Which of These Was an Experimental Type of Romanesque Architecture

Medieval architectural style

French Romanesque architecture

Acme : Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Vigor de Cerisy (1080–1085):  ; Center left: Tower of Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse: Center right: Nave and painted columns of Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe in Poitou; Bottom: The key Typanum at Vézelay Abbey
Years active	Stop of the 10th to the mid-12th century
Land	French republic

Romanesque compages appeared in France at the end of the 10th century, with the development of feudal club and the rise and spread of monastic orders, particularly the Benedictines, which built many important abbeys and monasteries in the style. It continued to dominate religious architecture until the appearance of French Gothic architecture in the Île-de-French republic between most 1140–1150.^[1]

Distinctive features of French romanesque architecture include thick walls with small windows, rounded arches; a long nave covered with barrel vaults; and the use of the groin vault at the intersection of two barrel vaults, all supported past massive columns; a level of tribunes above the galleries on the footing floor, and pocket-sized windows above the tribunes; and rows of outside buttresses supporting the walls. Churches normally had a cupola over the transept, supported past four adjoining arches; one or more than large foursquare towers, and a semi-round apse with radiating small-scale chapels. Decoration normally included very ornate sculpted capitals on columns and an elaborate semi-circular sculpted tympanum, usually illustrating the Final Judgement, over the chief portal. Interior decoration oft included murals covering the walls, colored tiles, and early on stained glass windows. Tardily in the twelfth century, the rib vault began to appear, specially in churches in Normandy and Paris, introducing the transition to the Gothic manner.^[1]

Characteristics

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Programme

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At the showtime of the eleventh century, inspired past the appearance of the style in northern Italy, Romanesque architecture spread west beyond southern France equally far as Catalonia and Spain, and so northward up the valley of the Rhône river. In the early Romanesque menses, churches followed the traditional form of a Roman basilica, peculiarly the plan of the Byzantine Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. They had a unmarried long nave, usually without a transept, which concluded in a hemispherical apse. They commonly had at to the lowest degree one bong tower, sometimes separated from the Nave.
^[2]

In the afterward Romanesque catamenia, in the final tertiary of the 11th century, new building techniques were introduced which allowed taller and wider churches. Two new plans became common. The first was the Benedictine plan, used in Cluny Abbey and the other new Benedictine monasteries. It featured three naves, with a transept at the crossing, and ranks of pocket-sized chapels on either side of the apse on the east end. A modified plan appeared in the new abbeys and churches designed to welcome pilgrims traveling to shrines in Spain. These new churches were designed to adjust big numbers of visitors, and included an ambulatory, or walkway, leading to several small chapels radiating in a semicircle from the alcove. The ambulatory allowed visitors to easily access whatever of the chapels, without disturbing the service in the nave. They ofttimes had multiple towers over the entrance and wings of the transept, and sometimes a dome over the crossing point of the transept and nave. Saint-Front end de Périgueux, modeled after St Marker’southward Basilica in Venice, is an example.
^[2]

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  Programme of Cluny Abbey, with portal and pre-nave and ii towers, on the west, two transepts with towers, and an apse with radiating chapels on the due east.

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  Apse of Abbaye Saint-Marie in Souillac, with radiating chapels

Arches and vaults

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Rounded arches were the almost common and almost distinctive feature of the Romanesque way, though most the end of the menses, pointed arches began to appear, particularly in Normandy. Builders began to experiment with vaulted ceilings, first in the crypt beneath the church, and then in the nave. The earliest types were the simple barrel vault, which rested upon rows of massive columns. After churches used the
voute d’arête
or groin vault, ii barrel vaults combined at right angles, which were stronger but required slap-up skill to construct. Later in the menstruum, the
voute en berceau briséé
or rib vault was introduced, which carried the thrust of the weight of the roof outwards and downwards, through thin ribs, to supporting columns and buttresses.
^[iii]

As the naves became college and higher, with the weight pressing down and outward on the walls, the walls had to exist supported by massive masonry buttresses on the exterior. Because of the need for thick, solid walls, the windows were few and pocket-size in size. The ground floor had rows of massive columns, which supported the vaults of the roof. The walls were divided by thin colonettes, which also provided back up to the roof.

The domes were either supported past an octagonal base (Sur trompes) or a round base (Sur pendentifs), equanimous of barrel arches coming together at right angles.
^[3]

The half dozen-part rib vault, a key innovation in the transition to Gothic architecture, had been introduced in England in about 1100, and made its first appearance in France in the reconstruction of the naves of the church of the Abbey of Saint-Étienne, Caen, The Abbey of Sainte-Trinité, Caen, in nigh 1120. Information technology also appeared in Burgundy and in an experimental version at the Abbey of Vézelay at virtually the same fourth dimension. These vaults allowed ceilings that were lighter and stronger, and carried the weight outwards to columns and buttresses, so the supporting walls could exist college and thinner, with larger windows.
^[4]

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Elevations

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The walls were divided into vertical sections, separated by sparse columns of
colonettes
which supported the vaults of the roof. The footing level of the nave was usually flanked by columned arcades. These were normally surmounted by tribunes, or a galleries, where the faithful could assemble to watch the ceremony in the nave below. The level higher up the tribune usually had a row of windows bringing light into the interior.

The tribunes provided greater width and support to the wall, which meant that churches could be higher. In some churches in the Auvergne region, the tribune rose upwards two levels, which meant that petty light came into the nave. In Normandy, the tribune was often replaced by a
Triforium, a narrow walkway. In Aquitaine, the churches had a unmarried wide nave, which immune more light to enter. Taller churches required heavy stone buttresses placed against the exterior walls to support the weight of the roof. This problem was not resolved until the Gothic menses, when the introduction of the rib vault transferred the weight of the roof to the flying buttresses exterior the walls.
^[v]

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  Interior of Saint-Front Cathedral in Périgueux

Facades

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The exterior ornamentation of the early Romanesque churches was simple, usually composed of vertical stripes of carved stone joined at the tiptop past a band of uncomplicated arcs (bandes lombardes); or a
frieze
of arcs, and, at the
chevet,
a series of toothlike niches. The columns often had cubic carved capitals. Exterior decoration was usually either vegetal, such every bit carved acanthus leaves or palm fronds, or geometric forms. Occasionally sculpture with simplified homo forms with biblical texts appeared on the lintels.^[6]

However, with the construction of new abbeys and pilgrimage churches, the facades became much more theatrical. The Facade of the Église Notre-Dame la Grande, Poitiers is 1 of the best surviving examples of a Romanesque pilgrimage church building facade. It does not have a sculpted tympanum over its portal; instead, the whole facade serves as a theater of biblical scenes; a frieze of sculptures over the portals represents the stories of the original sin and redemption; a multitude of pocket-size sculptures around the doors depicts fabulous animals and other biblical themes.

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  The facade of Notre Matriarch du Puy, in the southwestern Auvergne region, is built of brick, local white sandstone and blackness volcanic stone (11th century)

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  Facade of the church building of the Cistercian Thoronet Abbey, entirely bare of decoration (1176–1200)

Portals

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The Portal, or archway of the Romanesque church received the most elaborate and dramatic sculptural decoration. Information technology was designed every bit the
Porta Coeli
or “Doorway to sky”, a depiction of biblical stories and images in stone, which in before churches had been shown on the sculpture of the altar. The usual themes of the portal were the Biblical Day of Judgement, promising Redemption for proficient Christians, and the Apocalypse for the others. Each church was different; at Moissac. the figure of Christ was surrounded by the four Evangelists, and the group was encircled by the xx-four figures of the Apocalypse. The portal of Toulouse cathedral featured the Ascension of Christ, while the Abbey Church building of Sainte-Foy illustrated the contrasts between hell and the virtuous life of Sainte-Foy.^[7]

While the portals of cathedrals traditionally faced w, on Romanesque churches they often were oriented toward the main street or square of the boondocks. In the Cathedral of Cahors it faced due north, onto the ancient main street; in Toulouse and Moissiac information technology faced south, onto the street that led to the center of the boondocks.

One of the most famous sculptural works of the French Romanesque period is Moissac Abbey, a modest-sized abbey which had been a dependency of Cluny since 1047. It was commissioned by the Abbot Roger betwixt 1115 and 1131. It is v.63 meters in bore, and is composed of xx-viii blocks of stone, which were sculpted and then assembled. It depicts the Apocalypse as described in the Bible by Saint John. Christ is seated on a throne in the heart, surrounded by a lion, a bull, an hawkeye in flight, and a man face, which in plow surrounded by twenty-8 seated wise men, who volition make the Last Judgement.^[8]

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  At the lateral archway of Saint-Sernin of Toulouse, the ascending Christ, surrounded by superb angels, is the key figure on one of the oldest tympanums in Romanesque compages (circa 1115).

Towers and domes

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Bell towers and domes were another distinctive feature of the Romanesque. In the early monastery churches the bell tower Was often split up from the church. In the later menses, big abbey churches, like Cluny, had two towers at the portal end, a tower where the transept crossed the nave, and towers on the ends of transept.

The main domes or cupolas were usually placed at crossing of the nave and the transept, and symbolized the heavens. They were often supported by four arches forming a square and supported past four massive pillars’ which symbolically represented the 4 Evangelists, Matthew, Marker, Luke and John. The pillars held upwards a
Voûte d’arêtes, or cantankerous vault, where the barrels vaults of the nave and transept met at right angles. The curving triangular surfaces of these vaults, which joined the vi or viii sides of the cupola to the four pillars, were called squinches’, or pendentives, and were often decorated with the faces of the Four Evangelists, who were considered the symbolic link between the heavens and world, or with angels or other Biblical figures.^[nine]

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History

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Early Romanesque and the Meridional style

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The Romanesque style in France developed first in the south of France, particularly in the provinces bordering on Catalonia. Amongst the best surviving examples are the church and cloister of the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Cuxa, congenital betwixt 956 and 974. Churches in this region followed the program of a basilica, with a modest or no transept, They were congenital of massive stones, with trivial or no decoration on the interior walls. The bells were usually located in a separate tower, decorated with Lombard bands. The curtilage of Saint-Michel de Cuxa, built in the 12th century, features columns of rose-colored marble and carved capitals in vegetal and animal shapes on the columns.^[10]

Around the twelvemonth 1000, The architects of the abbeys in Burgundy began experimenting with different forms of vaulted ceilings, at showtime largely to avoid the danger of fires on the wooden roofs. The church building of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Philibert de Tournus was an early example. The nave was covered past transversal barrel vaults, perpendicular to the axis of the nave, supported past rows of columns. The weight of the roof pressed downwards on the columns, not on the walls, This meant that the walls could be thinner, and could take larger windows, filling the church building with more lite.^[xi]

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  Abbey of Saint-Martin du Canigou, in the Pyrenees (beginning of 11th century)

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  Church of Saint-Martin, Chapaize, Ssone-et-Loire (about 1030)

Late Romanesque – Benedictine Abbeys

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Religious orders played a particularly important role in the development of the Romanesque style. The reorganization of the Cosmic Church nether Louis the Pious (813-840), and the foundation of the commencement monastery under the rules of Saint Benedict (817), brought about important changes in religious practices and architecture. The Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded in 909 by William of Aquitaine, was the center of a resurgence of religious activity. In France, by the cease of the 11th century, at that place were 815 monastic houses, and more than than 10 g monks, under the authority of the Abbot of Cluny. The flourishing of the monasteries reached a peak elevation under Pope Gregory Vii (1073–1085).^[12]

Cluny Abbey was the largest and nearly influential of the monasteries in France, both in doctrine and in architecture. The Abbot Hugues de Cluny (1049–1109) decided to reconstruct and enlarge the original Abbey, including the Abbatiale, or Abbey church. The new Abbatiale was completed in 1130. The new church building was 187 meters long, and designed to arrange two hundred and fifty monks. It contained a double transept, an avant-nave on the west, and on the east a chevet with a deambulatoire passage which gave access to 5 radiating chapels. The nave itself was immense, covered with a vaulted ceiling ten.85 meters broad and 25 meters high. The elevation of the nave had three levels; the windows on the upper levels brought light into the interior. Information technology was crowned by five towers, the largest over the crossing of grand transept, two on either side of the entrance to the avant-nave, and 2 on the arms of the transept. Its gigantic proportions were non surpassed until the reconstruction of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome in the 16th century.^[12]

Cluny Abbey was about entirely destroyed during and after the French Revolution; the stones were reused in buildings across the region. The only remaining structures are the ii towers of the avant-nave, and the bell belfry on the s wing of the grand transept. Eight percentage of the original structure remains today.^[12]

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  Cluny Abbey equally it appeared in the twelfth century (1080–1810)

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Cistercian Monasteries

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The Cistercian monastic order was created by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1098; its first monastery was Cîteaux Abbey. Its principal doctrines were divers by Saint Bridegroom as separation from order, working for the necessities of life, and the refusal of anything unneeded for the get-go 2. The architecture of the new monasteries was designed to comply with these rules. The monasteries were built every bit far as possible from cities. The monks lived in unadorned buildings synthetic around a cloister, isolated from the outside world and from other parts of the monastery. The monks had individual cells, each with 3 pocket-size rooms; The “Ave Maria” for prayer; a second room with a desk and an alive for a bed; and a tertiary room for a workshop. Each later had its ain garden. A 2d edifice contained the mutual areas for the monks; a church building, the curtilage, the capitulary or meeting room; the kitchen and dining room. A third building was added for converts who were not monks, merely who wanted to share the monastic life. The order expanded to five monasteries; in France: Cîteaux Abbey, Clairvaux Abbey, Morimond Abbey, Pontigny Abbey, and La Ferté Abbey. These v became the “Female parent houses” for new Cistercian monasteries across the European continent and in England. Later on the death of Saint Bernard in 1153, the standard church architecture was modified; the hemispherical or square sanctuary of the church was replaced by a
chevet
with an ambulatory to pass from chapel to chapel.^[12]

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  The vaulted ceiling of the chapter business firm of Thoronet Abbey, where the monks met daily

Pilgrimage churches

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In the 2d period of Romanesque, kickoff in the last third of the 11th century, many romanesque churches in France were congenital forth the pilgrimage routes that Santiago de Compostela in Espana, where the reputed relics of Saint James the Neat were displayed. With the fall of Jerusalem under Islamic rule, the road to Santiago de Compostela became one of the two most important pilgrimage routes in Europe, beside the pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Peter in Rome. Churches along the route, included the Saint-Foy-de-Conques, were designed to provide space for large numbers of worshippers. The large pilgrimage churches featured a deambulatoire or columned passage around the choir, providing access to a series of small chapels, and even larger pilgrimage church building like the basilica of Saint-Sernin has double side aisles to facilitate the movement of pilgrims. Some other smaller notable church building on the route was the Abbey of Saint-Nectaire in Puy-de-Dôme, begun in 1080. Another of import church building on the route was Le Puy Cathedral, built in the 11th and 12th century.
^[13]

Another characteristic of the later Romanesque churches was greater height. These churches had a tribune or gallery on the level above the footing floor, where worshippers could wait downwardly into the Nave. The tribune provided greater stability and support for the high roof. In the Auvergne, the churches added another level; above the gallery there was another level of vaulted tribunes. These churches had bully height but little light penetrated into the nave. In other regions, such as Poitou, the tribunes and arcades were replaced by high windows bringing lite straight into the nave.^[14]

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Romanesque in Paris

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The Romanesque style made its first appearance in Paris with the construction of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The nave was constructed between 990 and 1160, and the tower, with a high chapel on its ground floor, was congenital between 990 and 1014. The western portion of nave was constructed between 990 and 1160. The choir, in the center of the church, begun in 1145, was congenital in the new Gothic fashion, pioneered at the Abbey of Saint-Denis.

Other Romanesque churches in Paris include Saint-Martin-des-Champs Priory(1060–1147). The surviving buildings of the monastery at present firm the Musée des Arts et Métiers of Paris. The walls of choir and chapels of the church building are supported by early buttresses, and it features a Romanesque bell tower. The Church building of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre (1147–1200), just below the peak of the hill of Montmartre, was ane of the first buildings in Paris, after the Abbey of Saint-Denis, to install rib vaults, which launched the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic.^[15]

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Normandy and Brittany

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The Romanesque style varied from region to region, largely in response to the materials available. In Brittany, the local granite stone was very dense and as well heavy for most roof structures; architects frequently preferred to cover the vaults with wood instead of stone. An example is the ceiling of the Abbatiale of the Abbey of Mont-San Michel.^[16]

The use of wooden vaulted ceilings instead of stone allowed the construction of taller and longer churches; the nave of Saint-Melanie of Rennes is more than than fourscore meters long and ten meters loftier especially at the crossing of the transept, the oldest part of the church building. Romanesque churches in Normandy often featured narrow tribunes and wide bays, which gave greater space to the interior.^[12]

The about notable Norman romanesque monuments are the 2 former abbey churches in Caen, both of which were remarkable for the height of their ceilings and their towers. They were both founded by William the Conqueror and constructed at the same time. The church of the Abbey of Saint-Étienne, Caen also known as the Abbey aux Hommes, was built by William the Conqueror as the principal church of the Abbey of Saint Stephen. The nave was constructed in most 1060–1065, and the twin towers in about 1120. The Abbey of Sainte-Trinité, Caen, known every bit the Abbey aux Femmes, was built at the aforementioned fourth dimension for the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, merely in a slightly different fashion.
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The structure of the two abbey churches saw the introduction of an important architectural innovation; a ceiling with an early form of rib vaults, used in both The Abbaye des Dames and the Abbaye des Hommes. The roof of the choir of the Abbaye des Dames was very loftier, eight meters, and in about 1100 to 1110 it began to show signs of weakness and was demolished. It was replaced in about 1120 by a rib vault, among the earliest in France, which allowed a lighter and stronger roof, and which permitted larger windows at the high level. Along with the very early experimental rib vaults at Vézelay Abbey and in Burgundy, this was one of the first rib vaults in France, and a notable predecessor of Gothic architecture.
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  Crossing of the transept in Notre-Dame-en-Saint-Melanie in Rennes, a Romanesque vestige

Decoration

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Sculpture

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The development of sculpture in Romanesque France was closely connected with architecture. The primeval sculptural decorations on altars and the interior surfaces of churches, on lintels, over doorways and peculiarly on the capitals of columns, which were commonly adorned with images of biblical figures and real or mythical animals. Most of the work was nigh flat with little attempt at realism. Some of the earliest Romanesque sculpture in French republic is plant at Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines Abbey (1019–1020) in the eastern Pyrenees. A lintel over a doorway portrays Christ on a throne, in a frame supported by two angels, and flanked by the apostles. The forms of the apostles are defined past the shapes of the arches into which they are squeezed.
^[17]

In the later Romanesque period, sculpture was often used to at the well-nigh important points, such as the facades, to emphasize the lines of the structure. It frequently used geometric designs (circles, squares, triangles). Spaces were crowded with figures, which were often contorted so they seemed to be dancing. The sculpture was nigh profuse on the capitals of columns and on the portals, where it was used to nowadays very complex and extended biblical stories. Sculptors also depicted a large number of animals, both real and imaginary, including chimeras, sirens, lions, and a wide range of monsters. Imagination unremarkably prevailed over realism.^[18]

Some of the near remarkable sculpture is found on the tympanum and the capitals of the columns of the cloister of Moissac Abbey in Mossac, Tarne-et-Garonne, and the columns of the abbey church of Saint-Marie [fr]
in Souillac in the Lot Department; and Saint-Philibert de Tournus Abbey in Burgundy.
^[17]

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Another remarkable grouping of Romanesque sculpture is establish in the ornament of the Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse in Toulouse, dating to the late 11th and early twelfth century. The figures are much more than realistic, and make good utilize of shadows and light to bring out the details. 1 of the most remarkable works is the altar tabular array, signed by its sculptor, Bernardus Gelduinus. He also made the vii sculptural reliefs institute in the convalescent of the cathedral.^[17]

In the middle and late 12th century, the sculptural decoration became much more realistic, detailed, and finely sculpted. Notable examples are the facade of the due west portal of the Church building of St. Trophime, Arles from the cease of the 12th century, decorated with stately figures of the apostles, and the capitals of the double columns in the curtilage, each one different, illustrating parsonages from the Bible. 3rd of the 12th century, The sculpture at Arles demonstrates the extent to which Romanesque had go an international mode. The left side of the west portal of the Church of St. Trophime, Arles (late 12th century) depicts the Apocalypse according to Saint John. The use of sculpted lions’ heads to support the pilasters is borrowed from Italy, and a number of the figures on the capitals in the cloister, illustrating the Iii Kings and the flight from Egypt, were made by Benedetto Antelami, ane of the master Romanesque sculptors of Italia.^[17]

Vézelay Abbey is likewise famous for its rich and complex tympanum, sheltered within the big porch of the church. Its theme is the Pentecost, with biblical stories, and how the bulletin of Christ was being spread to the different peoples of the earth, as well every bit images of the mythical creatures who were believed to alive at the edges of the earth. It was made in tn thursday 12th century, when Vézelay was considered an of import intellectual eye. under i of its Abbots, Peter the Venerable.
^[xix]
Some other famous tympani is that of the Abbey Church of Saint Foy, in Conques, in which some one hundred characters are depicted in brilliant scenes from the Final Judgement.
^[xx]

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Murals

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The interiors of French Romanesque churches were filled with color, including paintings on the walls and ceiling, mosaics on the floor, and, late in the flow, early stained drinking glass windows. The exceptions were the abbeys of the Cistercians, which independent no decoration at all. Most of the murals were destroyed in the 18th and 19th century, when it was felt that a blank stone wall was more than appropriate for a church interior.^[21]
2 different techniques were usually used; either a fresco, painted while the plaster was still wet with pigment diluted with h2o; or
détrempe, painted the pigments mixed with a binder, such as an oil or eggwhite, and painted on dry plaster. Often both techniques were used, with the big designs painted as a fresco, and the details
détremps. The piece of work required rapid execution. The subjects were chosen past the Church bureaucracy, not past the artists, and the names of the artists, in most cases, remained unknown.
^[21]

The walls of Romanesque churches were rarely left bare. Many Romanesque church interiors were painted with cycles of illustrations of Biblical stores. Sometimes the topics were of local interest; the paintings at Saint-Martin-de-Vic illustrate how the monks of Tours stole relics from the Monastery of Poitiers. The paintings were not limited to the interiors, and often also covered the tympanums capitals, and other outside ornament. The sculpture in the interior was also commonly painted. Wooden church ceilings, common before the broad use of rib arches, were besides usually painted. An early on example of a painted church is Berzé-la-Ville, where the paintings on the ceiling of the Chapel of the Monks draw the moment that Christ gave the apostles Peter and Paul the messages to spread to the world.
^[21]

One of the about of import existing examples of a painted French Romanesque church is Abbey Church building of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe in Poitou. It was founded in the ninth century over the tombs of the Christian martyrs Sabinus of Spoleto and Saint Cyprian, and in the Heart Ages became a major pilgrimage church building. Beginning in about 1100, the church was enlarged and entirely painted inside, from the crypt to the ceiling, The faux-marble of the columns in the nave were too painted. The architecture of the church,including the placement of the arches and vaults, was designed to make the paintings, the main allure, more hands visible.
^[22]

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  Painted apse in the Chapel of the Monks at Berzé-la-Ville (most 1100)

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  Detail of apostles from Chapel of the Monks of Berzé-la-Ville (virtually 1100)

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floor tiles and mosaics

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Colored or encrusted flooring were some other form of decoration, assembled into mosaics and geometric designs on floors or walls. The most mutual tiles were simple baked world, given a cherry-red color by iron oxide, mixed with tiles colored yellow by litharge, a class of lead oxide. Darker or lighter colored tiles were made by varying the time of baking. Commonly just two colors were used, to give greater harmony.

One of the near notable early examples is the tile floor surrounding the tomb of King Philip I of French republic, in Fleury Abbey in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire^[23]
One of the most famous belatedly examples is the Church building of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives in Calvados, Normandy (13th century). The floor of the nave has a round design three meters in diameter, made of colorful tiles in concentric circles. alternating yellowish on black with black on yellowish. The tiles are illustrated with deer, lizards, chimeras, and ii-headed eagles, along with flour-des-lys and palmettes.^[24]

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  Choir flooring of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives in Calvados

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  Detail of the choir floor of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives in Calvados

Stained drinking glass

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The fine art of making stained glass had been used to brand colored drinking glass goblets, bottles, and lamps equally early every bit the 8th century. Early drinking glass window panes appeared in Syria and Egypt in the 8th century, and in France under the Emperor Charlemagne. The earliest drinking glass windows were clear to requite maximum light, since the windows were small and the church interiors were already very nighttime. Articulate drinking glass windows appeared during the Romanesque catamenia in the Abbeys of the Cistercians, at Bonlieu Abbey in the Creuse, Aubazine in Corrèze, Saint-Serge in Angers, and others. The glass was very sparse, no more than half a centimeter, and very fragile. It was also very difficult to cutting, since the employ of diamonds to cutting glass had non been discovered; glass was cut with heated irons. Cobalt oxide was used to make a fine deep blue, green and red from copper, purple from manganese, and xanthous from iron and manganese.^[25]

An important development took identify in the 11th century, when wooden frames were replaced by frames of lead, which allowed more varied designs and pieces of many different sizes. Very early stained drinking glass windows were in identify at the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy in 1071. The earliest known stained glass window in France is a caput of Christ from the 11th century, which was originally in Weissenburg Abbey, Alsace.^[26]

One of the earliest stained drinking glass windows installed in France was the Crucifixion window of Poitiers Cathedral, put in place in The installation of new stained glass windows by the Abbot Suger in the choir of the Abbey of Saint-Denis in the mid-12th century was 1 of the decisive steps of the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic style. Thereafter, stained drinking glass, non murals, became the near prominent decorative element of French cathedrals.

Armed forces architecture

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The Romanesque catamenia saw important innovations in military architecture, particularly the development of potent stone-walled keeps and castles. Previously, the residences of nobles and fortifications had ordinarily been built of wooden walls or earthen palisades. The frequency of invasions and wars, and the improvements in siege engines, made it necessary to build stronger fortresses of stone. Only the nobles of the highest level were permitted past the Rex to build fortified residences. The new castles of the dignity were not just military defenses, but also symbols of the rank and power of the nobles.^[27]

The typical castles of this menstruum had a high belfry, chosen a
donjon
or go along, commonly surrounded by a lower wall, called a shell keep. The earliest were rectangular, but were ordinarily replaced by a round or octagonal tower. The earliest surviving vestiges are at Doué le Fontaine in Maine-et-Loire (most 950). and Langeais (most 1017)

The Caesar Tower in Provins from the kickoff of the 12th century, has an octagonal tower flanked past iv semi-circular towers, all placed on superlative of a stone platform seventeen meters by seventeen meters. A walkway midway upwardly the principal tower gives access to the corner towers. The whole structure is surrounded by some other wall, the crush keep, on the ground level.^[27]

The largest and virtually powerful castle of the period was the original Louvre in Paris, begun in about 1200 past King Philip II of France, and completed in the 13th century. Only the massive foundations remain; they are visible on the ground floor under the Louvre Museum. The sprawling ruins of another castle from this period, Druyes-les-Belles-Fontaines, begun in 1200, can be found in the Yonne Department.

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  The Caesar Belfry in Provins (beginning of 12th century), an octagonal
  donjon
  or tower surrounded by a “shell keep”, or lower wall (early twelfth century)

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  The Château de Gisors in the Eure built past the Dukes of Normandy. (tower from about 1170, shell keep from the 12th century)

Urban architecture

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But a small amount of urban architecture from the period remains, and many of those buildings were abundantly and non always skillfully altered in afterward centuries. The main examples are the episcopal palaces of bishops, notably in Auxerre and in Saint-Antonin. Their principal features are galleries and arcades forth the length of the facade. on the facade. One famous example Romanesque civic architecture is the Pont Saint-Bénézet, better known as the Bridge of Avignon. Three arches of the original bridge survive, along with the Romanesque chapel of Saint-Bénézet, with a polygonal abside and a nave with butt vaults
^[28]

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  Former bishop’s residence, the Hotel Granolhet in Saint-Antonin (12th century)

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  Former Bishop’s residence, with the original Romanesque gallery, in Auxerre (twelfth century)

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  The Chapel Saint-Bénezet on the Pont Saint-Bénézet, or Bridge of Avignon (second half of 12th century)

Notes and citations

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Bibliography

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• Ducher, Robert (1998).
  Caractéristique des Styles
  (in French). Flammarion. ISBN2-08-011539-1.
  
• De Morant, Henry (1970).
  Histoire des arts décoratifs
  (in French). Hachette.
  
• Erland-Brandenburg, Alain (2005).
  L’art roman- Un défi européen
  (in French). Gallimard. ISBN2-07-030068-4.
  
• Hopkins, Owen (2014).
  Les styles en architecture
  (in French). Dunod. ISBN978-two-x-070689-1.
  
• Mignon, Olivier (2017).
  Compages du Patrimoine Française – Abbayes, Églises, Cathédrales et Châteaux
  (in French). Éditions Ouest-France. ISBN978-27373-7611-v.
  
• Prina, Francesca; Demartini, Elena (2006).
  Petite encylopédie de l’architecture
  (in French). Paris: Solar. ISBN2-263-04096-10.
  
• Renault, Christophe; Lazé, Christophe (2006).
  Les Styles de l’architecture et du mobilier
  (in French). Gisserot. ISBN978-2-87747-465-8.
  
• Texier, Simon (2012).
  Paris- Panorama de 50’architecture. Parigramme. ISBN978-2-84096-667-viii.
  
• Toman, Rolf (2015).
  L’Art Roman – Architecture, Sculpture, Peinture
  (in French). H.F. Ullmann. ISBN978-iii-8331-1039-nine.