Gothic architecture

Norman architecture on either side of the English Channel developed in parallel towards the Early Gothic.[2] Rib-vaults were employed in the cathedral at Durham (1093–).[2] The royal funerary abbey of the French kings, the Basilica of Saint-Denis (1134–44), and the archiepiscopal cathedral at Sens (1143–63) were the first buildings systematically to combine rib vaulting, buttresses, and pointed arches.[2] Most of the characteristics of later Early English were already present in the lower chevet of Saint-Denis.[1] Sens Cathedral was influential in its strongly vertical appearance and in its three-part elevation, typical of subsequent Gothic buildings, with a clerestory at the top supported by a triforium, (not a gallery as in earlier buildings, except in England) all carried on high arcades of pointed arches.[2] In the following decades flying buttresses began to be used, allowing the construction of lighter, higher walls.[2] French Gothic churches were heavily influenced both by the ambulatory and side-chapels around the choir at Saint-Denis, and by the paired towers and triple doors on the western façade.[2]

After working on the early Gothic cathedral at Sens, the master-builder William of Sens travelled to Canterbury to begin in 1175 a new Gothic choir for the archiepiscopal cathedral there.[2] William the Englishman replaced his French namesake in 1178; his tenure as architect of Canterbury Cathedral was marked by the emergence of Early English Gothic.[2] The cathedral churches of Worcester (1175–), Wells (c.1180–), Lincoln (1192–), and Salisbury (1220–) are all, with Canterbury, major examples. Tiercerons - decorative vaulting ribs - seem first to be have been used in vaulting at Lincoln Cathedral, installed c.1200.[2]

The cathedral of Chartres, (1194–), was the first High Gothic cathedral, followed by those of Rheims (1210–), Amiens (1220–), and Beauvais (1225–).[2] Here, the whole surface of the clerestory was given over to windows; at Chartres plate tracery was employed, at Rheims Cathedral the bar-tracery was free-standing.[2] Lancet windows were supplanted by multiple lights separated by geometrical bar-tracery.[1] Tracery of this kind distinguishes Middle Pointed style from the simpler First Pointed.[1] Inside, the nave was divided into by regular bays, each covered by a quadripartite rib vaults.[2]

Churches competed in height, with increasingly ambitious structures lifting the vault yet higher. Chartres Cathedral's 36 m was exceeded by Beauvais Cathedral's 48 m, but on account of the latter's collapse in 1248, no further attempt was made to build higher.[2]

In central Europe, the High Gothic style appeared in the Holy Roman Empire, first at Toul (1220–), whose Romanesque cathedral was rebuilt in the style of Rhiems Cathedral, then Trier's Liebfrauenkirche parish church (1228–), and then throughout the Reich, beginning with the Elisabethkirche at Marburg (1235–) and the cathedral at Metz (c.1235–).[2]

Rayonnant Gothic maximised the coverage of stained glass windows such that the walls are effectively entirely glazed; notable examples are the nave at Saint-Denis (1231–) and the palatine chapel on the Île de la Cité in the Seine - the Sainte-Chapelle (c.1241–8).[2] The high and thin walls of French Rayonnant Gothic allowed by the flying buttresses enabled increasingly ambitious expanses of glass and decorated tracery, reinforced with ironwork.[2] This first 'international style' was reflected in the clerestory of Metz Cathedral (c.1245–), then Cologne's cathedral (c.1250–), and again in the nave of the cathedral at Strasbourg (c.1250–).[2] Masons elaborated a series of tracery patterns for windows - from the basic geometrical to the reticulated and the curvilinear - which had superseded the lancet window.[1] Bar-tracery of the curvilinear, flowing, and reticulated types distinguish Second Pointed style.[1]

Decorated Gothic similarly sought to emphasise the windows, but excelled in the ornamentation of their tracery. Churches with features of this style include Westminster Abbey (1245–), the cathedrals at Lichfield (after 1257–) and Exeter (1275–), Bath Abbey (1298–), and the retro choir at Wells Cathedral (c.1320–).[2]

The Rayonnant developed its second 'international style' with increasingly autonomous and sharp-edged tracery mouldings apparent in the cathedral at Clermont-Ferrand (1248–), the papal collegiate church at Troyes, Saint-Urbain (1262–), and the west façade of Strasbourg Cathedral (1276–).[2] By 1300, there were examples influenced by Strasbourg in the cathedrals of Limoges (1273–), Regensburg (c.1275–), and in the cathedral nave at York (1292–).[2]

Central Europe began to lead the emergence of a new, international flamboyant style with the construction of a new cathedral at Prague (1344–) under the direction of Peter Parler.[2] This model, of rich and variegated tracery and intricate reticulated rib-vaulting, was definitive in the Late Gothic of continental Europe, emulated not only by the collegiate churches and cathedrals, but by urban parish churches which rivalled them in size and magnificence.[2] The minster at Ulm and other parish churches like the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster at Schwäbisch Gmünd (c.1320–), St Barbara's Church at Kutná Hora (1389–), and the Heilig-Geist-Kirche (1407–) and St Martin's Church (c.1385–) in Landshut are typical.[2] Use of ogees was especially common.[1]

In England, ornamental rib-vaulting and tracery of Decorated Gothic co-existed with, and then gave way to, the perpendicular style from the 1320s, with straightened, orthogonal tracery topped with fan-vaulting.[1][2] Perpendicular Gothic was unknown in continental Europe.[1] Perpendicular is sometimes called Third Pointed.[1]

Lacey patterns of tracery continued to characterise continental Gothic building, with very elaborate and articulated vaulting, as at St Barbara's, Kutná Hora (1512).[1] In certain areas, Gothic architecture continued to be employed until the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in provincial and ecclesiastical contexts, notably at Oxford.[1] Though fallen from favour from the Renaissance on, Gothic architecture survived the early modern period and flourished again in a revival from the late 18th century and throughout the 19th.[1]

At the end of the 12th century, Europe was divided into a multitude of city states and kingdoms. The area encompassing modern Germany, southern Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and much of northern Italy (excluding Venice and Papal States) was nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire, but local rulers exercised considerable autonomy. France, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Scotland, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Cyprus were independent kingdoms, as was the Angevin Empire, whose Plantagenet kings ruled England and large domains in what was to become modern France.[13] Norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, part of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, while after the First Crusade the Lusignan kings introduced French Gothic architecture to Cyprus and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns.[14][15] Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with each other, or united for mutual weal, as in the Hanseatic League. Civic building was of great importance to these towns as a sign of wealth and pride. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their kings, dukes and bishops, rather than grand town halls for their burghers.

The Roman Catholic Church prevailed across Western Europe at this time, influencing not only faith but also wealth and power. Bishops were appointed by the feudal lords (kings, dukes and other landowners) and they often ruled as virtual princes over large estates. The early mediaeval periods had seen a rapid growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent and spreading their influence widely. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in France, Normandy and England. A part of their influence was that towns developed around them and they became centres of culture, learning and commerce. They were the builders of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, and Abbey of Saint-Remi in France. Later Benedictine projects (constructions and renovations) include Rouen's Abbey of Saint-Ouen, the Abbey La Chaise-Dieu, and the choir of Mont Saint-Michel in France. English examples are Westminster Abbey, originally built as a Benedictine order monastic church; and the reconstruction of the Benedictine church at Canterbury.

The Cluniac and Cistercian Orders were prevalent in France, the great monastery at Cluny having established a formula for a well planned monastic site which was then to influence all subsequent monastic building for many centuries.[14][15] The Cistercians spread the style as far east and south as Poland and Hungary.[16] Smaller orders such as the Carthusians and Premonstratensians also built some 200 churches, usually near cities.[17]

In the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi established the Franciscans, or so-called "Grey Friars", a mendicant order. The Dominicans, another mendicant order founded during the same period but by St. Dominic in Toulouse and Bologna, were particularly influential in the building of Italy's Gothic churches.[14][15]

The Teutonic Order, a military order, spread Gothic art into Pomerania, East Prussia, and the Baltic region.[18]

While many secular buildings exist from the Late Middle Ages, it is in the buildings of cathedrals and great churches that Gothic architecture displays its pertinent structures and characteristics to the fullest advantage. A Gothic cathedral or abbey was, prior to the 20th century, generally the landmark building in its town, rising high above all the domestic structures and often surmounted by one or more towers and pinnacles and perhaps tall spires.[14][19] Each cathedral served as a regional religious centre for its surrounding diocese, and with the large town churches, was a focus of community and civic pride.

It is in the architecture of these grand Gothic churches that a unique combination of existing technologies established a new building style. Those technologies were the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, and the buttress.

Cathedrals in their cityscapes

Chartres Cathedral, France

Lincoln Cathedral, England

Florence Cathedral, Italy[20]

Prague Cathedral, Bohemia[21]

Abbey churches

Abbey of Saint-Ouen, Rouen (1318–1537)

Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel (Choir completed 1228)

Abbey of Saint-Remi, Reims (1170–80)

Batalha Monastery, Portugal (1386–1517)

From the 10th to the 13th century, Romanesque architecture had become a pan-European style and manner of construction, affecting buildings in countries as far apart as Ireland, Croatia, Sweden and Sicily. The same wide geographic area was then affected by the development of Gothic architecture, but the acceptance of the Gothic style and methods of construction differed from place to place, as did the expressions of Gothic taste. The proximity of some regions meant that modern country borders do not define divisions of style.[14] On the other hand, some regions such as England and Spain produced defining characteristics rarely seen elsewhere, except where they have been carried by itinerant craftsmen, or the transfer of bishops. Regional differences that are apparent in the great abbey churches and cathedrals of the Romanesque period often become even more apparent in the Gothic.[15]

The local availability of materials affected both construction and style. In France, limestone was readily available in several grades, the very fine white limestone of Caen being favoured for sculptural decoration. England had coarse limestone and red sandstone as well as dark green Purbeck marble which was often used for architectural features.

In Northern Germany, Netherlands, northern Poland, Denmark, and the Baltic countries local building stone was unavailable but there was a strong tradition of building in brick. The resultant style, Brick Gothic, is called "Backsteingotik" in Germany and Scandinavia and is associated with the Hanseatic League. In Italy, stone was used for fortifications, but brick was preferred for other buildings. Because of the extensive and varied deposits of marble, many buildings were faced in marble, or were left with undecorated façade so that this might be achieved at a later date.

The availability of timber also influenced the style of architecture, with timber buildings prevailing in Scandinavia. Availability of timber affected methods of roof construction across Europe. It is thought that the magnificent hammer-beam roofs of England were devised as a direct response to the lack of long straight seasoned timber by the end of the mediaeval period, when forests had been decimated not only for the construction of vast roofs but also for ship building.[14][22]

Gothic architecture grew out of the previous architectural genre, Romanesque. For the most part, there was not a clean break, as there was to be later in Renaissance Florence with the revival of the Classical style in the early 15th century.

By the 12th century, builders throughout Europe developed Romanesque architectural styles (termed Norman architecture in England because of its association with the Norman invasion).[23] Scholars have focused on categories of Romanesque/Norman building, including the cathedral church, the parish church, the abbey church, the monastery, the castle, the palace, the great hall, the gatehouse, the civic building, the warehouse, and others.[24]

Many architectural features that are associated with Gothic architecture had been developed and used by the architects of Romanesque buildings, particularly in the building of cathedrals and abbey churches.. These include ribbed vaults, buttresses, clustered columns, ambulatories, wheel windows, spires, stained glass windows, and richly carved door tympana. These were already features of ecclesiastical architecture before the development of the Gothic style, and all were to develop in increasingly elaborate ways.[25]

It was principally the widespread introduction of a single feature, the pointed arch, which was to bring about the change that separates Gothic from Romanesque. This technological change permitted both structural and stylistic change which broke the tradition of massive masonry and solid walls penetrated by small openings, replacing it with a style where light appears to triumph over substance. With its use came the development of many other architectural devices, previously put to the test in scattered buildings and then called into service to meet the structural, aesthetic and ideological needs of the new style. These include the flying buttresses, pinnacles and traceried windows which typify Gothic ecclesiastical architecture.[14]

The pointed arch, one of the defining attributes of Gothic, was employed by the 7th century in Late Roman Byzantine architecture and Sassanian architecture . In the Roman context it occurred in early church building in Syria and occasional secular structures, like the Karamagara Bridge in modern Turkey. In the Sassanid architecture of Iran, parabolic and pointed arches were employed in both palace and sacred construction.[26][27] Following the Islamic conquests of Byzantine Syria and the Sassanid Empire in the 7th century, the pointed arch was widely used in the new Islamic architecture.[14]

Increasing military and cultural contacts with the Muslim world, including the Norman conquest of Islamic Sicily between 1060 and 1090, the Crusades, beginning 1096, and the Islamic presence in Spain, may have influenced mediaeval Europe's adoption of the pointed arch, although this hypothesis remains controversial.[28][29] Certainly, in those parts of the Western Mediterranean subject to Islamic control or influence, rich regional variants arose, fusing Romanesque and later Gothic traditions with Islamic decorative forms, as seen, for example, in Monreale and Cefalù Cathedrals, the Alcázar of Seville, and Teruel Cathedral.[30][31]

Delal Bridge, Iraq

Arches at ar-Raqqa, Syria

Monreale Cathedral, Sicily

The characteristic forms that were to define Gothic architecture developed in Romanesque buildings at different locations, as the result of structural requirements.

Although the pointed arch is strongly associated with the Gothic style, it was first used in Western architecture in buildings that were in other ways clearly Romanesque, notably Autun Cathedral in France, Durham Cathedral in the north of England, and Cefalù and Monreale Cathedrals in Sicily.

The vaults of most Romanesque churches were barrel vaults or groin vaults. By the early 12th century the ribbed vaults, characteristic of Gothic architecture, were coming into use. They appeared at the naves of two Romanesque churches in Caen, France, the Abbey of Saint-Étienne and the Abbaye aux Dames in 1120. The ribbed vault over the north transept at Durham Cathedral in England, built from 1128 to 1133, was the first time pointed arches were used in a high vault. Pointed ribbed vaults were used in the chancel of Cathedral of Cefalù in 1131.

The three-tiered interior elevation of arcade, gallery and clerestory that is typical of great Gothic churches, was well established in the Norman buildings of England, appearing at Norwich, Ely, Peterborough and Durham Cathedrals as well as the Abbey of Saint-Étienne, Caen, in France.

One of the features that unifies the internal appearance of a great Gothic church is the emphasis on vertical elements, in particular attached shafts that pass from the floor to the vault. These first appeared in France in the early 11th century in churches that have broad ribs reinforcing a barrel vault. They are also seen at Lisbon and Speyer Cathedrals, Santiago de Compostela and la Madeleine Vezelay in conjunction with groin vaults, as well as at the three Norman cathedrals of East Anglia, of which Peterborough and Ely retain wooden ceilings, while Norwich was not vaulted until the 15th century.

The admission of light to the building through a multiplicity of windows was an important element in England. At Peterborough Cathedral, the polygonal Norman apse has remained, as has three tiers of large Norman windows, now filled with Gothic tracery and 19th century stained glass. The transept ends at Peterborough, Ely and Norwich each have three rows of large Norman windows. This grouping of windows prefigures the clusters of Gothic lancet windows that are found in many English churches such Salisbury Cathedral.

Rose windows, characteristic of the west fronts and transept ends of the cathedrals of France, were common in architecture of Germany in the Romanesque period, where they appear in various forms at Worms Cathedral, and in Italy where they are either untraceried oculi or wheel windows such as that at the Basilica of San Zeno, Verona. The first rose window above the west portal in France is said to be that at the Abbaye Saint-Denis 1140.

The Basilica of Saint-Denis is generally cited as the first truly Gothic building, however the distinction is best reserved for the choir, of which the ambulatory remains intact. Noyon Cathedral saw the earliest completion of a rebuilding of an entire French cathedral in the new style from 1150 to 1231. While using all those features that came to be known as Gothic, including pointed arches, flying buttresses and ribbed vaulting, the builders continued to employ many of the features and much of the character of Romanesque architecture including round-headed arch throughout the building, varying the shape to pointed where it was functionally practical to do so.

At the Abbey Saint-Denis, Sens Cathedral, Noyon Cathedral, Notre-Dame de Paris and at the eastern end of Canterbury Cathedral in England, simple cylindrical columns predominate over the Gothic forms of clustered columns and shafted piers.

Wells Cathedral in England, commenced at the eastern end in 1175, was the first building in which the designer broke free from Romanesque forms. The architect entirely dispensed with the round arch in favour of the pointed arch and with cylindrical columns in favour of piers composed of clusters of shafts which lead into the mouldings of the arches. The transepts and nave were continued by Adam Locke in the same style and completed in about 1230. The character of the building is entirely Gothic. Wells Cathedral is thus considered the first truly Gothic cathedral.[32]

The south western tower at Ely Cathedral, England

The nave vault with pointed transverse arches at Durham Cathedral

The sexpartite ribbed vault at Saint Etienne, Caen

interior of the Cathedral of Cefalu.

The eastern end of the Basilica Church of Saint-Denis, built by Abbot Suger and completed in 1144, is often cited as the first truly Gothic structure, as it draws together many of architectural forms which had evolved from the Romanesque and typify the Gothic style.[33]

Suger (1081-1151) friend and confidant of the French Kings, Louis VI and Louis VII, decided in about 1137, to rebuild the great Church of Saint-Denis, attached to an abbey which was also the traditional burial place of Saint Denis and the Kings of France and an important pilgrimage site. [34] He began with the West Front, reconstructing the original Carolingian façade with its single door. He designed the west front of Saint-Denis to be an echo of the Roman Arch of Constantine with its three-part division and three large portals to ease the problem of congestion. The rose window is the earliest-known example above the West portal in France. The façade combines both round arches and pointed arches of the Gothic style.

At the completion of the west front in 1140, Abbot Suger moved on to the reconstruction of the eastern end, leaving the Carolingian nave in use. He designed a choir that would be suffused with light.[35] To achieve his aims, his masons drew on the several new features which evolved or had been introduced to Romanesque architecture, the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the ambulatory with radiating chapels, the clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and the flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestory windows.

The new structure was finished and dedicated on 11 June 1144, in the presence of the King. The choir and west front of the Abbey of Saint-Denis both became the prototypes for further building in the royal domain of northern France and in the Duchy of Normandy. Through the rule of the Angevin dynasty, the new style was introduced to England and spread throughout France, the Low Countries, Germany, Spain, northern Italy and Sicily.[13][15]

The west front at the Abbey of Saint Denis, with its three deep portals

The ambulatory at the Abbey of Saint-Denis

The choir of Sens Cathedral

The nave of Sens Cathedral

The west front at Noyon Cathedral, showing transitional characteristics

The interior of Noyon Cathedral

Norman blind-arcading at Christchurch Priory, Dorset.

Equilateral Arch

One of the defining characteristics of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch. Arches of a similar type were used in the Near East in pre-Islamic as well as Islamic architecture before they were structurally employed in mediaeval architecture.[36] It is thought by some architectural historians that this was the inspiration for the use of the pointed arch in France, in otherwise Romanesque buildings, as at Autun Cathedral.[14]

Contrary to the diffusionist theory, it appears that there was simultaneously a structural evolution towards the pointed arch, for the purpose of vaulting spaces of irregular plan, or to bring transverse vaults to the same height as diagonal vaults. This latter occurs at Durham Cathedral in the nave aisles in 1093.[37] Pointed arches also occur extensively in Romanesque decorative blind arcading, where semi-circular arches overlap each other in a simple decorative pattern, and the points are accidental to the design.

In Gothic architecture the pointed arch is used in every location where an arch is called for, both structural and decorative. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and galleries have pointed arches. Gothic vaulting above spaces both large and small is usually supported by ribs forming pointed arches.

While structurally use of the pointed arch gave a greater flexibility to architectural form, it also gave Gothic architecture a very different and more vertical visual character to Romanesque. Rows of pointed arches upon delicate shafts form a typical wall decoration known as blind arcading. Niches with pointed arches and containing statuary are a major external feature of Gothic cathedrals. The pointed arch also lent itself to elaborate intersecting shapes which developed within window spaces into complex Gothic tracery forming the structural support of the large windows that are characteristic of the style.[22][25]

Many Gothic openings are based upon the equilateral pointed arch. In other words, when the arch is drafted, the radius is exactly the width of the opening and the centre of each arch coincides with the point from which the opposite arch springs. (See diagram) This makes the arch higher in relation to its width than a semi-circular arch which is exactly half as high as it is wide.[14] The equilateral arch gives a wide opening of satisfying proportion useful for doorways, decorative arcades and large windows.

The structural beauty of the Gothic arch means that no set proportion had to be rigidly maintained. The equilateral arch was employed as a useful tool, not as a principle of design. This meant that narrower or wider arches were introduced into a building plan wherever necessity dictated. In the architecture of some Italian cities, notably Venice, semi-circular arches are interspersed with pointed ones.

Pointed arches

One of three large arches that screen the front of Peterborough Cathedral.

The North transept of Salisbury Cathedral has grouped lancet openings

LIncoln Cathedral has arades, galleries, clerestory, vault, and blind arcades of pointed arches

At Santa Maria Novella, the wedge-shaped voussoirs that support the pointed vault are emphasised by colour.

The eastern end of Wells Cathedral evolved in three stages to form a harmonious vista of pointed arches.

The west front of Reims Cathedral shows the pointed arches of portals and galleries combined with gables and rose window.

A detail of the windows and galleries of the west front of Strasbourg Cahedral

Sexpartite ribbed vault at Notre-Dame de Paris

The Gothic ribbed vault of pointed arches, unlike the semi-circular vault of Roman and Romanesque buildings, can be used to roof rectangular and irregularly shaped plans such as trapezoids. The other structural advantage is that the pointed arch channels the weight onto the bearing piers or columns at a steep angle. This enabled architects to raise vaults much higher than was possible in Romanesque architecture.[14]

In Romanesque architecture, the rounded arches of the barrel vaults that covered the nave pressed directly down on the walls with crushing weight. This required massive columns, thick walls and small windows, and naturally limited the height of the building. Gothic architects found a solution through an innovative use of the rib vault.[38][39]

An early kind of rib vault, used at Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba (8th century), was found under a cupola or dome, but was different in form and function from the later Gothic rib vault. The cupola itself was supported by pendentives or squinches, a practice used in Byzantine architecture. The ribs were decorative. The vaults in churches in Sicily dated to the 11th century, after Sicily had been conquered by the Normans, and resembled the vaults used at the same time in Normandy and England.[40]

Gothic builders designed a new and lighter kind of rib vault. They divided into compartments by a diagonal crossing of thin stone ribs (ogives), and completed by two additional arcs perpendicular and parallel to the nave (doubleaux and formerets). They also made innovative use of the broken arch or pointed arch. In Islamic and Romanesque architecture, pointed arches had usually been used in doorways and windows. Gothic architects used them at the meeting points of the ribs at the top of the vaults, which distributed the weight of the roof downwards and outwards, not just downwards.[41] These ribs divided the early vaults into six compartments, each as wide as two traverses of the nave. Some of the ribs went downwards as colonettes and were bundled into pillars on the ground floor. Other ribs carried the thrust outwards to the walls, where it was counterbalanced by heavy flying buttresses outside the walls. Since the weight was supported by pillars and buttresses, the walls themselves could be much higher and thinner. This made possible the expanses of stained glass that were a characteristic of Gothic cathedrals.[38][39][41]

The earlier Gothic rib vaults, used at Notre-Dame, Noyon, and Laon, were divided by the ribs into six compartments, were very difficult to build, and could only cross a limited space. In later cathedral construction, the design was simplified, and the rib vaults had only four compartments, and could cover a wider span; a single vault could cross the nave, and fewer pillars were needed. The four-part vaults also made it possible to build the cathedrals even higher. Notre-Dame de Paris, begun in 1163 with four-part vaults, reached a height of 35 meters, remarkable for the time. Amiens Cathedral, begun in 1220 with four-part ribs, reached the height of 42.30 meters (138.8 feet) at the transept.[38][42]

Section of Reims Cathedral with flying buttress over aisles.

Another important feature of Gothic architecture was the flying buttress, designed to support the walls by means of arches connected to counter-supports outside the walls. Flying buttresses had existed in simple forms since Roman times, but the Gothic builders raised their use to a fine art, balancing the thrust from the roof inside against the counter-thrust of the buttresses. The earliest Gothic churches, including Saint-Denis and Notre-Dame in its beginning stages, did not have flying buttresses. Their walls were supported by heavy stone abutments placed directly against the walls. The roof was supported by the ribs of the vaults, which were bundled with the columns below.

In the later 12th and early 13th century, the buttresses became more sophisticated. New arches carried the thrust of the weight entirely outside the walls, where it was met by the counter-thrust of stone columns, with pinnacles placed on top for decoration and for additional weight. Thanks to this system of external buttresses, the walls could be higher and thinner, and could support larger stained glass windows. The buttresses themselves became part of the decoration; the pinnacles became more and more ornate, becoming more and more elaborate, as at Beauvais Cathedral and Reims Cathedral. The arches had an additional practical purpose; they contained lead channels which carried rainwater off the roof; it was expelled from the mouths of stone gargoyles placed in rows on the buttresses.[43]

Buttresses

East end of Lincoln Cathedral, with wall buttress, and chapter house with flying buttresses.

Wall buttresses and simple flying buttresses behind a parapet at Canterbury Cathedral

The complex buttresses of Amiens Cathedral support one of the highest Gothic vaults

The east end of Notre Dame de Paris with flying buttresses supporting the high vault

Plan of a Gothic Cathedral

Most large Gothic churches and many smaller parish churches are of the Latin cross (or "cruciform") plan, with a long nave making the body of the church, a transverse arm called the transept and, beyond it, an extension which may be called the choir, chancel or presbytery. There are several regional variations on this plan. The area where the nave and transept meet is called the crossing, and in England is often surmounted by a stone tower, as at Salisbury Cathedral and York Minster, visible on a ground-plan by the sturdy piers that support the tower. (see below)

The nave is generally flanked on either side by aisles, usually single as at York Minster and Florence Cathedral but sometimes double as at Bourges and Cologne Cathedrals. (see plans below). Aisles may extend along the sides of the transepts as well, as at Cologne, Amiens Cathedral and York Minster.(see plans) In the South of France there is often a single wide nave and no aisles, as at Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges and Albi Cathedrals.

In some churches with double aisles, or additional rows of chapels between the buttresses as at Notre-Dame de Paris, the transept does not project beyond the aisles (See plan). In English cathedrals, transepts tend to project boldly and there may be two of them, as at Salisbury and Lincoln Cathedrals. The double transepts are to provide extra chapels, in lieu of the apsidal chapels found in French cathedrals (See Salisbury plan).

The eastern arm shows considerable diversity. In France and Germany, the eastern end is generally polygonal and surrounded by a continuation of the choir aisle called an ambulatory. Surrounding the ambulatory may be a ring of chapels called a "chevet". In England the eastern arm is generally long and may have two distinct sections- choir and presbytery. It is almost always square ended with a cliff-like exterior face. Often there is a projecting Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as at Salisbury.[14][25][19] In Italy, the eastern projection beyond the transept is usually a shallow chapel or sometimes an apse.. See section below

The ground-plans of the cathedrals show not only the larger parts of the building, developed for Catholic liturgy - the nave, aisles, transept, choir and chapels - but also reveal that each building contains a pattern of regular divisions called "bays". These bays or compartments are square, rectangular and sometimes trapezoidal, and are defined by the positions of the piers, columns and attached shafts that support the arcades and the overhead vaults. While internally the divisions are created by the locations of the vertical members, externally, the bays can be determined by the positions of the buttresses.[44]

Other elements that are visible on the plans are the locations of towers on the west fronts, porches such as those at Bourges and Salisbury, and the octagonal Chapter House at York Minster.

Bourges Cathedral, France, length 125 m.

Notre Dame de Paris, France, length 128 m.

Amiens Cathedral, France, length 145 m.

Cologne Cathedral, Germany, length 144 m, completed C19th, to dimensions established in C14th

Salisbury Cathedral, England, length 135 m

York Minster, England, length 159 m

Gothic Cathedral, showing nave, aisle, buttresses, arcade, gallery, clerestory and vault

The most common elevation for a Gothic cathedral or large abbey church is that of the architectural form known as the "basilica". This term, used architecturally, does not have any ecclesiastical or spiritual significance such as is associated with Catholic basilicas that have been designated by the pope as a church of great significance, e.g. the Basilica of St Peter, in Rome, or the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary at Lourdes. (see Papal Basilica and Minor Basilica)

Architecturally, a basilica is a church that has a longitudinal nave, with a lower aisle on each side, separated by rows of columns or piers, and generally with windows let into that part of the nave that rises above the outer roof of the aisles. This upper section is called the clerestory. This architectural form is so named because it was commonly used by ancient Roman builders as the structure for secular basilicas used as halls for meetings, markets and as places of justice. Early Christian churches such as Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, and San Apollinare in Classe have this form, which was adopted by Romanesque builders for their great abbeys and cathedrals, across Europe, such as Durham Cathedral, Saint-Etienne, Caen, and Monreale Cathedral.

During the Gothic period, most cathedrals were built with a single aisle on each side of the nave, such as Salisbury Cathedral, but some had double aisles with the outer lower than the inner, such as Bourges Cathedral. In the South of France cathedrals are sometimes just a single high, wide hall, with tall windows but no aisles, and the lower stage giving a robust fortified appearance, such as Albi Cathedral. Gothic churches of the Germanic tradition, like St. Stephen of Vienna, often have nave and aisles of similar height, without clerestory, and are called Hallenkirche.

Internally, the nave and choir are usually divided horizontally into three stages, the arcade, the triforium gallery and the clerestorey. This arrangement is usual in England where it can be seen at Salisbury, Lincoln, and Ely.

In some French Cathedrals, such as Laon and the nave of Rouen, there is a fourth stage, a shallow tribune gallery between the triforium and the clerestory. In the transepts of Notre-Dame, the wall above the triforium gallery is pierced with rose windows. In later Gothic cathedrals and abbey churches, the vertical members in the tracery of galleries and clerestory may merge into a single decorative unit where the stages are present but not clearly defined, as at Saint-Ouen at Rouen and the choir of Gloucester Cathedral in England.

In the Gothic cathedrals and abbey churches of Italy, triforium galleries are most often found in churches influenced by the architecture of Normandy, and were used at abbeys of women, as a space for the nuns to attend services. Elsewhere, many churches such as Florence Cathedral and the Abbey Church of Santa Maria Novella, had an interior elevation of two stages, the arcade and clerestory.

French Gothic elevations

Notre Dame de Paris, showing the nave and double aisles; vault and flying buttresses.

Notre Dame de Paris. Interior elevation of transept shows four stages- arcade, triforium gallery, tribune with rose windows and clerestory. Left- a later stage with larger windows.

Amiens Cathedral. Three stages- tall arcade, small gallery, and tall, traceried clerestory.

Saint Ouen, Rouen, left; Sees Cathedral, right. Saint Ouen shows a highly unified scheme wher the triforium merges visually with the clerestory.

English Gothic elevations

Lincoln Cathedral, elevation of the east end of typically English form with single aisles framing the central choir.

Lincoln Cathedral. The proportions are low and wide compared to Notre Dame, the arcades are high and there are three stages. .

Ely Cathedral choir. Three stages, Decorated Gothic, but with proportions set by the earlier Norman nave. Exterior view shows windows into the high triforium arcade.

Italian Gothic and hall church elevations

Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Nave and aisle. Steep vaults and thick walls reduce the need for large external buttresses,

Santa Maria Novella, Two stage elevation with small round windows.

Poitiers Cathedral, France. Hall church with high aisles and no clerestory. Large aisle windows between large square buttresses.

The façade of a large church or cathedral, properly referred to as the West Front, is generally designed to create a powerful impression on the approaching worshipper, demonstrating both the might of God and the might of the institution that it represents. One of the best known and most typical of such west fronts is that of Notre-Dame de Paris. To emphasise its importance, the west front may be of a powerful design, with towers, imposing portals, jutting buttresses, gables, windows and an array of sculpture.

Central to the west front is the main portal, often flanked by additional doors, after the manner of Suger's west front at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. In England, the lateral doors may be present but relatively insignificant. In the arch of the central door, particularly in France, the tympanum, is often a significant piece of sculpture, most frequently Christ in Majesty or the Last Judgment. If there is a central doorjamb or a trumeau, then it frequently bears a statue of Jesus or the Madonna and Child if the dedication is to Mary. Figures in niches set into the mouldings around the portals.

Above the main portal there is a large window which lights the nave. In France and Spain this is generally a rose window as at Notre-Dame de Paris and Burgos Cathedral. In Italy there is generally an untraceried ocular window as at Santa Maria Novella. In England, rose windows are rare and the west end is generally dominated by a single very large traceried window as at York Minster and Canterbury, while some Early English fronts retain rows of lancet windows as at Salisbury and Ripon Cathedrals.

The west front of most French cathedrals and many English, Spanish and German cathedrals have two towers, which, particularly in France, express an enormous diversity of form and decoration.[14][15] In Germany and Eastern Europe there may be a single tall tower at the western end as at Freiburg Münster. In England, where the principle tower is usually over the crossing, the west front may be framed by large turrets,

In Italy, with the exception of Milan Cathedral, the form of a Gothic west front is less strongly architectonic and sculptural than in other parts of Europe. The underlying structure may be brick, rather than stone, overlaid with a veneer of polychrome marble, and ornamented with marble sculpture and coloured mosaics as at Siena and Orvieto Cathedrals.

West fronts

Notre Dame de Paris- deep portals, a rose window, balance of horizontal and vertical elements

Burgos Cathedral, Spain- deep portals, rose window, elaborate openwork screen and spire

Salisbury Cathedral- wide sculptured screen, lancet windows, turrets with pinnacles

York Minster, England- shallow portal, very large traceried window, towers with pinnacles, vertical emphasis

Brussels Cathedral- gabled portal, large window, emphasis on vertical elements.

Cologne Cathedral- massive towers with very tall spires, completed C19th.

Orvieto Cathedral, Italy- balance of vertical, horizontal and diagonal, large portals, polychrome

The eastern end of Gothic cathedrals and great churches shows significant regional variation. See ground-plans, above.

In France the eastern end is generally polygonal and surrounded by a continuation of the choir aisle called an ambulatory. Surrounding the ambulatory may be a ring of chapels called a "chevet". In many cases the chevet comprises projecting apses, as at the Abbey St Denis and Amiens Cathedral where there are seven. This is also the case at Cologne Cathedral in Germany and Prague Cathedral in the Czech Republic, while Chartres Cathedral has three and the Basilica of Saint Anthony, Padua, had nine radiating square chapels.

In England the eastern arm is generally long and may have two distinct sections - choir and presbytery. The building usually terminates in a square and a cliff-like exterior face as at York Minster and Lincoln Cathedral. Often there is a projecting Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as at Salisbury, Wells, and Ripon Cathedrals.[14][25][19]

In Italy, the eastern projection beyond the transept is usually a shallow chapel, as at Santa Maria Novella. At Florence Cathedral there is a polygonal apse, identical in size and shape to the transepts, radiating from the dome. Milan Cathedral has a polygonal east end. The Gothic cathedrals at Siena and Orvieto are both constrained by their mountainous sites to have square ends..

East end

The east end at Bourges Cathedral has a double ambulatory and small apses

Ely has a square east end in the Early English style and a Decorated Lady Chapel to the right

At St Albans, the Lady Chapel projects from the east end as is often found in England.

Milan Cathedral- a projecting pentagonal range of chapels at the east end.

Great churches, abbeys and cathedrals of the Gothic period generally have towers. The position, construction and height of these towers is as subject to variety as the nature of the west front, and was already well established by the beginning of the Gothic period.

In many parts of Europe, the location of twin towers on the west front of cathedrals and abbey churches was usual in the Romanesque period and may be seen at Abbaye les Hommes, Caen; Southwell Cathedral, England; Lisbon Cathedral, Portugal; Magdeburg Cathedral, Germany; Cefalu Cathedral, Sicily, and Lébény Abbey Church, Hungary. Romanesque churches in the Rhineland often had many towers of different shapes, as did the Abbey Church of Cluny. In mainland Italy, churches generally had one tower and that was freestanding from the building, sometimes at a distance, as at Pisa Cathedral. In Norman England, the crossing of large churches was often marked by a large tower, while abbey churches and cathedrals might have western towers as well. Smaller churches, across Europe often had a single tower at the west. The various configurations of church and tower of the Romanesque period continued into the Gothic, but with a greater emphasis on height.

In France, the plan for the Basilica of Saint-Denis called for two towers of equal height on the west front, and this plan was copied during the Gothic era at Notre-Dame de Paris, with towers of 69 meters (226 ft) in height, and at other cathedrals of northern France such as Laon, Reims and Amiens.[45] Some of these churches were given towers over the crossing and transepts as well, with Rouen having three large towers, Laon having five, and the Romanesque Abbaey les Hommes, Caen, receiving additional towers during the Gothic period, until they numbered nine. French Gothic towers are sometimes topped with spires. Chartres Cathedral has two on the western towers, of different dates and very different construction. That on the south is the tallest masonry spire of the 12th century, while that on the north is a highly elaborate Flamboyant design. The irregularity seen at Chartres also occurs at Rouen where there is a central tower in addition to the western towers. This tower displays another distinctly French feature, a delicate openwork flèche made of wood covered with lead.

Openwork spires of stone, sometimes of great height, were popular in the Flamboyant period, occurring singly at Strasbourg Cathedral, Burgos Cathedral, Freiburg Cathedral, Stefansdom, Vienna; and also at Cologne Cathedral and Ulm Minster, both designed in the mediaeval period but not realised until the late 19th century.

In England, during the Gothic era, there was a continuing fashion for three towers, with the largest being that over the crossing. This arrangement is seen at Canterbury, Wells, Lincoln, York, Lichfield. and Durham Cathedrals. In England, wherever the ground was considered stable, the central tower was surmounted by a spire. Like the south spire of Chartres Cathedral, English spires are often constructed of masonry. The earliest is the comparatively small spire at Oxford Cathedral. The tallest mediaeval masonry spire is that built in the 13th century at Salisbury Cathedral (123 m - 404 ft). Others exist at Norwich and Chichester Cathedrals, while Lichfield Cathedral has three. Other cathedrals had tall spires of wooden construction sheathed with lead or copper. Two of these, on the central towers of Lincoln Cathedral and Old St Paul's Cathedral surpassed 550 feet in height and were the tallest structures prior to the 19th century.

England's Gothic parish churches and collegiate churches generally have a single western tower. A number of the finest churches have masonry spires, with those of St James Church, Louth; St Wulfram's Church, Grantham; St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, and St Michael's, Coventry, all exceeding 85 metres (280 feet) in height.[46]

In mainland Italy, the tower, if present, is sometimes detached from the building, as at Florence Cathedral, or projects from the side of the building as at the Basilica of Santa Croce. In Italy there is no defined stylistic break between Romanesque and Gothic, as the architects had a seemingly pragmatic approach to the use of round and pointed arches. Towers of apparently Romanesque form often appear in conjunction with otherwise Gothic structures. They tend to have graded series of openings in the Romanesque manner like the tower of the Badia Fiorentina. Some, like the tower at Santa Croce, have large openings of Gothic form and are surmounted by spires.

In addition to towers and spires, great mediaeval churches, may have several other architectural forms, rising above the roof-line, particularly over the crossing. These include the octagonal tower at Burgos Cathedral, the wooden octagonal tower at Ely Cathedral and the octagonal dome of Florence Cathedral, conceived in the late Gothic period and engineered by the Renaissance architect, Filippo Brunelleschi.

Towers and spires

Laon Cathedral- the strongly articulated towers of the west front.

Chartres Cathedral- C12th masonry spire, and Flamboyant spire

Canterbury Cathedral - the large tower over the crossing

Rouen Cathedral- three different towers and a lead-covered fleche

St Stephan's Cathedral, Vienna- openwork stone spire

Lichfield Cathedral- three masonry spires, the central being taller.

Ely Cathedral- the wooden octagon rises from an octagonal stone tower

Badia Fiorentina, Florence- tall campanile with spire

Early Gothic Cathedrals traditionally have their main entrance at the western end of the church, opposite the choir. Based on the model of the Basilica of Saint-Denis and Notre-Dame de Paris, there are usually three doorways with pointed arches. During the Romanesque period cathedral and abbey portals were enriched by sculpture, and a carved figure often occupied the central jamb of the door. The main pictorial representation occupied the tympanum, the panel between the arch and the lintel of the door. The subject was usually the Last Judgement. This arrangement continued into the Gothic era.

One of the earliest portals of the Gothic period was that at Chartres Cathedral, where the three portals of the west front show three different aspects of the Life of Christ. At Amiens, the tympanum over the central portal depicted the Last Judgement, the right portal showed the Coronation of the Virgin, and the left portal showed the lives of saints who were important in the diocese. This set a pattern of complex iconography which was followed at other cathedrals.[47]

The iconography of the sculptural decoration on the facade was not left to the artists. An edict of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 had set the rules: "The composition of religious images is not to be left to the inspiration of artists; it is derived from the principles put in place by the Catholic Church and religious tradition. Only the art belongs to the artist; the composition belongs to the Fathers."[48]

In France, the transept fronts were often elaborately treated like the west fronts, having rose windows and significant portals, sometimes, as at Chartres Cathedral, with large porches.

The portals and interiors were much more colourful than they are today. Each sculpture on the tympanum and in the interior was painted by the peintre imagier, or image painter, following a system of colours codified in the 12th century; yellow, called gold, symbolized intelligence, grandeur and virtue; white, called argent, symbolized purity, wisdom, and correctness; black, or sable, meant sadness, but also will; green, or sinople, represented hope, liberty and joy; red or gueules (see gules) meant charity or victory; blue or azure symbolized the sky, faithfulness and perseverance; and violet, or pourpre, was the colour of royalty and sovereignty.[49]

Portals and their sculpture

The Royal Portal at Chartres Cathedral

The central portal at Amiens Cathedral

Detail of Christ in Majesty at Amiens, west front

The "Wise and Foolish Virgins" framing the portal at Strasbourg Cathedral

A characteristic of Gothic church architecture is its height, both absolute and in proportion to its width, the verticality suggesting an aspiration to Heaven. A section of the main body of a Gothic church usually shows the nave as considerably taller than it is wide. In England the proportion is sometimes greater than 2:1, while the greatest proportional difference achieved is at Cologne Cathedral with a ratio of 3.6:1. The highest internal vault is at Beauvais Cathedral at 48 metres (157 ft).[14]

Externally, towers and spires are characteristic of Gothic churches both great and small, the number and positioning being one of the greatest variables in Gothic architecture. In Italy, the tower, if present, is almost always detached from the building, as at Florence Cathedral, and is often from an earlier structure. In France and Spain, two towers on the front is the norm. In England, Germany and Scandinavia this is often the arrangement, but an English cathedral may also be surmounted by an enormous tower at the crossing. Smaller churches usually have just one tower, but this may also be the case at larger buildings, such as Salisbury Cathedral or Ulm Minster, which has the tallest spire in the world,[50] slightly exceeding that of Lincoln Cathedral, the tallest which was actually completed during the mediaeval period, at 160 metres (520 ft).

Height- external and internal

The tallest wood and copper spires, in the world, Lubeck Cathedral, Germany. rebuilt post WWII

Lincoln Cathedral- the large central tower, carried the tallest spire in the world

The tallest spire of the C13th century, and tallest masonry spire ever built, at Salisbury Cathedral.

The openwork spire of Strasbourg Cathedral, the tallest stone spire of the Gothic era.

The tallest remaining medieval spire in Germany, at Freiburg Minster

The dome of Florence Cathedral, designed c. 1370, engineered by Brunelleschi, C15th

Westminster Abbey, nave- 31 m (102 ft)

The choir of Amiens Cathedral, 42.3 m (139 ft)

Cologne Cathedral, choir 43.35 m (142.2 ft)

Le Seu,Palma, Mallorca, nave, 44 m (144 ft)

The nave of Florence Cathedral, 45 m (148 ft)

The choir of Beauvais Cathedral, 47.5 m (156 ft)

The pointed arch lends itself to a suggestion of height. This appearance is characteristically further enhanced by both the architectural features and the decoration of the building.[19]

On the exterior, the verticality is emphasised in a major way by the towers and spires and in a lesser way by strongly projecting vertical buttresses, by narrow half-columns called attached shafts which often pass through several storeys of the building, by long narrow windows, vertical mouldings around doors and figurative sculpture which emphasises the vertical and is often attenuated. The roof-line, gable ends, buttresses and other parts of the building are often terminated by small pinnacles, Milan Cathedral being an extreme example in the use of this form of decoration.

On the interior of the building attached shafts often sweep unbroken from floor to ceiling and meet the ribs of the vault, like a tall tree spreading into branches. The verticals are generally repeated in the treatment of the windows and wall surfaces. In many Gothic churches, particularly in France, and in the Perpendicular period of English Gothic architecture, the treatment of vertical elements in gallery and window tracery creates a strongly unifying feature that counteracts the horizontal divisions of the interior structure.[19]

Vertical elements

West front of Reims Cathedral

The exterior of the choir of Beauvais Cathedral

Figures around the central door of Chartres Cathedral

The Five Sister windows in the north transept at York Minster

A clustered column of the nave at Bourges Cathedral

Vertical elements in the galleries at Cologne Cathedral

The buttresses pinnacles of the choir at Cologne Cathedral

Expansive interior light has been a feature of Gothic cathedrals since the first structure was opened. The metaphysics of light in the Middle Ages led to clerical belief in its divinity and the importance of its display in holy settings. Much of this belief was based on the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, a sixth-century mystic whose book De Coelesti Hierarchia was popular among monks in France. Pseudo-Dionysius held that all light, even light reflected from metals or streamed through windows, was divine. To promote such faith, the abbot in charge of the Saint-Denis church on the north edge of Paris, the Abbot Suger, encouraged architects remodelling the building to make the interior as bright as possible.

Ever since the remodelled Basilica of Saint-Denis opened in 1144, Gothic architecture has featured expansive windows, such as at Sainte-Chapelle, York Minster, Gloucester Cathedral. The increase in size between windows of the Romanesque and Gothic periods is related to the use of the ribbed vault, and in particular, the pointed ribbed vault which channelled the weight to a supporting shaft with less outward thrust than a semi-circular vault. Walls did not need to be so weighty.[25][19]

A further development was the flying buttress which arched externally from the springing of the vault across the roof of the aisle to a large buttress pier projecting well beyond the line of the external wall. These piers were often surmounted by a pinnacle or statue, further adding to the downward weight, and counteracting the outward thrust of the vault and buttress arch as well as stress from wind loading.

The internal columns of the arcade with their attached shafts, the ribs of the vault and the flying buttresses, with their associated vertical buttresses jutting at right-angles to the building, created a stone skeleton. Between these parts, the walls and the infill of the vaults could be of lighter construction. Between the narrow buttresses, the walls could be opened up into large windows.[14]

Through the Gothic period, thanks to the versatility of the pointed arch, the structure of Gothic windows developed from simple openings to immensely rich and decorative sculptural designs. The windows were very often filled with stained glass which added a dimension of colour to the light within the building, as well as providing a medium for figurative and narrative art.[19]

Light

Large clerestory windows between flying buttresses at Strasbourg

Tall windows lighting the vault at Lyon Cathedral, made possible by flying buttresses

Windows in a polygonal arrangement, Lady Chapel, Wells Cathedral

Tall windows in the aisle at Rouen, with additional windows in the triforium

"Heart of Yorkshire" window at York Minster, the scale of most west windows in England.

The array of glass between thin stone mullions, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris

The simplest shape of a Gothic window is a long opening with a pointed arch known in England as the lancet. Lancet windows may be used singly, as in the nave of Lincoln Cathedral, or grouped, as in the nave of Salisbury Cathedral where they are in two in the aisles and threes in the clerestory. Because large lancet windows, such as those lighting the aisles of a cathedral, may be wide in comparison to a single light in a traceried window, they often have armatures of wood or iron to support the glass. The arch of a lancet opening is often equilateral, but sometimes is much more acute, and when employed in the arcade of a choir apse, such as at Westminster Abbey, adds to the emphasis of height.

The simple shape of the lancet arch may appear in Early Gothic buildings on openings of all types, doorways, niches, arcades, including galleries; and belfry openings.

The use of lancet windows is found in the Early Gothic architecture of France, at the Abbey of St Denis, and Sens and Senlis cathedrals. At Chartres and Laon cathedrals lancet windows are grouped beneath the rose windows. Tall narrow lancets are also found in radiating groups in the chancel apses of some cathedrals, such as Chartres. It is common in France for lancet windows to be used in smaller, narrower spaces, such as the chapels of a chevet, while traceries windows are used in the clerestory.

The style Lancet Gothic is known in England as Early English Gothic, with Salisbury Cathedral being the prime example. York Minster has a group of lancet windows each fifty feet high and still containing ancient glass. They are known as the Five Sisters. [14][22] Wells Cathedral is notable for the continuous rows of lancet openings that make up the triforiun galleries. Lancet windows are used extensively in the Gothic churches of Italy, including Florence Cathedral and in the Brick Gothic churches of Germany and Poland.

The Equilateral Arch lends itself to filling with tracery of simple equilateral, circular and semi-circular forms. In France, windows of clerestorys, and other larger windows were commonly divided into two lights, with some simple Geometric tracery above, a circle or a cinquefoil or sexfoil. This style of window remained popular without great change until after 1300.

In England there was a much greater variation in the design of tracery that evolved to fill these spaces. The style is known as Geometric Decorated Gothic and can be seen to splendid effect at many English cathedrals and abbey churches, where both the eastern and the western terminations of the building may be occupied by a single large window such as the east window at Lincoln and the west window at Worcester Cathedral. Windows of complex design and of three or more lights or vertical sections, are often designed by overlapping two or more equilateral arches springing from the vertical mullions.[22]

Rayonnant Gothic is the term used particularly to described the style that produced the great rose windows of France. These windows deck not only the west fronts of cathedrals, but often, as at Notre-Dame de Paris, the transept gables as well. It is common that although the transepts of French Cathedrals do not project strongly, they are given visual importance almost equal to the west front, including large decorated portals and a rose window. Particularly fine examples are at Notre-Dame and Chartres Cathedral.

The Flamboyant Arch is one that is drafted from four points, the upper part of each main arc turning upwards into a smaller arc and meeting at a sharp, flame-like point. These arches create a rich and lively effect when used for window tracery and surface decoration. The form is structurally weak and has very rarely been used for large openings except when contained within a larger and more stable arch. It is not employed at all for vaulting.[14]

Some of the most beautiful and famous traceried windows of Europe employ this type of tracery. It can be seen at St Stephen's Vienna, Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, at the Cathedrals of Limoges and Rouen in France. In England the most famous examples are the West Window of York Minster with its design based on the Sacred Heart, the extraordinarily rich nine-light East Window at Carlisle Cathedral and the exquisite East window of Selby Abbey.[22][25]

Doorways surmounted by Flamboyant mouldings are very common in both ecclesiastical and domestic architecture in France. They are much rarer in England. A notable example is the doorway to the Chapter Room at Rochester Cathedral.[14][22]

The style was much used in England for wall arcading and niches. Prime examples in are in the Lady Chapel at Ely, the Screen at Lincoln and externally on the façade of Exeter Cathedral. In German and Spanish Gothic architecture it often appears as openwork screens on the exterior of buildings. The style was used to rich and sometimes extraordinary effect in both these countries, notably on the famous pulpit in Vienna Cathedral.[15]

The depressed or four-centred arch is much wider than its height and gives the visual effect of having been flattened under pressure. Its structure is achieved by drafting two arcs which rise steeply from each springing point on a small radius and then turn into two arches with a wide radius and much lower springing point.[14]

This type of arch, when employed as a window opening, lends itself to very wide spaces, provided it is adequately supported by many narrow vertical shafts. These are often further braced by horizontal transoms. The overall effect produces a grid-like appearance of regular, delicate, rectangular forms with an emphasis on the perpendicular. It is also employed as a wall decoration in which arcade and window openings form part of the whole decorative surface.

The style, known as Perpendicular, that evolved from this treatment is specific to England, although very similar to contemporary Spanish style in particular, and was employed to great effect through the 15th century and first half of the 16th as Renaissance styles were much slower to arrive in England than in Italy and France.[14]

It can be seen notably at the East End of Gloucester Cathedral where the East Window is said to be as large as a tennis court. There are three very famous royal chapels and one chapel-like Abbey which show the style at its most elaborate: King's College Chapel, Cambridge; St George's Chapel, Windsor; Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey and Bath Abbey.[22] However very many simpler buildings, especially churches built during the wool boom in East Anglia, are fine examples of the style.

Styles- Lancet, Early Gothic, Geometric, Rayonnant, Flamboyant and Perpendicular

Lancet Gothic windows,west front, Ripon Cathedral, England

Plate tracery, clerestory window, Chartres Cathedral, France

Geometric Decorated tracery, east window, Ripon Cathedral

Rayonnant Gothic tracery, west rose, Strasbourg Cathedral, France

Flamboyant Gothic tracery, west rose, Amiens Cathedral, France

Flamboyant tracery, nave, Limoges Cathedral, France

Perpendicular Gothic window under 4-centred arch, King's College Chapel, Cambridge

In France, tall untapered columns were common in the Romanesque period. The use of columns of this type was rare in Norman England, where at Durham, Gloucester and Hereford there were massive circular piers built of masonry, and at Durham, alternating with rectangular piers.

In Early French Gothic architecture, the columns became much more Classical in shape, proportion and the nature of the capital, which was often a modification of the Corinthian capital. Columns of this type were used at the Abbey of Saint-Denis, at Sens, at Notre-Dame and at Canterbury in England. In buildings with sexpartite vaults, they sometimes alternated with piers.

In the Brabantine Gothic architecture of the Holland and Belgium, columns remained part of the style into the 15th century, and have capitals of cabbage leaf foliage.

In France, the column developed in complexity by having a cluster of circular shafts grouped around the central circular core. This is seen a Reims, Amiens and Bourges Cathedrals, and also at Westminster Abbey and Salisbury Cathedral and in Spain at Burgos Cathedral.

The rectangular piers also developed, with attached shafts and mouldings which continue up the wall to support the vault, or into the decorative mouldings of the chancel arch, in a manner that had previously been utilised to decorate the arches of Romanesque portals. The eastern end of the Abbey of Saint-Etienne, Caen, was rebuilt from 1166, with clustered piers. From 1176, Wells Cathedral was constructed with clustered piers throughout. Between the two buildings there is a great difference in the handling of the two. At Caen, the pier remains a decorated rectangular pier, set parallel to the wall surface. The shafts themselves maintain a circular, and classicising form. At Well, the core of the pier appears to have been rotated, and become a lozenge, angle-on to the lie of the arcade. The clusters of shafts are fluting. The capitals are of what is known as "stiff-leaf" foliage, and has a vitality of form different to any other foliage carving of that date.

Complex clustered columns and fluted and shafted piers were subsequently widely adopted, and became part of the vertical visual character of Gothic cathedrals.

Columns and piers

Corinthian columns in the choir at Rouen Cathedral

Tall columns with clusters of shafts, Bourges Cathedral

Columns in the nave of Salisbury Cathedral

Fluted piers with Stiff Leaf capitals at Wells Cathedral

Very tall fluted piers at Seville Cathedral, Spain

In France the vaults over the high spaces of nave and clerestory, in the Early Gothic period, was sexpartite, spanning two bays of the nave. This resulted in the vaulted space being almost square, and to diagoal ribs being semi-circular. Only the arches of the transverse ribs were pointed. This is the case at Sens, at Notre-Dame de Paris and the Nave of Laon Cathedral.

At Chartres Cathedral, and the choir of Laon Cathedral, however, the vault is in four parts, spans a single bay, is rectangular, and all the ribs are pointed. The quadripartite proved much easier to build because it required less centring. It is also stronger as the compartments are smaller. The quadripartite vault is used in the Early English cathedrals of Salisbury and Wells. It became the standard form of vault which leant itself to further development and elaboration.

In the nave of Lincoln Cathedral the vault acquired extra ribs known as "tiercerons" which meet at a central "ridge rib" running the length of the nave. An additional elaboration, to span the wide nave, was the introduction of intermediate ribs which do not reach the centre of the vault, but join two small "lierne" ribs projecting from the ridge. Other cathedrals with tierceron vaulting are Norwich, and Exeter.

Lierne ribs became a feature of later Gothic design, as at Bristol Cathedral and led the way to elaborate patterns within the vault, including net or "reticular" vaulting and "stellar" vaulting. Stellar vaulting was particularly fashionable in Germany, Eastern Europe and Spain. The use of short ribs lent itself to the introduction of curved and ogee shaped ribs, in the Flamboyant style. Flamboynt vaulting is particularly prevalent in Spain.

In England there are a number of chapter house, notably at Wells, Lincoln and Westminster abbey, where the vault is supported by a single central column from which many ribs radiate in every direction like a palm tree. This also occurs at the high vault behind the altar at Jacobins Church, Toulouse, in France.

A further development was many shallow ribs radiating in a fan shape, so that visually, the appearance of the structural ribs is minimised, and the emphasis is upon the curving surfaces. These fan vaults were used successfully for narrower and lower structures such as the cloister at Gloucester Cathedral and the retrochoir at Peterborough, before being employed on the high vaults at the Chapel of Kings College Cambridge, and even even more elaborate form with pendant lanterns attached, at Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey.

Style- Ribbed vaults

Notre-Dame, Paris - square, sexpartite vaults spanning two nave bays

Salisbury Cathedral, England - rectangular quadripartite vault over single bay

Lincoln Cathedral, England - quadripartite form, with tierceron ribs and ridge rib with carved bosses.

Bremen Cathedral, Germany - north aisle, a reticular (net) vault with intersecting ribs.

St Marien's, Wolfsberg, Austria - stellar vault with intersecting lierne ribs.

Salamanca Cathedral, Spain - vault has Flamboyant S-shaped and circular lierne ribs,

Peterborough Cathedral retrochoir - fan vaulting, which further evolved into pendant vaulting.

The exteriors and interiors of Gothic cathedrals, particularly in France, were lavishly ornamented with sculpture and decoration on religious themes, designed for the great majority of parishioners who could not read. They were described as "Books for the poor." To add to the effect, all of the sculpture on the facades was originally painted and gilded.[58]

Each feature of the Cathedral had a symbolic meaning. The main portals at Notre-Dame de Paris, for instance, represented the entrance to paradise, with the Last Judgement depicted on the tympanum over the doors, showing Christ surrounded by the apostles, and by the signs of the zodiac, representing the movements of the heavens. The columns below the tympanum are in the form of statues of saints, literally reprinting them as "the pillars of the church."[59] Each saint had his own symbol: a winged lion stood for Saint Mark, an eagle with four wings meant Saint John the Apostle, and a winged bull symbolized Saint Luke. Sculpted angels had specific functions, sometimes as heralds, blowing trumpets, or holding up columns, as guardian angels; or holding crowns of thorns or crosses, as symbols of the crucifixion of Christ, or waving a container with incense, to illustrate their function at the throne of God. Floral and vegetal decoration was also very common, representing the Garden of Eden; grapes represented the wines of Eucharist.[59]

The tympanum over the central portal on the west facade of Notre-Dame de Paris vividly illustrates the Last Judgement, with figures of sinners being led off to hell, and good Christians taken to heaven. The sculpture of the right portal shows the coronation of the Virgin Mary, and the left portal shows the lives of saints who were important to Parisians, particularly Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary.[47]

The exteriors of cathedrals and other Gothic churches were also decorated with sculptures of a variety of fabulous and frightening grotesques or monsters. These included the chimera, a mythical hybrid creature which usually had the body of a lion and the head of a goat, and the strix or stryge, a creature resembling an owl or bat, which was said to eat human flesh. The strix appeared in classical Roman literature; it was described by the Roman poet Ovid, who was widely read in the Middle Ages, as a large-headed bird with transfixed eyes, rapacious beak, and greyish white wings.[60] They were part of the visual message for the illiterate worshippers, symbols of the evil and danger that threatened those who did not follow the teachings of the church.[61]

The gargoyles, which were added to Notre-Dame in about 1240, had a more practical purpose. They were the rain spouts of the cathedral, designed to divide the torrent of water which poured from the roof after rain, and to project it outwards as far as possible from the buttresses and the walls and windows so that it would not erode the mortar binding the stone. To produce many thin streams rather than a torrent of water, a large number of gargoyles were used, so they were also designed to be a decorative element of the architecture. The rainwater ran from the roof into lead gutters, then down channels on the flying buttresses, then along a channel cut in the back of the gargoyle and out of the mouth away from the cathedral.[58]

Many of the statues, particularly the grotesques, were removed from the facade in the 17th and 18th century, or were destroyed during the French Revolution. They were replaced with figures in the Gothic style, designed by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc during the 19th-century restoration. Similar figures appear on the other Gothic cathedrals of France.

Another common feature of Gothic cathedrals in France was a labyrinth or maze on the floor of the nave near the choir, which symbolized the difficult and often complicated journey of a Christian life before attaining paradise. Most labyrinths were removed by the 18th century, but a few, like the one at Amiens Cathedral, have been reconstructed, and the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral still exists essentially in its original form.[62]

• 
  Gothic oriel window of Collegium Carolinum of Prague University (around 1380)
• 
  Facade of the University of Salamanca in late Gothic Plateresque style (late 15th century)
• 
  Cloister of Collegium Maius in Krakow, Poland (late 15th century)
• 
  Chapel of King's College, Cambridge (1446–1544)
• 
  Tower and cloisters of Magdalen College, Oxford (1474–1480)

The first universities in Europe were closely associated with the Catholic church, and in the late 15th century they adapted variations of the Gothic style for their architecture. The Gothic style was adapted from English monasteries for use in the first colleges of Oxford University, including Magdalen College. It was also used at the University of Salamanca in Spain. The use of the late Gothic style at Oxford and Cambridge University inspired the picturesque Gothic architecture in U.S. colleges in the 19th and 20th century.

By the late Middle Ages university towns had grown in wealth and importance as well, and this was reflected in the buildings of some of Europe's ancient universities. Particularly remarkable examples still standing nowadays include the Collegio di Spagna in the University of Bologna, built during the 14th and 15th centuries; the Collegium Carolinum of the Charles University in Prague in Bohemia; the Escuelas mayores of the University of Salamanca in Spain; the chapel of King's College, Cambridge; or the Collegium Maius of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

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