History of Romanesque
History of Romanesque
History of Romanesque
As the collapse of the Roman Empire gave way to the Dark Ages, the early Christian church and its
political champions took the reins of medieval Europe and, thus, the Romanesque style was born.
Drawing from the architecture of Rome, Byzantine art, and biblical stories about the life of Christ,
Romanesque churches and castles dominated the landscape of the Middle Ages.
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.
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.
Arches
/
In the vaulting of the naves of the Romanesque churches
Romanesque architects were nothing if not ambitious. Not only did they want to build huge
new churches, but they also wanted to roof those churches with masonry, not wood. Now, you
can't just run masonry horizontally; you can't build a ceiling like you would a wall. The pieces
would fall out.
To tackle this problem, Romanesque architects turned to their favorite form: the semicircular
arch. An arch allows you to build unsupported openings out of masonry. It only took a little bit
of cleverness to stretch this arch out, making a sort of tunnel. When this arched tunnel is used
to roof a building, it's called vaulting. There were three sorts of vaulting popular in Romanesque
times. First was the barrel vault. Next came the groin vault, which was later improved to ribbed
vault
The barrel vault is the simplest sort of vaulting. It's just a semicircular arch stretched along a
single axis. The barrel vault had been around for a very long time. We see its use in ancient
Egypt and Rome. Earlier Medieval churches had also made use of this technique, but its use was
modest, and, with a few exceptions, underground. With the Romanesque, we see barrel vaults
get pushed to their limits.