Aachen Cathedral
Date: AD 786–805; 1414
Architect: Odo of Metz
Dedicated to: Christ and the Virgin Mary
Historical/Religious Importance:
-burial place of Charlemagne
-Pilgrimage Church attracting the faithful from all over the world every seven years.
-originally the palatine chapel of Charlemagne and for almost six centuries the church where German kings
were crowned
Architectural character:
- Domed
- Double-shelled
- Two-storied octagon plan
- Monumental façade
Vezeley Church
Date: 1104-1132/ 1146 CE
Dedicated
to: St. Mary
Magdelene
History/Religious Importance:
-Claims to guard the relics of St. Mary Magdelene
-where the crusaders set off
-the 2nd and 3rd crusades launched from this church
-largest Romanesque church in france
-the Abbey of Madeleine of Vézelay is one of the masterpieces of Burgundian Romanesque art
Builders: Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (restorer of french
medieval buildings)
(he replaced the later 13th century pointed vaults with 12th century
semicircular groin vaults in order to give a sense of unity to the nave,
but changing the character of the building.
Architectural characters:
- Latin cross floor plan
- barrel/cross vaulting
- thick stone walls and few windows
- use of the roman arch
-Normandy: Lombard influences with groined vaults supported by
flying buttresses and façade with two flanking towers
Materials: limestone
Pisa Complex
Dates- 1063 to 1350
The Baptistery dedicated to: St. John de
Baptist
The Cathedral is dedicated to: St. Mary
Material: Marble, burnt clay and adorned with
bronze, glass, gold.
Builders:
Buscheto (architect)
Rainaldo (facade)
Guglielmo (original pulpit and marble decoration)
Architectural character:
-Use of false façade
-long rows of columns connected by arches
-use of semi-circular arch
-Elliptical dome (Islamic influence)
-blind arcades
History/Religious Importance
-Mainly comprises of:
-Pisa Cathedral
-Campanile
-Baptistery
-Cemetery
-cited to be built due to touristy reasons and establish Pisa as
center of power
-The influence of the Lombard style is evident in features like the tiers of arcaded galleries.
-Considered one of the main centers of medieval art in the world
-The cathedral was created in a time in which Pisa was in great economic status through trade with the Arabs in Sicily
and Sardinia. Referring to the city as “New Rome”.
St. Ambrogio, Milan
Date: 379-386 CE
Builder: st. ambrose
Dedicated to: St. Ambrose
Materials: bricks
History/religious importance:
-used for baptism (this costume disappeared in the early 11 th century)
- the portico whose entrance has four blind arcades with an open one in the center, was later for civil and religious
meetings
-the church also houses the tomb of Emperor Louis III
-the crypt, located under the high altar, was built in the 9 th century to houses the remains of three saints venerated
here: Ambrose, Gervasus and Protasus.
Arch.l’ character:
- Massive columns and arches
- Enormous atrium
- Uses compound piers with 3 huge ribbed groin vault
- Atrium and low, broad proportions, two bell towers (campaniles) at west end, octagonal tower over east end
- Lombardy with groined vaults of heavy proportions
Cepalu
Date: 1131-1240
History/religious importance
- South with byzantine and Arabic influences
- preceded by a large terraced parvis, which was originally a cemetery
- According to tradition, it was created with earth brought from Jerusalem, which was believed to
have qualities that caused the rapid mummification of corpses.
- oldest surviving cloister in Sicily.
-
Materials: -Brick
- mortar
- Some walls were covered in stucco
- Some noble materials like granite and marble were used for the interior
Arch.l character:
- Using mosaics, interlaced pointed arches
- double columns are topped by ornate Romanesque capitals
Durham Cathedral
Date: 1093–1133
Dedicated to: St. Cuthbert
Arch.l character:
-Ribbed vaulting
-pointed arches
-high standard of masonry
Materials: stone
Builders:
- George Gilbert Scott
- James Wyatt
- Anthony Salvin
- Edward Robert Robson
- Richard Famham
History/religious importance:
-Latin cross plan
-founded as a monastic cathedral built to house the shrine of St.
Cuthbert, replacing an earlier church constructed in his honour
- signifies a major point of transition
- It was the first great Norman church, a masterpiece of Romanesque design, and the direct ancestor of Gothic
architecture.
-AChristian Church of the Anglican Communion and the seat of the
Bishop of Durham.
St. Denis
Material: Stone
Architect: Abbot Suger
Date: 1135-1140, 1140-1144, 1231- late 1200s
Architectural character:
-Striving toward heaven and flooded with miraculous light
-Diaphanous walls
-rib vaults
-pointed arches
-dynamic pattern of windows and blind arches
- the façade has a rose window and a crenellated parapet on top similar to the
fortifications of a castle.
History/Religious Importance
-first existing gothic style
- the burial site of the kings of France for centuries and has thus been referred to as the
"royal necropolis of France."
-Echoed Norman Romanesque church of St. Etienne at Caen
