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The South-Western Tower,
Ely Cathedral, England.
Photo: 22 November 2009.
Source: From geograph.org.uk.
Author: Chris Gunns.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Other characteristics of Early-Gothic architecture, such as Vertical Shafts, Clustered Columns, Compound Piers, Plate Tracery, and groups of narrow openings, had evolved during the Romanesque period. The West Front of Ely Cathedral exemplifies this development. Internally, the three-tiered arrangement of Arcade, Gallery and Clerestory was established. Interiors had become lighter with the insertion of more and larger windows.
The Abbey of Saint-Denis, France, is generally cited as the first truly Gothic building, however, Noyon Cathedral, also in France, saw the earliest completion of a rebuilding of an entire Cathedral in the new style, from 1150-1231. 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 the Round-Headed Arch throughout the building, varying the shape to Pointed, where it was functionally practical to do so.
Ely Cathedral, England.
Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
The West Tower (1174–97).
Photo: June 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: User:Tom-.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Eastern End of the Basilica Church of Saint-Denis, France, built by Abbot Suger and completed in 1144, is often cited as the first truly-Gothic building, as it draws together many of the architectural forms which had evolved from Romanesque and typify the Gothic style.
Suger, 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 a Royal Residence. He began with the West Front, reconstructing the original Carolingian façade with its single door. He designed the façade 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.
The Nave, looking toward the Altar.
Photo: 6 February 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mattana.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Soissons Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais de Soissons) is a Gothic Cathedral in Soissons, France. The construction of the South Transept was begun about 1177, and the lowest courses of the Choir in 1182. The Choir, with its original three-storey elevation and extremely tall Clerestory, was completed in 1211. This was earlier than Chartres, on which the design was supposed to have been based. Work then continued into the Nave until the Late-13th-Century.
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. To achieve his aims, his masons drew on the several new features which evolved from, 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.
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.
These Cathedrals were the skyscrapers of their day and would have been the largest buildings by far that Europeans would ever have seen. It is in the architecture of these Gothic Churches that a unique combination of existing technologies established the emergence of a new building style. Those technologies were the ogival, or Pointed Arch, the Ribbed Vault, and the Buttress.
The Gothic style, when applied to an ecclesiastical building, emphasises verticality and light. This appearance was achieved by the development of certain architectural features, which together provided an engineering solution. The structural parts of the building ceased to be its solid walls, and became a stone skeleton comprising Clustered Columns, Pointed Ribbed Vaults and Flying Buttresses.
The Gothic style, when applied to an ecclesiastical building, emphasises verticality and light. This appearance was achieved by the development of certain architectural features, which together provided an engineering solution. The structural parts of the building ceased to be its solid walls, and became a stone skeleton comprising Clustered Columns, Pointed Ribbed Vaults and Flying Buttresses.
Wells Cathedral, England.
". . . the first truly-Gothic Cathedral."
Photo: 8 May 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: Hisane.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Nave is generally flanked on either side by Aisles, usually single, but sometimes double. The Nave is generally considerably taller than the Aisles, having Clerestory windows which light the central space. Gothic Churches of the Germanic tradition, like Saint Stephen of Vienna, often have Nave and Aisles of similar height and are called Hallenkirche. In the South of France, there is often a single wide Nave and no Aisles, as at Sainte-Marie in Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges.
Lincoln, England.
Clerestory and Triforium.
Photo: 16 April 2011.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mattana.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Lincoln, England.
Sexpartite Vaulting above the Nave.
Photo: 16 April 2011.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mattana.
(Wikimedia Commons)
In some Churches with Double Aisles, like Notre Dame, Paris, the Transept does not project beyond the Aisles. In English Cathedrals, Transepts tend to project boldly, and there may be two of them, as at Salisbury Cathedral, though this is not the case with lesser Churches.
The Eastern Arm shows considerable diversity. In England, it is generally long and may have two distinct sections, both Choir and Presbytery. It is often square ended or has a projecting Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In France, the Eastern End is often polygonal and surrounded by a walkway, called an Ambulatory, and sometimes a ring of Chapels called a "chevet". While German Churches are often similar to those of France, in Italy, the Eastern projection, beyond the Transept, is usually just a shallow Apsidal Chapel containing the Sanctuary, as at Florence Cathedral.
PART FOUR FOLLOWS.
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