ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

Romanesque is an artistic style developed in Europe between the end of the 10th century to the 13th century. Romanesque style derives from Roman art which evolved along the early centuries of the Middle Ages. The main features of the Romanesque were:

It was a religious art, the main buildings were cathedrals, churches and monasteries.
It appeared in rural areas as cities had almost disappeared due to invasions.
The monastic orders, mainly Cluniacs, and pilgrimages to holy places spread Romanesque throughout Europe.

ARCHITECTURE

The Romanesque was a religious art, then the main buildings were churches, cathedrals and monasteries made of stone.

The most important architectural elements were the vaults and the semicircular arches.

The types of vaults used were:

Barrel vault which is the simplest form of a vault, consisting of a continuous surface of semicircular or pointed sections. It resembles a barrel or tunnel which has been cut in half lengthwise.

Groin vault is a vault produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel (tunnel) vaults. Sometimes the arches of groin vaults may be pointed instead of round.

The wall were very thick and outside were reinforced with buttresses- Buttresses were pilars built against a wall to support it and counteract the weight of the vault.

The doors and windows were semicircular with archivolts. However, the buildings were very dark because there were not many windows or doors because the wall had to support the pressure of the vaults. Archivolts were fine bands of molding round the curves of an arch.

The main element to support the weight of the ceiling was the pillar or pier. However, they also used columns with capitals.The capitals had diffeent types of decoration: foliage, monsters, human figures, escenes from the Old Testament,

The main types of plans in the Romanesque churches were the basilica plan, the Latin cross plan or the central plan (polygonal). In the chancel – eastern end of a church were the altar is located – there were apses with semicircular or polygonal shape which were covered with vaults.