Romanesque Romanesque ArchitectureArchitecture

Romanesque• Time period from approximately 1000 – 1150 CE, so-called because of the revival of the use of stone sculpture and stone vaulting (as opposed to timber roofing) in ecclesiastical (church-related) architecture made it appear “Roman-like.”• In the early middle ages, a feudal system was in place in which land-owning liege lords allowed vassals to work the land around their manor in exchange for military service and protection.• By contrast, in the Romanesque period, a sharp increase in trade encouraged the growth of towns and small cities, displacing feudalism.• During the 11th and 12th centuries, thousands of ecclesiastical buildings were remodeled or newly constructed, due in part to the newfound wealth of the new cities, and the relief felt by Christians that the world had not ended in the year 1000.• Pilgrims were a major source of income for churches as well as their surrounding towns, leading churches to vie for the best relics, and to build the most elaborate reliquaries to hold them.• One of the most significant pilgrimage paths was the Way of St. James, which lead pilgrims across northern Spain to a church (Santiago de Compostela) containing James’ relics.

Pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, c. 1100

St. Sernin, Toulouse• Built to honor the area’s first bishop, a martyr saint of the middle of the third century, Saint Saturninus. • Toulouse was n important stop on the pilgrimage road through southwestern France to Santiago de Compostela, so the architect (unknown) of St. Sernin built a large enough church to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims.• Original plan was to have two towers in the western façade, but they were never completed. The crossing tower was added later, during the Gothic period.• Similar in design to the churches St. James and Ste. Foy, these came to be known as the “pilgrimage church” type.• To increase space, the architect added radiating chapels, small apse-like protrusions in the walls of the transept and ambulatory.• The apse-end of the church is more than just an apse; it’s as if half of a central plan church were added to the end of a basilica.• Highly symmetrical and proportional. Used a modular plan in which sizes of different parts of the building were based on the size of one module, in this case the crossing square (for instance, the width of one of the arches in the nave was half the width of the crossing square).• Roof over the nave was a cut stone barrel vault.

St. SerninToulouse, France,

c. 1070 - 1120

Radiating chapels

St. Sernin, Toulouse• Featured a second floor gallery, which helped hold large crowds of people during special events, and also acted as buttressing for the barrel vault over the nave. The groin vaults over the galleries (2nd floor) and side aisles (1st floor) helped transfer the weight to the thick outer walls. • The piers (thick structural supports) are decorated with engaged columns. The engaged columns reach up to the vaults springing (the lowest stone of an arch) and continue across the nave as transverse arches (an arch separating one vaulted bay from the next).• Piers that are decorated with engaged columns are referred to as compound piers.• This creates a sense of repetition and segmentation.• On the exterior, the buttresses frame each bay, also creating a sense of rhythm and regularity.

The Way of St. James• Also known as El Camino de Santiago, the Way is the path taken by pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, where the tomb of St. James is located.• Along the way, pilgrims visit many other Christian relics and shrines, and stay in hostels for pilgrims. In the middle ages, this created an economic boon for the villages along the Way.• One of the symbols of the pilgrimage is a scallop shell. This probably started because pilgrims would take home a scallop shell as a souvenir of their pilgrimage, however the shell also is a visual metaphor for the many pilgrimage paths which all lead to Compostela, and for the guidance of pilgrims by God’s hand, as seashells are guided to shore.• Another symbol is a field of stars, as the remains of St. James were legendarily found by a man who followed an unusually bright explosion of stars. The Way also parallels the Milky Way.• The Way was dangerous, as many robbers sought to take advantage of the pilgrims, and the path lead through difficult forests and mountains.• Pilgrims made the pilgrimage as a sign of penance, to prove their faith and thus increase their chances of getting into heaven. Some pilgrims also sought to be miraculously cured of their health problems.

• The Cathedral of St. James holds the body of St. James, and is thus a major pilgrimage site.• Like St. Sernin, the Cathedral of St. James is a pilgrimage plan church, with radiating chapels that enabled pilgrims to move through the church and venerate the relics without disrupting the services within the main space.• The western portal was reserved for ceremonial processions. Pilgrims entered through doors in the ends of the transepts.• The interior was similar to St. Sernin – the nave was covered with a barrel vault, supported by compound piers that were decorated on all four sides by engaged columns. Like St. Sernin, the engaged columns continued all the way across the ceiling, creating transverse arches.• The side aisles were covered with groin vaults, and the galleries above the side aisles were covered with half-barrel vaults.• Light entered through side windows and through an octagonal lantern tower, located over the crossing to spotlight the glittering gold and jeweled shrine of the principal relic at the high altar.

Cathedral of St. James,Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Cathedral of St. James

Sant’Ambrogio• After Charlemagne defeated the Lombards, the cultures of Lombardy (northern Italy) and present day Germany influenced each other artistically.• Sant’Ambrogio was erected in honor of Saint Ambrose, Milan’s first bishop.• Includes one of the last early-Christian style atriums to be built.• The narthex is 2 stories, each pierced with arches• Two campaniles (Italian: bell towers) of uneven heights join the building on the west (the taller one was added in the 12 century).• An octagonal tower over the nave’s east end recalls the crossing towers of Ottonian churches, but this church contains no transept.

Sant’AmbrogioMilan, Italy, c. 1100

Sant’Ambrogio• The roof above the nave consists of a series of groin vaults, which are slightly domical (dome-shaped). • The vaults have supporting arches or ribs along their groins, a technique known as rib vaulting.• The only clerestory is in the domed tower at the end.• Each groin-vaulted bay corresponds to two aisle bays.• Roof height is lower in this church than in more northern churches like St. James and Ste. Sernin.

Sant’AmbrogioMilan, Italy, c. 1100

Abbey Church of Ste. Foy• Pilgrimage style church (including radiating chapels) • Featured three towers: one over the crossing, and two in the westwork (either side of the entrance portal)• Three doors on the west end (one central door into the nave, and two side doors into the side aisles to accommodate pilgrims).• Housed the (stolen) reliquary containing the skull of the child Ste. Foy (Saint Faith) (more on that later). • The lantern tower over the crossing contains a clerestory and rests on squinches.• Made of locally quarried sandstone.•Buttresses on the outer perimeter reinforced the barrel vaulted nave and quadrant-arched (half a barrel vault) side aisles.

Abbey Church of Ste. FoyConques, France

Pisa Cathedral• The baptistery and bell-tower buildings are separated from the church (unusual).• Large size of baptistery = Pisan emphasis on baptismal rites.• Funds for the complex were gotten from the spoils of a naval victory over the Muslims off Palermo in Sicily in 1062.• Dome over the crossing• Apses included at the end of each transept• Where is the campanile?• The arcades on the baptistery and the bell tower, plus their similarly round exteriors, unite them.• The “Leaning Tower” of Pisa leans because of the settling of the foundation beneath it. It even began leaning before they were done building it. It is currently about 15 feet out of plumb at the top. • Scientists have begun removing soil from underneath the high side of the building to level it out. So far, they have brought the tower an inch closer to vertical and ensured its stability for another 300 years (but they have no plans to make it completely vertical again, due to the tourist draw the tower has). Pisa Cathedral

Pisa, Italy

St. Etienne, Caen• Built by the Normans (Vikings who had settled on the coast of northern France in the early 900s). • Building was begun by William of Normandy (William the Conqueror, a Norman who conquered and was made king of England). • Four large buttresses divide the façade into three bays, corresponding to the nave and aisles. The tripartite division extends throughout the façade, both vertically and horizontally.• Although the original roof was timber, the stone roof was added shortly thereafter.• The vaulting of the roof is a combination of ribbed barrel vaults (horizontal) and groin vaults (diagonal), dividing each section into a sexpartite vault (six part vault). • The high vaulting of the ceiling makes the interior seem taller, and allows room for a clerestory down the length of the nave, giving a light, airy feel.

St. EtienneCaen, France

Durham Cathedral• Each seven-part nave vault covers two bays.• Large, simple pillars ornamented with abstract designs (diamond, chevron, and cable patterns, all originally painted) alternate with compound piers that carry the transverse arches of the vaults.• Design is typically English with its long, slender proportions.• In the western portion, the rib vaults have slightly pointed arches, bringing together for the first time two key elements (rib vaults and pointed arches) that determined the structural evolution of Gothic architecture. • The quadrant arches above the gallery are precursors to the Gothic flying buttress.

Durham CathedralDurham, England