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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 Gothic style first appeared in France in the mid-12th century in an Abbey, St Denis Basilica, built by Abbot Suger (1081–1151). The old Basilica was the traditional burial place of Saint Denis, and of the Kings of France, and was also a very popular pilgrimage destination, so much so that pilgrims were sometimes crushed by the crowds.
The crown jewel of French Gothic architecture, Chartres Cathedral was built in just 26 years after a devastating fire in 1194. Its revolutionary west façade, anchored by the iconic Royal Portal ...
Some great churches of the Middle Ages, such as Westminster Abbey, are former abbeys; others like Ripon Cathedral and Bath Abbey were built as monastic churches and became cathedrals or parish churches in recent centuries; others again were built as parish churches and subsequently raised to cathedrals, like Southwark Cathedral. Some ...
The development of rib-vaults and buttresses brought gradual changes to the interior structure of cathedrals. Early Gothic cathedrals had the walls of the nave built in four levels: a gallery with columns on the ground level; then the tribune, a gallery with windows; then the triforium, a row of smaller windows; and finally the high windows ...
The first cathedral in England to be both planned and built entirely in the Gothic style was Wells Cathedral, begun in 1175. [4] Other features were imported from the Ile-de-France, where the first French Gothic cathedral, Sens Cathedral, had been built (1135–64). [5]
Many projected towers were never built, or were built in different styles than other parts of the cathedral, or with different styles on each level of the tower. [77] At Chartres Cathedral, the south tower was built in the 12th century, in the simpler Early Gothic, while the north tower is the more highly decorated Flamboyant style.
Early Gothic architecture was the result of the emergence in the 12th century of a powerful French state centered in the Île-de-France.King Louis VI of France (1081–1137), had succeeded, after a long struggle, in bringing the barons of northern France under his control, and successfully defended his domain against attacks by the English King, Henry I of England (1100–1135).