romanesque buildings are often very symmetrical, which “results in a simpler appearance, than the Gothic ones that would follow” (“Gothic art”). Gothic architecture, contrastingly, employed dense and intricate decorates inside the cathedrals as well as on the exterior; the walls were significantly thinner, which was possible with the addition of supportive structures like flying buttresses. Gothic architecture can be characterized by large stained-glass windows, a feature unimaginable in Romanesque style. Although it retained some features, like arches and ribbed vaults from Roman architecture, the appearance of the Gothic style differs drastically, being vertical-oriented, emphasizing the grandeur of impressively high cathedrals – giving the visitors a sense of entering heavenly realms.

Works Cited

“Introduction to Gothic Art”. LumenLearning – Boundless Art History, Web.

“Notre Dame Cathedral: A Brief History”, YouTube uploaded by Global News, 2019, Web.

“Romanesque architecture”. LumenLearning – Boundless Art History, Web.

“Romanesque vs Gothic Architecture”, YouTube, uploaded by Russell Tarr, Web.

“ The History of France’s Notre Dame Cathedral”, YouTube , uploaded by CBS News, 2014, Web.

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IvyPanda . 2022. "Comparing Romanesque and Gothic Styles in Architecture." October 19, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/comparing-romanesque-and-gothic-styles-in-architecture/.

1. IvyPanda . "Comparing Romanesque and Gothic Styles in Architecture." October 19, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/comparing-romanesque-and-gothic-styles-in-architecture/.

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IvyPanda . "Comparing Romanesque and Gothic Styles in Architecture." October 19, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/comparing-romanesque-and-gothic-styles-in-architecture/.

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Architect Jong-Soung Kimm's Romanesque Architecture: Photo Essay: Germany and Belgium Hardcover – September 1, 2020

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A modernist architect’s portrait of the sublime contradictions of Romanesque architecture

Fascinated by the architectural spaces and the construction of Romanesque architecture, renowned Korean architect Jong Soung Kimm (born 1935) visited and photographed some of the most beautiful Romanesque churches and monasteries of Germany and Belgium. Kimm, who began his career in the office of Mies van der Rohe in the 1960s, demonstrates in his photographs how the concepts of architectural volume have endured from the medieval era to modernism. Stunning images of such landmarks as the Aachen Palatine Chapel, Worms Cathedral, Mainz Cathedral and Trier Cathedral represent how architects long ago combined dizzying, bright sacred space on the interior with imposing mass and solidity on the exterior, deploying a subtle and masterful use of materials, decoration and engineering. Accompanying texts by Kimm elucidate these great works of architecture.

• Print length 128 pages
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• Publication date September 1, 2020
• Dimensions 8.8 x 0.6 x 10.8 inches
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wasmuth & Zohlen; Bilingual edition (September 1, 2020)
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The Old-Fashioned Library at the Heart of the A.I. Boom

By Cade Metz Photographs by Christie Hemm Klok

OpenAI may be changing how the world interacts with language. But inside the company’s San Francisco office, there is a very old-fashioned homage to the written word: a library.

Many of the books lining the walls were suggested by the company’s more than 1,200 employees.

On one shelf is “American Prometheus,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.

Three books over is “Endurance,” about the doomed Antarctic journey of Ernest Shackleton.

There are multiple copies of “The Precipice,” a book about the existential risks facing humanity, along with science fiction classics like “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

There are also books about taking mind-altering drugs and empowering women. And what A.I. company’s office library would be complete without Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

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By Cade Metz

Photographs by Christie Hemm Klok

The two-story library has Oriental rugs, shaded lamps dotting its desks and rows of hardbacks lining its walls. It is the architectural centerpiece of the offices of OpenAI, the start-up whose online chatbot, ChatGPT, showed the world that machines can instantly generate their own poetry and prose .

The building, which was once a mayonnaise factory, looks like a typical tech office, with its communal work spaces, well-stocked micro-kitchens and private nap rooms spread across three floors in San Francisco’s Mission District.

But then there is that library, with the ambience of a Victorian Era reading room. Its shelves offer everything from Homer’s “The Iliad” to David Deutsch’s “The Beginning of Infinity,” a favorite of Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive.

Built at Mr. Altman’s request and stocked with titles suggested by his staff, the OpenAI library is an apt metaphor for the world’s hottest tech company, whose success was fueled by language — lots and lots of language. OpenAI’s chatbot was not built like the average internet app. ChatGPT learned its skills by analyzing huge amounts of text that was written, edited and curated by humans , including encyclopedia articles, news stories, poetry and, yes, books.

The library also represents the paradox at the heart of OpenAI’s technology. Authors and publishers, including The New York Times , are suing OpenAI, claiming the company illegally used their copyrighted content to build its A.I. systems. Many authors worry that the technology will ultimately take away their livelihood.

Many OpenAI employees, on the other hand, believe the company is using human creativity to fuel more human creativity. They believe their use of copyrighted works is “fair use” under the law, because they are transforming these works into something new.

“To say that this is a public debate right now is an understatement,” said Shannon Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner of SkB Architects, the architectural firm that renovated OpenAI’s headquarters and designed its library. “Though things might look like they are going in different directions, the library serves as a constant reminder of human creativity.”

When OpenAI hired Ms. Gaffney’s firm to renovate the building in 2019, Mr. Altman said he wanted a library with an academic aura.

He wanted it to be a reminder of the Green Library, a Romanesque library at Stanford University, where he was a student for two years before dropping out to build a social media app; the Rose Reading Room, a Beaux-Arts study hall on the top floor of the New York Public Library in Midtown Manhattan; and the library-like bar inside the now defunct Nomad Hotel, 15 blocks south of the Rose.

“My dining room and living room at home is inside a library — floor-to-ceiling books all the way around,” Mr. Altman said in an interview. “There is something about sitting in the middle of knowledge on the shelves at vast scale that I find interesting.”

Once the library was built, OpenAI’s head of real estate began acquiring titles, many suggested by the company’s researchers, engineers and other employees.

Natalie Staudacher, who was part of a team that decamped to the library as they were working on an early version of ChatGPT, suggested Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos.”

Others, like “American Art of the 20th Century,” seem to acknowledge that OpenAI’s chatbot technology now learns from both text and pictures.

Some, like David Foster Wallace’s encyclopedic postmodern novel “Infinite Jest,” seem like a sly comment on the new world OpenAI is helping to create.

Many titles, like “English Masterpieces, 700-1900” and “Ideas and Images in World Art,” seem like the weighty hardbacks that professional decorators place strategically inside hotel lobbies because they look the part. Still, the library is a reflection of the organization that built it.

On a recent afternoon, two paperbacks sat beside each other at eye-level: “Birds of Lake Merritt” ( a field guide to the birds found in a wildlife refuge in Oakland, Calif. ) and “Fake Birds of Lake Merritt” (a parody written by GPT-3, an early version of the technology that drives ChatGPT ).

Some employees see the library as a quieter place to work. Long Ouyang, an A.I. researcher, keeps a rolling desk against the wall. Others see it as an unusually elegant break room. On weekends, Ryan Greene, another researcher, pumps his digital music through the audio speakers tucked among the hardbacks.

It is, other employees said, a far more inspiring place to work than a cubicle. “This is why so many people choose to work in the library,” Ms. Staudacher said.

Recently, Mr. Greene began feeding lists of his favorite books into ChatGPT and asking for new recommendations. At one point, the chatbot recommended “The Book of Disquiet ,” a posthumously published autobiography from the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa. A friend, who knew his tastes well, had recommended that he read the same book.

“Given the trends and patterns in things that have happened in the past, the technology can suggest things for the future,” Mr. Greene said.

Ms. Gaffney, from OpenAI’s architectural firm, argued that this blend of the human and the machine will continue. Then she paused, before adding: “That, at least, is what I hope and feel.”

Cade Metz writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology. More about Cade Metz

Explore Our Coverage of Artificial Intelligence

News  and Analysis

OpenAI said that it has begun training a new flagship A.I. model  that would succeed the GPT-4 technology that drives its popular online chatbot, ChatGPT.

Elon Musk’s A.I. company, xAI, said that it had raised $6 billion , helping to close the funding gap with OpenAI, Anthropic and other rivals.

Google’s A.I. capabilities that answer people’s questions have generated a litany of untruths and errors  — including recommending glue as part of a pizza recipe and the ingesting of rocks for nutrients — causing a furor online.

The Age of A.I.

After some trying years during which Mark Zuckerberg could do little right, many developers and technologists have embraced the Meta chief  as their champion of “open-source” A.I.

D’Youville University in Buffalo had an A.I. robot speak at its commencement . Not everyone was happy about it.

A new program, backed by Cornell Tech, M.I.T. and U.C.L.A., helps prepare lower-income, Latina and Black female computing majors  for A.I. careers.

Publishers have long worried that A.I.-generated answers on Google would drive readers away from their sites. They’re about to find out if those fears are warranted, our tech columnist writes .

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