Gothic Cathedrals

Gothic Cathedrals

For nearly four hundred years Gothic style dominated the architecture of

Western Europe. It originated in northern France in the twelfth century, and

spread rapidly across England and the Continent, invading the old Viking empire

of Scandinavia. It confronted the Byzantine provinces of Central Europe and

even made appearances in the near East and the Americas. Gothic architects

designed town halls, royal palaces, courthouses, and hospitals. They fortified

cities and castles to defend lands against invasion. But it was in the service

of the church, the most prolific builder of the Middle Ages, that the Gothic

style got its most meaningful expression, providing the widest scope for the

development of architectural ideas.

Although by 1400 Gothic had become the universal style of building in

the Western world, its creative heartland was in northern France in an area

stretching from the royal domain around Paris, including Saint-Denis and

Chartres, to the region of the Champagne in the east and southward to Bourges.

Within this restricted area, in the series of cathedrals built in the course of

the 12th and 13th centuries, the major innovations of Gothic architecture took

place.

The supernatural character of medieval religious architecture was given

a special form in the Gothic church. "Medieval man considered himself but an

imperfect refraction of Divine Light of God, Whose Temple stood on earth,

according to the text of the dedication ritual, stood for the Heavenly City of

Jerusalem."3 The Gothic interpretation of this point of view was a cathedral so

grand that seems to belittle the man who enters it, for space, light, structure

and the plastic effects of the stonework are made to produce a visionary scale.

The result of the Gothic style is distortion as there is no fixed set of

proportions in the parts. Such architecture did not only express the physical

and spiritual needs of the Church, but also the general attitude of the people

of that time. Gothic was not dark, massive, and contained like the older

Romanesque style, but light, open, and aerial, and its appearance in all parts

of Europe had an enduring effect on the outlook of succeeding generations.

Gothic architecture evolved at a time of profound social and economic

change in Western Europe. In the late eleventh and twelfth centuries trade and

industry were revived, particularly in northern Italy and Flanders, and a lively

commerce brought about better communications, not only between neighboring towns

but also between far-distant regions. Politically, the twelfth century was

also the time of the expansion and consolidation of the State.