Medieval Architecture.01

Medieval architecture
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(July 2010)
Bodiam Castle, England, fourteenth century.
Medieval architecture is architecture common in Medieval Europe.
Contents
 1 Characteristics
o 1.1 Religious architecture
o 1.2 Military architecture
o 1.3 Civil architecture
o 1.4 Pre-Romanesque
o 1.5 Romanesque
o 1.6 Gothic
 2 In Central Europe
 3 In Scandinavia
 4 In Kievan Rus
 5 Further reading
Characteristics
Cloisters of Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy, France.
Religious architecture
The Latin cross plan, common in medieval ecclesiastical architecture, takes the Roman basilica
as its primary model with subsequent developments. It consists of a nave, transepts, and the altar
stands at the east end (see Cathedral diagram). Also, cathedrals influenced or commissioned by
Justinian employed the Byzantine style of domes and a Greek cross (resembling a plus sign),
with the altar located in the sanctuary on the east side of the church.
Further information: Cistercian architecture
Military architecture
Zvolen Castle in Slovakia strongly inspired by Italian castles of the fourteenth century
Main articles: castle and tower house
Surviving examples of medieval secular architecture mainly served for defense. Castles and
fortified walls provide the most notable remaining non-religious examples of medieval
architecture. Windows gained a cross-shape for more than decorative purposes: they provided a
perfect fit for a crossbowman to safely shoot at invaders from inside. Crenellated walls
(battlements) provided shelters for archers on the roofs to hide behind when not shooting
invaders
Civil architecture
 Half-timbered construction
 Jettying, in which the faces of upper floors project beyond lower ones
Donington le Heath Manor House Museum, Leicestershire is a surviving example of a Medieval

Manor House dating back to 1280. It is now open to the public as a museum.
Pre-Romanesque
Early medieval secular architecture in pre-romanesque Spain: the palace of Santa María del
Naranco, c.850.
Main article: Pre-Romanesque art and architecture
See also: First Romanesque
European architecture in the Early Middle Ages may be divided into Early Christian,
Romanesque architecture, Russian church architecture, Norse Architecture, Pre-Romanesque,
including Merovingian, Carolingian, Ottonian, and Asturian. While these terms are problematic,
they nonetheless serve adequately as entries into the era. Considerations that enter into histories
of each period include Trachtenberg's "historicising" and "modernising" elements, Italian versus
northern, Spanish, and Byzantine elements, and especially the religious and political
maneuverings between kings, popes, and various ecclesiastic officials.
Romanesque
Main article: Romanesque architecture
Romanesque, prevalent in medieval Europe during the 11th and 12th centuries, was the first pan-
European style since Roman Imperial Architecture and examples are found in every part of the
continent. The term was not contemporary with the art it describes, but rather, is an invention of
modern scholarship based on its similarity to Roman Architecture in forms and materials.
Romanesque is characterized by a use of round or slightly pointed arches, barrel vaults, and
cruciform piers supporting vaults.
Gothic
Main article: Gothic architecture
The various elements of Gothic architecture emerged in a number of 11th and 12th century
building projects, particularly in the Île de France area, but were first combined to form what we
would now recognise as a distinctively Gothic style at the 12th century abbey church of Saint-
Denis in Saint-Denis, near Paris. Verticality is emphasized in Gothic architecture, which features
almost skeletal stone structures with great expanses of glass, pared-down wall surfaces supported
by external flying buttresses, pointed arches using the ogive shape, ribbed stone vaults, clustered
columns, pinnacles and sharply pointed spires. Windows contain stained glass, showing stories
from the Bible and from lives of saints. Such advances in design allowed cathedrals to rise taller
than ever, and it became something of an inter-regional contest to build a church as high as
possible. Variations included Brick Gothic
In Central Europe
Malbork Castle in Poland

Main article: Brick Gothic
Main article: Romanesque architecture
See also: Austrian Walled Towns
In Scandinavia
Main article: Norse architecture
In Kievan Rus
Main articles: Architecture of Kievan Rus' and Russian church architecture
Further reading
 Braun, Hugh, An Introduction to English Mediaeval Architecture, London: Faber and
Faber, 1951.
 Fletcher, Banister; Cruickshank, Dan, Sir Banister Fletcher's a History of Architecture,
Architectural Press, 20th edition, 1996 (first published 1896). ISBN 0-7506-2267-9. Cf.
Part Two, Chapter 13.
[show]
 v
 t
 e
History of architecture
[show]
 v
 t
 e
European Middle Ages

Categories:
 Medieval architecture
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Medieval architecture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bodiam Castle, England, fourteenth century.

Medieval architecture is architecture common in Medieval Europe.

Further information: Cistercian architecture

Donington le Heath Manor House Museum, Leicestershire is a surviving example of a Medieval

Main article: Romanesque architecture

Main article: Gothic architecture

Malbork Castle in Poland

European Middle Ages

 What links here

 This page was last modified on 10 October 2014 at 16:38.

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