Romanesque Buildings Research Articles

Masonries and stone materials of Romanesque architecture (Northern Italy)

A complete record of Romanesque buildings (10th-13th centuries) was surveyed to detect the use of stone materials. The lithological variety of Northern Italian territory allowed the choice of several building stones: glacio-fluvial deposits (pebbles and cobbles, river Po high plain); igneous rocks of plutonic bodies and metamorphic rocks (Basement, Alps); sedimentary rocks of Mesozoic formations (Prealps); sedimentary rocks of tertiary formations (Monferrato; Apennine); clays of the alluvial sediments converted into bricks (river Po low plain). Generally, these materials bore different kinds of masonries: pebbles laid in horizontal courses with thick mortar joints; rough blocks of different shape laid in irregular courses; dressed stones laid in horizontal courses with thin mortar joints; bricks laid in regular courses. The reuse of stone materials of Roman buildings is another character of Romanesque masonries. This study involves, for each building, the identification of stones and the description of the masonry.

Masonries and stone materials of Romanesque architecture (Northern Italy)

A complete record of Romanesque buildings (10th-13th centuries) was surveyed to detect the use of stone materials. The lithological variety of Northern Italian territory allowed the choice of several building stones: glacio-fluvial deposits (pebbles and cobbles, river Po high plain); igneous rocks of plutonic bodies and metamorphic rocks (Basement, Alps); sedimentary rocks of Mesozoic formations (Prealps); sedimentary rocks of tertiary formations (Monferrato; Apennine); clays of the alluvial sediments converted into bricks (river Po low plain). Generally, these materials bore different kinds of masonries: pebbles laid in horizontal courses with thick mortar joints; rough blocks of different shape laid in irregular courses; dressed stones laid in horizontal courses with thin mortar joints; bricks laid in regular courses. The reuse of stone materials of Roman buildings is another character of Romanesque masonries. This study involves, for each building, the identification of stones and the description of the masonry.

Inedite emergenze romaniche ne territorio della Pieve di Casalmaggiore (Cremona)

The essay aims to shed some light on some Romanesque buildings preserved in the ancient parish district of Casalmaggiore, the largest one of the diocese of Cremona in medieval times. The preserved ...

Characteristics of Gothic Cathedrals in France and their Structural Elements

Cathedrals represent some of the finest examples of interconnections architectural, aesthetic, functional, but also the structural design of the building. Their main motivation for the actual construction has been from its beginnings celebration of God, interconnections him with and gathering of believers. The emphasis placed on the aesthetics of the whole building was so crucial. But not always architectural elements were in accordance with the statics of the building. Gothic architecture, based on the earlier Romanesque buildings, points to the development of structural elements. They allow for further development, particularly in terms of building height but also the width of the wall. The aesthetic aspect which has been emphasized, however, was unaffected. Conversely, there has been the emergence of new non-standard architectural solved part of the cathedrals. The dominant design features were the use of external supporting systems, cross vaults and arches as well, which allowed for Gothic buildings to reach huge heights. Due to the fact that the beginnings of Gothic architecture are associated with France, the publication includes analysis of Gothic cathedrals with significant influence of this component, but also historical significance to the future development of this style. It is the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, cathedral in Reims and cathedral in Chartres.

L’art roman en Lombardie. État des questions

Romanesque art in Lombardy is striking for its lack of typological and technical uniformity, due to the use of a variety of materials : stone in the alpine and sub-alpine zones, brick (reused brick until the end of the 11th century) in the plain, in the south. The formulation in Lombardy of a new architectural style springs from a wider geographical and cultural context, that of the “first Romanesque art”. This architectural renewal is closely related to episcopal reform in the framework of the Ottonian and Salien Reichskirchensystem. The most emblematic figures are Aribert d’Intimiano for the diocese of Milan and the bishops of Brescia and Como, who remained faithful to the Empire. In the mid-11th century there are important experiments made in Santa Maria Maggiore at Lomello, in the baptistery of Galliano and in the San Sepulchro in Milan, both in the architectural conceptions and structural solutions (vaulting in stone, material division of bays, articulation of the supports). The unfortunate disappearance of many monuments in the second half of the 11th century prohibits a serial vision of the process that leads to the mature phase of Romanesque architecture at the end of the century, which coincides with the emergence of the Lombard communes. The most representative buildings, such as Sant’Ambrogio in Milan and San Michele Maggiore in Pavia, adopt tribunes with alternating supports and ribbed vaults, and monumental sculpture takes on unprecedented importance. At the same moment, reconstruction work begins on Cremona Cathedral, one of the most problematic Romanesque buildings in northern Italy, which is situated halfway between the Lombard world and the cathedrals in Po valley (Modena and Piacenza).

Una casa salomónica en Puebla de los Ángeles, México

El artículo aborda la historia de la Casa de las Bóvedas, un edificio barroco construido entre 1684 y 1685 por el arquitecto Diego de la Sierra. Sus soluciones formales, en especial las que se refieren a las columnas y pilastras con estrías móviles vinculas al salomonismo imperante en esa época, han dado lugar a eruditas discusiones en relación con las fuentes teóricas y formales de las que se pudo servir el arquitecto constructor para realizarlas de esa manera. En este artículo se plantea como hipótesis la posibilidad de que sus modelos no hayan sido necesariamente los planteados por teóricos del siglo XVII como fray Juan de Ricci y Guarino Guarini, sino edificaciones medievales románicas y góticas, retomadas en la Nueva España por razones simbólicas, que tienen que ver con la necesitad de reconstruir idealmente el Templo de Salomón.

Arquitectura románica en la provincia de Soria, 1856-2014. Marco historiográfico y metodológico

The historiography of Romanesque in the province of Soria has three different stages. The former one begins with Eduardo Saavedra’s researches (1856) and it extends until 1934, when Gaya Nuno defends his PhD Thesis ( La arquitectura romanica en la provincia de Soria ), which will not be published until 1946. The Spanish Civil War and the post-war period mark the beginning of the second stage, which is merely transitional, lacking any important contribution. The last stage begins with the publication of the three volumes of the Enciclopedia del Romanico en Castilla y Leon (2002). These works have largely improved the knowledge of Romanesque architectural heritage, enhanced besides by the task undertaken by the technical office of the Cultural Project Soria Romanica (2007- 2012), responsible for studying and restoring more than thirty Romanesque buildings in the Southern part of province. It is within this working frame that the building recording of the churches here presented must be understood. This historiographical assessment about provincial Romanesque does not include those buildings sited in the capital city, the Cathedral of El Burgo de Osma, the Monastery of Santa Maria de Huerta and the hermitage of San Baudelio (Casillas de Berlanga).

Czeskie i morawskie wzorce architektoniczne na terenie ziem polskich we wczesnym średniowieczu. Fakty i mity

Since the beginning of 20th century there has been a deep conviction existing amongst archaeologists, historians and art historians concerning inseparable connections of Polish oldest pre-Romanesque and Romanesque buildings with Czech and Moravian architecture. Indicating a number of obvious, as they seem, analogies and implementing existing written sources, southern inspirations of Polish builders of early Middle Ages are regarded as a fact. However, secondary, even fragmentary analysis of construction available today and their relics make us doubt in incontrovertible existence of dependences between the objects under discussion, at least as far as central architecture is concerned. Connoting, e.g. instances of churches in Wrocław, Niemcza or in Gromnik, as well as examples of lay monumental architecture (or rather their relics) i would like to signal the necessity of considering the problem of formal dependences common for the objects in discussion once again and in consequence also Premyslid and Piasts architecture of early Middle Ages period. The article purpose is not to present new conception concerning origin of the oldest Polish mortared objects, but subjecting the problem to critic and reflection on the statements obligatory so far, which have not always been based on undisputed source arguments. The problem requires further research and the text above can be regarded only as a starting point to it.

Appropriating the Past: Romanesque Spolia in Seventeenth-Century Ireland

Although a relatively young subject, the historiography of Irish architecture has had a remarkably significant impact on the manner in which particular styles have been interpreted and valued. Since the genesis of the topic in the mid-eighteenth century, specific styles of architecture have been inextricably connected with the political history of the country, and each has been associated with the political and religious affiliations of its patrons. From the mid-nineteenth century, the focus on identifying an Irish ‘national’ architecture became particularly strong, with Early Christian and Romanesque architecture firmly believed to imbue ‘the spirit of native genius’, while Gothic, viewed as the introduction of the Anglo-Norman invader, was seen as marking the end of ‘Irish’ art. Inevitably, with such a strong motivation behind them, early texts were keen to find structures that were untouched by the hand of the colonizer as exemplars of the ‘national architecture’. Scholars, including the pioneering George Petrie (1790–1866) in works such as his 1845 study of the round towers of Ireland, believed that through historical research he and others were the first to understand the ‘true value’ of these buildings and that any former interest in them had been purely in their destruction, rather than in their restoration or reconstruction. It was believed that such examples of early medieval architecture and sculpture as had survived had done so despite, rather than because of, the efforts of former ages, and, although often in ruins, the remains could be interpreted purely in terms of the date of their original, medieval, creation.Informed by such studies, from the mid-nineteenth century a movement grew to preserve and consolidate a number of threatened Romanesque buildings with the guiding philosophy of preserving the monuments as close to their original ‘pre-colonial’ form as possible. Consolidation of the ruins of the Nuns’ Church at Clonmacnoise (Co. Offaly) is traditionally amongst the earliest and most celebrated of these endeavours, undertaken by the Kilkenny and Southeast Ireland Archaeological Society in the 1860s, setting a precedent for both the type of monument and method of preservation that was to become the focus of activity from the 1870s, and thus for the first State initiatives in architectural conservation.

L’église romane de Croute à Lasserrade (Gers) : un édifice inachevé de Gascogne centrale autour de 1125

The Romanesque Sainte-Christine church of Croute, which was formerly dedicated to Saint-Barthelemy, is a little known building, both complex and interesting. If very few researchers focused on this building of disorderly appearance and modest outer aspect, the study of its architecture, through the remains of interior and exterior elevations, together with the analysis of its sculpted decoration, reveal a monument that can be compared to the great Romanesque buildings of the region. The study of the church of Croute also renews our knowledge concerning the position of the central part of Gascony in the field of religious commande during the Romanesque period and its decoration reveals a perfect knowledge of contemporary sculpted entities, the motives and images of which were disseminated by the artists themselves during their travels.

The Introduction and Use of Masons' Marks in Romanesque Buildings in England

Masons' marks can be found on stone buildings where the stone is taken to a high degree of finish, but the date of the introduction of this practice into England has yet to be established. Buildings from the Anglo-Norman Period display marks, but it is not clear whether the Normans introduced the concept or it was present in the Anglo-Saxon Period. The fabric of buildings from both sides of the Conquest, and from Roman sites, is therefore analysed to determine the date of introduction, drawing comparisons with early 11th-century buildings in Europe. Since the degree of finish of the stonework closely connects to the use of marks, the treatment of stonework in the 11th century and in the earlier Anglo-Saxon Period is considered, and comments made on the organisation of the building and stone-supply industries of the mid-11th century.

Applied geology in analytical characterization of stone materials from historical building

Investigations of the provenance and technology of ancient materials are an important part of archaeological research. Studies of the geology of a region combined with petrographic research and chemical analysis may allow one to establish a possible source of raw-materials used. They also enable selection of the materials from currently accessible sources in the process of renovation or reconstruction of buildings [1–3]. Until now, the authors have carried out the studies in order to determine provenance of the raw-materials, the detailed analysis of composition (for the stone materials from Romanesque buildings in South Wielkopolska – Poland, and from ancient ruins in northern Israel and northern Egypt. Petrographic analysis (macro- and microscopic observations), cathodoluminescence (CL), X-raydiffraction (XRD) and stable isotopes analysis have been applied. In the next step, the detailed composition analysis enables, in the case of mortars, selection of suitable samples for dating [4, 9] and to determine the age of a given object, either directly by absolute dating (e.g. 14C of lime mortars) or indirectly, by relative age estimation on the basis of finds and artifacts (their components and characteristic style for a specific period).

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This photographic essay aims at making more images of available for study, so that their meanings can be considered with reference to the carvings themselves. [1] In this I follow in the footsteps of Kathleen Basford in her pioneering work The Green Man (Basford 1996), and of Ruth Wylie (1996). A survey of foliate heads in medieval churches shows that many so-called Green Men do not have human faces at all. Many, especially in the earlier Romanesque buildings, are decidedly animal-like in appearance. These I have dubbed Beasts. Most of them resemble cats, lionesses or lions; others are not obviously derived from any specific animal. The human faces have rounded ears, situated at the sides of the head; the beast-heads usually have pointed ears placed at the top of the head. Many interpretations of the meaning and origin of the Green Man have been offered since Lady Raglan first applied the term to the human foliate head (Raglan 1939, 45). These are reviewed by Roy Judge in his revised edition of The Jack-in-the-Green (Judge 2000, 92). Most often the Green Man has been connected with the concepts of rebirth, renewal, and regeneration. He has been linked with Robin Hood, the Green Knight, Osiris, and Dionysus (Matthews 2000, 29-32). He has also been considered an archetype of the unity of humanity with the natural world, and of our dependence upon it (Anderson and Hicks 1990, 18). As such, he has been adopted by the ecological movement and become a powerful symbol of our times. I have restricted myself in the commentaries that accompany the photographs mainly to descriptions of the heads themselves. However, where I think the standard interpretations provided by church and art historians are inadequate, I have offered my own, based on physical observation and the sources listed under References Cited. Among other things, I suggest that the image of the head that utters mouth foliage may have been borrowed by medieval masons from earlier manuscripts and from Byzantine textiles. I also make a tentative link between the European Green Man and the Kirtti-Mukha, or Face of Glory, the ancient foliage-utterer of the Far East. Most importantly, perhaps, I have chosen to show a high proportion of beast-heads, believing that Green Beasts should not be dismissed simply as demons, but considered as part of the development of foliate heads as a whole, and therefore have their place properly established in the historical sequence. No doubt many more foliate heads remain to be discovered. A bigger corpus of examples may resolve some of the puzzles. While the questions that we ask about the origin and development of the image may be simple, the answers remain as elusive as the Green Man himself. Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire (Plate 1) A little Green Man on the high frieze of the fourteenth-century chantry chapel of Edward le Despenser, in Tewkesbury Abbey, faces the south choir aisle. It might be considered the simplest form of the Green Man. He has a basic human face, lacking any personalisation. His mouth utters two large leaves that do not attempt to show foliage of any specific plant. Worcester Cathedral Cloister Boss (Plate 2) In contrast to the simple form seen in Plate 1, this example, chosen from many in the late fourteenth-century cloisters in Worcester Cathedral, has a beautifully carved profusion of foliage from his mouth. The sensitively formed face, fully human, was illustrated by Cave (1934, pl. V, fig. 4) and is entirely typical of the form of the Green Man recognised by all researchers (Doel and Doel 2001, 13). [FIGURE 4 OMITTED] Crowle Lectern, Worcestershire (Plate 3) The Crowle lectern, originally from Pershore Abbey, shows a figure kneeling on foliage arising from an upside-down cat-head between his feet; with each hand he grasps the stems. A similar cat-head with mouth foliage is carved again on both sides of the lectern (as shown here). …

Etude des élévations de la chapelle romane Saint-Sixte, ancienne église paroissiale Saint-Sauveur de Sorgues (Vaucluse)

Sorgues is an important place in the pontifical Comtat Venaissin, located ten kilometres north of Avignon. The parish church was originally dedicated to St Mary, then to St Sauveur, and finally to St Sixtus. Today it is submerged by urban development and has been divided into several plots. A project to clear the immediate vicinity of the building has made it necessary to make a study of the church elevation and surrounding plots. Results have shed light on a previously underestimated building, which, through the quality of its architecture and ornamentation, can be compared to other Romanesque buildings around Avignon, in particular to Our Lady of Thor, completed very early in the 13th century.

Aproximación a los espacios liturgico-funerarios en Castilla y León: porticos y galileas

The object of the present study is to consider some Romanesque buildings, unknown or insufficiently known, which permit a new understanding of the material presence of the first Romanesque buildings in the kingdom of Castile-León. This study focuses on the western spaces in the Benedictine monastic churches of Sahagún, San Zoilo in Carrión, and San Isidoro de Dueñas. In many of these cases the absence of archeological evidence calls for a certain caution in the formulation and assessment of hypotheses. A discussion of the genesis, significance, and evolution of facade-structures during the high middle ages is followed by a thorough study of the above-mentioned remains.

Combinations of romanesque and gothic forms in the architecture of Zadar

Several buildings in Zadar and around show a combination of Romanesque and Gothic elements in architecture. In some cases this was because buildings were constructed when Romanesque traditions were still strong enough to dictate the overall appearance and method of construction, and yet there was an awareness of a new style, structurally more favourable or aesthetically more acceptable, which led to the incorporation of Gothic elements (Zadar Cathedral, Churches of St Peter in Diklo, St Nicholas in Crno, St Vitus and St Christopher on Pag). In other cases the combination resulted from the Gothic reconstruction of what had originally been Romanesque buildings (Churches of SS Cosmas and Damian on Pašman, St Ambrose in Nin, St Michael in Rogovo, St Michael in Zadar). There are also two special cases of Romanesque/Gothic combination. A Romanesque house was incorporated into the Gothic church of St Plato in Zadar and the bell tower of St Mary's in Zadar was pulled down in the fifteenth century and rebuilt in its original Romanesque form.

Les maisons romanes de Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)

The medieval civil architecture has not been much studied, probably because its vestiges are just a few and often badly preserved. Yet its study is not uninteresting ; it allows us to have an idea about the look of some dwellings at that time and more indirectly, it gives us information on urbanism as well as on the history of private life in the Middle Ages, therefore completing what the texts may provide. In Toulouse four civil romanesque buildings are known ; they present some architectural particularities which make us see that a certain type of high class dwelling had a tower as its main characteristic.

Harvard: An Architectural History

This history of Harvard's architecture examines the Federal architecture of Charles Bulfinch, H.H. Richardson's Romanesque buildings, the Imperial manner reflected in Widener Library, and the work of other architects such as Charles McKim, Gropius and Le Corbusier.

Romanesque England and the Development of the Façade Harmonique

The façade of St.-Etienne, Caen, has been described as the first façade harmonique, the model for many later façades in Normandy and the source of inspiration for the builders of the first great Gothic churches of the north of France. The façades harmoniques of these later churches are generally characterized by at least one prominent shared feature: the dominance of the façade design by twin western towers. St.-Denis is often singled out as having formed the link between Normandy--specifically St.-Etienne-- and the later churches of the Ile-de-France and its surrounding region. That certain early Romanesque buildings in England may have contributed to the development of the Gothic twin-tower façade has not been generally considered or recognized. It is here suggested that the two major churches in Canterbury, the cathedral of Christ Church and the abbey of St. Augustine, may have possessed two-tower façades that were the most advanced of their type at the end of the eleventh century, enjoying precedence over contemporary churches in Normandy in their forward-looking aspects. Indeed, it may be claimed that the essential forms of the Gothic façade harmonique had been established in England, prior to the construction of St.-Denis, at the two Canterbury churches and also, a little later, at Durham Cathedral.

Excavation and Survey at Tuscania, 1972: A Preliminary Report

On 6 February 1971 the small town of Tuscania, twenty miles west of Viterbo and the same distance north-east of Tarquinia, was the scene of a local but very violent earthquake, which killed a number of people and rendered much of the old town totally uninhabitable.Tuscania (until 1911 Toscanella) is best known to most visitors to Italy for its two magnificent medieval churches, that of San Pietro on the ancient acropolis and that of Santa Maria Maggiore, both of them fine romanesque buildings on the site of earlier churches. San Pietro has been thought by some writers to incorporate parts of the earlier structure, and both churches contain a number of earlier fittings. The town itself is less familiar, although it is still enclosed within the circuit of its medieval walls, and inside these walls it has retained a large number of medieval and later buildings in a setting largely unspoilt by modern development. Almost all the growth of the last forty years has taken place northwards and westwards, outside the medieval walls, so that the visitor still has very much the impression of the old walled city, dominated in the foreground by the hill of San Pietro itself, with its picturesque group of towers and other buildings, and spreading up the ridge beyond it the compact mass of the old town.