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Romanesque architecture [1] is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. [2] The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Romanesque is characterized by semicircular arches, while the Gothic is marked by the pointed arches.
Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey was first constructed with pre-Romanesque vaults in the 10th century, then as a Romanesque church (1060–1080), then with Gothic vaults in the nave in 1135. The Gothic structure called La Merveille (The Marvel), the monks' living area, dates to 1203–1228. The Gothic tower replaced the original Romanesque tower in 1311.
In Denmark such churches in the Romanesque style are much more numerous. In parts of Europe there are also round tower-like churches of the Romanesque period but they are generally vernacular architecture and of small scale. Others, like Rotunda of St Martin at Vyšehrad in the Czech Republic are finely detailed.
A buttress may be visible as in the Gothic flying buttress, or it may be hidden in the complex of aisles and galleries. [2] Cathedral: The home church of a bishop, which contains the cathedra or bishop's chair. [2] The church may be of any size. [3] Chapel: A smaller spaces inside a church that has its own altar
The earliest known churches show the familiar basilican layout. For example, the church of Debre Damo is organized around a nave of four bays separated by re-used monolithic columns; at the western end is a low-roofed narthex, while on the eastern is the maqdas, or Holy of Holies, separated by the only arch in the building. [18]
The most distinctive characteristic of large Romanesque churches is the prevalence of apses at both ends of the church, as on 9th-century Plan of St. Gall, the earliest example being at Gernrode Abbey. Two reasons are suggested: that the bishop presided at one end and the abbot at the other, or that the western apse served as a baptistery.
The styles of the great church buildings are successively known as Early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, various Revival styles of the late 18th to early 20th centuries and Modern. [2] Overlaid on each of the academic styles are the regional characteristics.
Many Gothic cathedrals, like Notre-Dame de Paris and Chartres, were built on the sites of Romanesque cathedrals, and often used the same foundations and crypt. In Romanesque times the crypt was used to keep sacred relics, and often had its own chapels and, as in the 11th-century crypt of the first Chartres Cathedral, a deep well. The Romanesque ...