UNIVERSITY OF BAHRAIN
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE
BSc. in ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM
SUMMER 2012
ARCG 211– HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I
A WORLD HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE
Marian Moffett
Michael Fazio
Lawrence Wodehouse
6. Romanesque Architecture
DR ABDURRAHMAN MOHAMED
DEFINITION
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The style which grew up in the Western
Roman empire; in those countries which
had been directly under the rule of Rome
from 1000 to 1250 CE.
Romanesque buildings have a certain
affinity with Roman architecture, primarily
because they tend to employ the
semicircular or Roman arch
EARLY ROMANESQUE
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St. Martin at Canigou is an exemple the
early Romanesque style.
In plan the church is a basilica without
transepts, having semicircular apses
terminating the aisles and nave.
The barrel vaults of the nave and aisles
rest on ten supports: eight stubby
columns and two grouped piers-and the
solid exterior walls (Fig. ).
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The only natural light comes from small
windows at the east and west ends.
The stone construction is simple,
articulated primarily by semicircular
arches used over windows and also set
as surface relief in horizontal bands.
The stepped crenulations atop the tower
recall Islamic fortifications found in
neighbouring Spain.
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St. Martin at
Canigou
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/saint-martin-du-canigou
Reconstructed cloisters
with rose garden
View of Saint-Martin-du-Canigou Abbey
from above
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/saint-martin-du-canigou
Nave of the abbey church,
looking east
Nave of the crypt or lower church,
looking west
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/saint-martin-du-canigou
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE OF
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
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The Holy Roman Empire controlled Germany and north
Italy.
The Holy Roman Emperor was called Otto.
The Ottonian rule extended from 936 to 1002, but its effects
lasted nearly a century longer.
Ottonian architecture is the German expression of
Romanesque.
An outstanding example is the church of St. Michael at
Hildeshim (1010-33), which is a double-ended basilica with
entrances along the side aisles as in many original Roman
basilicas (Fig.).
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Fig.6. St. Michael at Hildeshim, Germany (1010-33), plan.
http://www.google.com.bh/imgres
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Fig.6. St. Michael at Hildeshim, Grmany (1010-33).
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/hildesheim-michaelskirche
http://www.michaelis-gemeinde.de/
S. Michael interior. Hildesheim. 1010-33.
Imperial cathedral at Speyer, Germany,
1030
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It is a massive and majestic construction,
extending over 425 feet.
The nave is wide, long, and tall, framed by
semicircular arches surrounding each wall bay.
Covered at first by a flat wooden ceiling, the nave
received groin vaults set over paired bays and
separated by transverse arch bands.
At 107 feet above the floor, these vaults are the
highest built in the Romanesque period and
approach the accomplishments of Roman
construction
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Imperial cathedral at Speyer, 1030. Plan
Speyer Cathedral wet facade, ca. 1030-61.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/168/
Speyer Cathedral east end, ca. 1030-61.
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The groin vaults were erected
in 1082-1137, making this one
of the highest vaulted churches
of its time.
The southern regions of the Holy
Roman Empire
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In the southern regions of the Holy Roman
Empire. the classical heritage of Rome heavily
influenced Romanesque architecture.
Italian cities developed their own versions of
Romanesque architecture, retaining a strong
reliance on the classical past with little influence
from northern Europe.
The church of S. Miniato al Monte in Florence
(1062-90 and later) is typical (Figs. ).
The church of S. Miniato al Monte in Florence
http://www.san-miniato-al-monte.com/
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A single pair of aisles flanks the transeptless
nave, which is terminated by a simple
semicircular apse.
Alternate bays of the nave are grouped by
diaphragm arches (where a wall is built to create
a level, horizontal top), above which wooden
trusses support the roof.
Its facade is articulated on the ground level by
five arches supported by Corinthian halfcolumns, with Corinthian pilasters and a gable
defining the roof of the nave.
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The church
of S. Miniato
al Monte in
Florence
http://www.google.com.eg/imgres
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The church
of S. Miniato
al Monte in
Florence
The church of S. Miniato al Monte in Florence
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/44507209
The cathedral of Pisa
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The freestanding cathedral at Pisa (begun in
1063 and finished 1089-1272) is more elaborate,
(Figs.).
In plan the cruciform basilica has double aisles
and galleries flanking the nave, and single aisles
and galleries flanking the transepts.
At the crossing, an oval dome is raised 011
squinches and shallow pendentives, recalling the
centralized church plans of Byzantium.
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The exterior is sheathed in marble arcades,
stacked row on row across the western facade
and continuing around the church.
The interior is marked by polychromy, in this
case alternate courses of dark and light marble
set in horizontal bands.
The cathedral is complemented by two adjacent
structures, a circular baptistery and a cylindrical
campanile, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa,
now over thirteen feet out of plumb.
The cathedral of Pisa
http://www.greatbuildings.com
The cathedral of Pisa
The cathedral of Pisa
PILGRIMAGE ROADS
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To atone for sins, seek a cure, or assure
salvation, medieval men and women travelled as
pilgrims to shrines containing the relics of saints
Jerusalem and Rome were the most celebrated
centers but around the year 900 a new center for
pilgrimage arose to rival their popularity the
shrine of the apostle James located at
Compostela in north western Spain.
The monks accommodated these pilgrims by
modifying the basilican church plan to include an
ambulatory, which worked as an extension of the
aisles to provide a continuous passageway
around the entire church.
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At the east end, radiating chapels opened
off the ambulatory, and there were
sometimes additional chapels located on
the east side of the transepts.
Churches built in response to the
pilgrimage are common on the major
roads to Compostela.
St. Sernin at Toulouse, St. Foy at
Conques,, and St. James at Compostela
are important examples (Fig.).
St. Sernin at Toulouse
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The church has paired aisles on each side of the nave,
four chapels on the east of the large transept, and five
radiating chapels around the apse.
The church is 360 feet long, with a width of nave and
aisles totalling about 100 feet,
The banded barrel vaults rise about sixty-five feet and are
braced by second floor galleries over the inner pair of
aisles (Fig.).
This gives the church a triangular cross-section, but
prevents the use of clerestory windows to light the nave.
The exterior arrangement of chapels, ambulatory, and
choir rising to the great crossing tower is harmoniously
composed, and the composition is enhanced by its
construction materials, red brick trimmed 'with stone.
http://www.google.com.eg/imgres
St. Sernin at Toulouse
St. Sernin
at
Toulouse
St. Sernin at Toulouse
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St. Sernin
at
Toulouse
St. Sernin, Toulouse, nave
St. Sernin, Toulouse, isle
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/st_sernin.html
St. Sernin, Toulouse, chaples
around the apse