Architectural Types

This is probably going to be a pretty boring post that doesn't detail our travels - so feel free to skip over it if you aren't interested.

One of the things we have constantly noticed on our trips is the different styles that buildings have been constructed in, or signs that say "This Romanesque building was rebuilt in the baroque style"

Being a bit of a nerd, I wanted to do some research into what these different styles actually meant. First, my disclaimer - I am not an expert in architecture (in fact I don't have much interest outside this specific aspect of it), so I will likely get things wrong or talk rubbish in this post. This is more capturing my attempt to understand the styles and how they apply.

One further complexity is that many of the buildings we saw had multiple styles or didn't match one specific style. This is for a few reasons - in some case the building was damage (usually by fire) and rebuilt later in a new style, it may have been renovated or mostly replaced in a newer style as an older style fell out of fashion, or it may have originally be constructed in a mix of styles. Often some of the big cathedrals could take years to complete - this could be hundreds of years in some cases due to costs, wars, religion changes etc. So a church constructed in the Romanesque style in the 11th century, may have had a gothic tower added in the 12th century.

The main styles I am going to look at are:

Romanesque - 11th and 12th centuries
Gothic - late 12th to early 16th centuries
Renaissance - 15th to 16th centuries
Baroque - Early 17th century
Rococo - 18th century

I am also only looking at European architecture. There is a huge range of other styles in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Romanesque:
11th and 12th Centuries

The first of the styles that began spreading through Europe was Romanesque. This style was named as it resembled the original Roman buildings. The building styles were limited in the way they managed the weight of buildings, so they are often characterized by thick walls and small windows and doors. A large building needs to support a huge amount of weight, so the Romanesque buildings used thick walls and deep foundations to manage this. Large windows and doors were not possible as they would weaken the wall and make it prone to collapse.

Doors and arches were often round, as a circular arch was better able to handle the weight. The ceilings used a barrel vault style, or later a groin vault.

A barrel vault is a singular arched roof that distributed the weight of the ceiling into the walls and downwards:

Example of a Barrel Vault from our trip to Mt Saint Michel

A groin vault is the next iteration of the barrel vault, consisting of two intersecting barrel vaults, creating a cross, this forces the pressure out of the corners of the design:

Example of a groin vault from Lund Cathedral.

Generally, Romanesque structures had lots of columns, usually supporting an arcade (a series of adjoining arches), with square or rectangular piers (the upright leg/support of the arch).  Roofs were mostly wooden.

Lund Cathedral is a good example of a Romanesque church, built in 1123:

The crypt under Lund Cathedral

The White Tower of the Tower of London, 1078 is another example:

White Tower from our Visit to the Tower of London

Some other famous examples are the Tower of Pisa and Pisa Cathedral, Speyer Cathedral in Germany, and Trier Cathedral.

So, in summary, Romanesque style was large thick walls, small arched windows and doors, barrel or groin vaults and thick columns.

Gothic
Late 12th to Early 16th Centuries

The Gothic style came about as building techniques improved. It was fed by a need to let more natural light into buildings, particularly churches as well as the need to make them larger to fit more parishioners. The style originally came from Northern France and was known as Francigenum (French work), but the name 'Gothic' was originally an insulting term from Italy as they began on the Renaissance style

The Italians never really adopted the Gothic style and were the instigators of the Renaissance style that replaced it. The Goths were a tribe known for destroying buildings and replacing them with their style, which was seen as a barbarian German style, so the Italians began to call this style of architecture Gothic to imply it was barbaric and less refined.

The Gothic style refined the barrel vault to the ribbed vault, allowing for more support for the roof weight. In this case the roof structure was created by a series of ribs that were then infilled.

Example of a ribbed vault - also from Mt Saint Michel

Ribbed vault in Bayeux Cathedral

Buttressing was another area that improved in Gothic designs. A buttress is a structure built against the side of a wall to strengthen it. In Romanesque barrel vaults a thick wall was placed on the outside of the arch, which prevented the sides of the vault from pushing outward and the vault collapsing. Gothic style took this further, implementing multilevel buttresses and flying buttresses, which allowed much taller buildings. A flying buttress was an arch that extended from the wall to support the wall. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is a great example:

Flying buttresses

The flying buttresses also served another purpose - water could be channeled from the room and down them to create a stormwater system. The darker parts visible on the top of the arches are the water channels. The water couldn't just be allowed to spill onto the base of the buttress or it would erode the mortar, so sculptures were used to expel the water away from the base of the buttress. These were called gargoyles (from the French word for gargle). Gargoyles and other grotesques such as chimeras and monsters were common in Gothic churches as they reminded the layfolk of the evils that awaited them if they did not follow the teaching of the church. Most of the general population were illiterate in the Middle Ages, so the stories from the bible were often illustrated in ornate sculptures and figures on Gothic buildings:

"The Last Judgement" on the door of Bern Cathedral

The other major feature of Gothic designs is the need for internal light. Since the vaults were stronger and buttressing made the wall supports better, Gothic buildings could be taller, but more importantly they could have bigger windows, meaning much more light inside. The Gothic style is defined by the pointed arch window, instead of the rounded windows used in Romanesque. It can be seen on the door above and on these examples:

Gothic Windows in Bern Cathedral

Huge Gothic Windows - Maria Chapel, Würzburg 

Another element of Gothic was Tracery. This was splitting the larger windows into segments using bars or ribs of moulding. This provided more strength and wind protection to the large windows. Stained glass also became a big factor, now that bigger windows were possible.

So, to sum up:

Gothic style has pointed arched, ribbed vaults, usually rectangular in side, thinner walls with much larger windows and doors, buttresses, lots of ornamentation - statues, grotesques, gargoyles, divided glass windows and stained glass. 

Some of the most famous Gothic Buildings are:

Canterbury Cathedral in England, Cologne Cathedral in Germany, Notre-Dame Cathedral in France, Milan Cathedral in Italy, Palace of Westminster in England and Bern Cathedral in Switzerland.

Renaissance
15th to 16th centuries

As I mentioned above, the Gothic style was not popular in Italy, it was seen as ugly and outdated. The new style they developed was based on Greek and Roman influences and developed in Florence. The name Renaissance comes from the word meaning Rebirth.

Renaissance buildings favoured symmetry, proportions and regularity. Instead of the chaos that was Gothic, Renaissance buildings were refined and regular with clearly defined forms. They consisted of orderly rows of columns, semi-circular arch ways and had frequent use of hemispherical domes. The Renaissance style was modular, meaning that the sizes were based around a standard size, for example the width of an aisle.

Some famous Renaissance buildings that we have seen are:

St Peter's Basilica, Rome

St Mark's Clocktower, Venice

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore - Venice

Książ castle - Poland

Baroque

Early 17th century

The Baroque style was a much more decorative and theatrical style that came about as a means for the Catholic Church to counter the growth of the Protestant Church. The idea was to create awe and sense of drama.

The basic elements of Renaissance were retained, such as dome and colonnades (long rows of columns joined at the top) but these were made bigger, grander and more decorative. More ornamentation was place higher to draw the eyes up to the heavens. Light was used for a more dramatic effect, being reflected from gilded surfaces or let in through small domes known as cupolas. Twisted columns were also common, showing upward movement.

Painting of ceilings also became a part of this style, including painting of the sky with angels inside of domes and quadrature, which was a style that gave the illusion of a 3d painting inside a dome. Grand, winding staircases also became a major part of the design.

Cartouches, an oval scrollwork, was another common feature:

The square and rectangular layouts were replaced with ovals and ellipses removing right angles.

Some examples:

Salzburg Cathedral, Austria

Kollegienkirche - Salzburg

Les Invalides - Paris

Rococo

18th century

If the Renaissance was about taking things back to basics, the Rococo style was the opposite. Led by King Louis XV of France, the style was ornamental and exuberant with shell and curve motifs, curves, bright colours and paintings.

Symmetry was removed as a design factor and the focus was more on being dynamic and engaging as well as elaborate and grandiose. The inside of the buildings was also overly ornate with bright paintings, gilding, plasterwork and arabesques (scrolling lines/foliage/tendrils).

The main difference between Baroque and Rococo was the removal of symmetry, the use of ornamental flowers, the use of Asian motifs and the use of warm pastel colours.

The style died out when some of the nobles started to complain about the superficiality of the design and the degeneration of pure art into a mess of sells, plants and other symbols.

Some examples:

Helbling House – Innsbruck, Austria

 Charlottenburg Palace - Berlin

As the Rococo period came to an end, the Neo- period started. Neoclassical was a return to the classical style and away from the overly ornate Rococo. Neo-Gothic, Neo-Baroque and Neo-Romanesque styles became popular in the 19th century.

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Even after doing all this research, I think I'll rely on the internet to help me classify buildings styles. Versailles is listed as French Baroque, but I would have leant toward Rococo due to how over the top it is. I had trouble determining whether a vault was ribbed or groin, when I put together my pictures above.

But I think at least I have a bit more of a grasp of what is meant by the different styles, what was important at the time and what I am actually seeing and hearing when we tour the old cities.

A quick Summary:

Romanesque - Round arches, thick walls, small windows and doors. Barrel and groin vaults

Gothic - Ornate sculptures, large divided windows, stained glass, grotesques and gargoyles, flying buttresses. Ribbed vaults

Renaissance - Symmetrical and regular. Frequent use of domes

Baroque - A more dramatic form of Renaissance, painted roofs, domes

Rococo - More ornate Baroque. No symmetry needed. Lot of shell and plant motifs. Pastel colours and gilding.