Medieval Architecture And Its Affects On Religion

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Medieval Architecture and its affects on Religion



During France’s Middle Ages, architecture evolved from Romanesque to Gothic styles. These designs were exemplified in the construction of the cathedrals. As the style of the cathedrals changed, so too did the society’s ideals about religion.

The first style of Romanesque architecture was very similar to the basic style of the roman basilica. They were massive, stone structures built primarily for strength, not beauty. These buildings, for the most part were rounded structures characterized by semicircular arches. Another distinguishing element was the Romanesque’s use of barrel vaults. One of the advantages of using a vault in construction was the fact that vaulting made it possible to have a roof over a large structure. The only problem – these huge buildings needed sturdy, load bearing walls to hold the weight of the ceiling. This created a lack of windows (and light) in the great cathedrals. The vaults could not safely be pierced by more than very small windows. This gave the Romanesque cathedrals a very drab, boring appearance. But later on, the introduction of groin vaults came along. Groin vaults consisted of two barrel vaults intersecting perpendicularly which created enough strength to insert a few more windows. Some of the most well known Romanesque structures in France are the Abbey churches of St. Madeline Vezelay and Paray-le-Monial.


Around the 12th century, gothic style architecture started replacing the Romanesque. This style originated at the abbey church of Saint Denis, near Paris. The style emphasizes verticality and features almost skeletal stone structures with great expanses of glass, sharply pointed spires, cluster columns, flying buttresses and inventive sculptural detail. (Wikipedia.com) The gothic style use of flying buttresses made it possible for the cathedrals to stand up against heavy winds and the former weight bearin...