Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque Architecture
The Romanesque Architecture developed due to the following reasons:

• The end of Barbarian invasions
• The decomposition of Cordoba (it’s a city in Spain)
• The establishment of peace in the Christian world with the development of the cities, commerce and industry.
Introduction to Romanesque architecture
From roughly 1000 to 1200 CE, Romanesque was the architectural style most closely associated with church building throughout
Western Europe. Drawing on classical Roman precedents, including the rounded arch and stone vault, Romanesque was the
precursor to the better-known Gothic style. It accompanied a period of increased church building, religious fervor, prosperity, and
population growth around the turn of the first millennium.
Romanesque architecture gets its name from its use of classical Roman structural components, particularly the stone barrel vault
and rounded arch (the term Romanesque did not exist in the Middle Ages). Earlier medieval buildings had also used some Roman
features, but not so cohesively or on such a grand scale. Byzantine influence, especially gold-ground mosaics, commonly
appeared in Italian Romanesque churches. Few people would confuse most Romanesque buildings with classical Roman ones
despite their shared architectural forms.
For hundreds of years after the Fall of Rome, medieval artistic and architectural style had primarily been a local affair.
Romanesque, however, achieved international usage. Examples appear in France, England, Italy, Spain, Germany, Scandinavia,
and the Crusader States (areas of the Holy Land controlled by Latin Christians), naturally with some regional variation.
The western world had become a more international place by this period, as relative peace and prosperity facilitated travel and
trade. People and goods moved across land and sea, bringing ideas like Romanesque with them. The Norman conquests, the most
famous of which was over England in 1066, but also included Sicily and southern Italy, are often credited with bringing
Romanesque to those areas. Romanesque churches in England are sometimes called Norman Romanesque or Anglo-Norman for
this reason. Elsewhere, Romanesque spread to parts of Spain that had recently rejoined the Christian fold after centuries of
Islamic rule. Finally, pilgrimage, crusades, and monasticism helped to spread Romanesque around Europe.
While basilicas of the early Christian, Carolingian, and Ottonian periods primarily featured wooden roofs, Romanesque churches often
have stone barrel vaults. Although they have the advantage of being fire resistant, stone vaults are extremely heavy and difficult to
construct. To support them, Romanesque churches have massive piers or columns and thick walls that could only be interrupted by
small windows. The addition of wide galleries (like balconies) above the aisle roofs served both to buttress the vaults and to provide
additional space for visitors. External buttresses helped as well, though elaborate flying buttress would not come into use until the Gothic
period. Transverse arches, often in contrasting colors of masonry, reinforced the vaults like the hoops on a barrel, but they also added even
more weight to the structure.
Romanesque buildings gain their impact through their monumentality and simple, horizontally-focused arrangement of architectural forms
rather than through detail or complexity. The overall results are solid, castle-like church buildings with fairly dark interiors and imposing
exterior facades flanked by towers.
Romanesque Doors Are Decorated With Intense Imagery

The most significant figurative sculpture occur on the portals — entry doors and their arched surrounds.
Most Romanesque churches have at least five portals, including three on the western facade and one at each
end of the transept. The portal presents ample locations for sculpture, particularly in the large arched area
above the door, called the tympanum.
Romanesque sculpture is bold, static, and not especially naturalistic, but it certainly packs a punch. Christ as
Judge appears in the center of the tympanum in a full-body halo called a mandorla. All around him, dead
souls rise from their graves, are weighed, and are sent off to Heaven or Hell. Unsurprisingly, it’s on the Hell
side that things get graphic, with demons carrying off the damned, hellmouths devouring people, grotesque
beasts torturing sinners, and more.
Characteristic of Romanesque Architecture
• Harmonious proportions
• Stone barrel vault or groin vault
• Thick and heavy walls
• Thick and heavy pillars
• Small windows
• Round arches supporting the roof
• Round “blind arches” used extensively for decoration inside and outside
• Nave with side aisles
• Galleries above the side aisle, separated from the nave by a triforium
• Multiple towers usually at the west end and over the transept crossing
• Sculptured decoration on portals, capitals and other surfaces
• Painted decoration throughout the interior
The columns commonly used where cylindrical. Romanesque capitals were decorated with a vast variety of forms. The simplest type was the
stone cube (see figure below extreme left), slightly rounded at the bottom to join the circular section of the column’s shaft. But commonly, these
capitals were decorated with leaves (below center) in a new interpretation of the acanthus leaves of the classic Corinthian capital, or were also
decorated with interlaced (below far right) as a reminiscence of the geometric themes of Irish Pre-Romanesque art and its subsequent
diffusion during the Carolingian period. In other regions, these capitals reflected a clear Muslim influence. Other favorite themes used by
decorators of Romanesque capitals were figures of stylized animals (alone at the center-the historiated capital): lions, turkeys, griffins, all
influenced by the study of fabrics, ivory and weapons imported from the East, particularly Sassanid. The decoration of Romanesque capitals
included depictions of the Old and New Testaments, episodes from the work at farms, scenes from the arts and industries, and a myriad of other
themes that constitute a real plastic encyclopedia of medieval life.
There are 3 main architectonical typologies
1. Churches
2. Monasteries
3. Castles
Building Materials and Methods
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Romanesque Architecture

The Romanesque Architecture developed due to the following reasons:

Romanesque Doors Are Decorated With Intense Imagery

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