GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE :-

General Introduction :-
•Mainly flourished in western Europe from the 12th to 15thCentury
•The term ‘Gothic’ is, given to the Mediaeval architecture of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries in
Europe.
•The Gothic of the thirteenth century throughout Europe was slowly evolved from Romanesque architecture and is
mainly distinguished by the introduction and general use of the pointed arch.
• The Gothic masons, throwing the rein on the neck of experiment, utilized stone to its utmost capacity, and in the
later periods revelled in miracles of construction and marvels of craftsmanship.
• They heaped up stone in towers that, rising above the lofty roofs of naves and transepts, tapered upwards in
slender spires embroidered with lace-like tracery.
• Snow and inclement weather were responsible for the high pitched Gothic roof of Northern Europe.
• The most obvious definition involves key elements employed in many Gothic buildings which features:
 The pointed arch
 Rib vaults
 Flying buttresses
 Large stained glass windows (with tracery)
 Piers composed of colonnades
 Shafts bundled around a core
 Considerable height
 Large scale spatial characteristics (airy and bright)
• Gothic architecture is most familiar as the
architecture of many great Cathedrals, Abbeys,
Churches, Castles, Palaces, Town halls, Guild halls,
Universities of Europe, etc.
• A great number of ecclesiastical buildings of this
period are considered priceless works of art and are
listed with UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.
• The Gothic Architecture emphasized strong
vertical lines, high vaulted ceilings, minimal wall
space, pointed window & door openings and
buttresses walls.
• Gothic structure is a skeleton system that
transfers roof loads down to ground at discrete
points, therefore freeing large expanses of walls.
• Gothic architecture is more than a collection of
structural techniques, for it embraces an integrated
esthetic system
Structural and Constructional
Innovations: -
1. Flying Buttresses :-
• In order to prevent the outward
collapse of the arches, Gothic architects
began using a revolutionary “Flying
Buttresses” system.
• Freestanding brick or stone supports
were attached to the exterior walls by an
arch or half-arch.
• The flexibility of the pointed arch
channeled the weight onto the bearing
piers or columns at a steep angle,
enabling a much raised ceiling.
• Since Gothic construction loads at
piers rather than distributed along the
wall, architects developed reinforcement
at specific points using external
buttressing.
• The flying buttress in the
Gothic construction
concentrate loads at pillars
so that there remains no
need of reinforcement at
specific points, as they
were the structural
members, they carried the
load of very high and long
walls.
• The entire structures were
conceived as frame works
of arches and arches were
organized in the coherent
systems which reduced
structural function of wall
to minimum. Thus, the
walls were not load bearing
walls.
• The flying buttresses had automatically
become the aesthetic component by cutting
out arches from it and emphasizing the end of
it by raising it high.

HOW BUTTRESS SYSTEM WORKS

2. Pointed arches :-
• Gothic Architecture is not merely about ornamentation.
• The Gothic style brought innovative new construction techniques
that allowed churches and other buildings to reach greater heights.
• One important innovation was the use of pointed arches.
• Earlier Romanesque churches had pointed arches but builders
didn’t capitalize on the shape.
• During Gothic era, builders discovered that pointed arches
would give structures amazing strength and stability.
• Builders turned from the semicircular, unbroken arch to the
pointed arch –
- Looked lighter and pointed upward.
- Exert less thrust than semicircular arch of same span.
- Solved geometric difficulty inherent in ribbed vaults :
* Impossible to arrange all arches and ribs to a common level
using exclusively semicircular ribs.
* With pointed arch, ribs could easily be made level.
• The widespread introduction of a single feature of the Gothic
Architecture, the pointed arch, brought about the change that
separated Gothic architecture from the Romanesque tradition. It
lent itself to elaborate intersecting shapes which developed within
window spaces into complex.
• The pointed arches were more flexible in design
as one could vary the angle of the arch.
•Pointed arches allowed irregular areas to be
vaulted while maintaining a common ceiling
height.
3. The Rib Vaults :-
• Organic metaphor alluding the role of ribs in anatomy as the
body’s skeletal structure supporting tissues .
• Arches usually four pairs per rectangular bay running
diagonally or a vault supported by or decorated with diagonal
ribs.
• The intersection of two or three barrel vaults produces a rib
vault or ribbed vault when they are edged with an armature of
piped masonry often carved in decorative patterns;
compare groin vault, an older form of vault construction.
• Cross ribs act together with outer frame to create a complete
armature of arches along the edges and main folds of the vaults.
• Earlier Romanesque churches relied on barrel
vaulting.
• Gothic builders introduced the dramatic
technique of ribbed vaulting.
• While barrel vaulting carried weight on
continuous solid walls, ribbed vaulting used
columns to support the weight.
• The ribs also delineated the vaults and gave a
sense of unity to the structure.

• Ribs were used to minimize the load of vault, as the dead

load on vaulting was created primarily by the weight of
the stone and thus, reducing this weight was not only
economical but also gave great heights to buildings.
3. Stained Glass Window :-
• Since the walls themselves were no longer the primary
supports, Gothic buildings could include large areas of glass.
• Huge stained glass windows and a profusion of smaller
windows created the effect of lightness and space.
• The technique of filling windows with stained glass,
added a dimension of color to the light within the
building along with providing a medium for
figurative and narrative art.
• The Gothic architects wanted to bring lights in the cathedral
as the light was the purest substance on the earth and a
representative of God. Thus, the upper portion of the nave
was having large stained glass to bring adequate light.

The stained glass window shown here is from Notre Dame

Cathedral in Paris.
3. Gargoyle :-
• A gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed
to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building,
thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls
and eroding the mortar between.
• Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the
flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage
from a rainstorm.
• A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically
exits through the open mouth.
• Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastic animal because the
length of the gargoyle determines how far water is thrown from the
wall.
• When Gothic flying buttresses were used, aqueducts were
sometimes cut into the buttress to divert water over the aisle walls.
CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES :-
• The construction of these buildings, many of which were founded in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, was
carried on from generation to generation.
• Cathedrals are the most representative building
•They are full of accessional spirit
•The technical innovations made possible the construction of these
buildings, something ethereal.
• The Gothic Cathedrals have a Latin cross plan, with a long nave making
the body of church a traverse arm called the transept and, beyond it,
an extension which may be called the choir.
• Plans continue being of Latin cross but it is more difficult
to distinguish because the number of naves increases in the transept
•They have three or five nave, normally five after the crossing
•They have ambulatory
•There are radial chapel
•The cover is of ribbed vaults
•There are two towers in the façade.
• A characteristic of Gothic cathedral architecture is its height, both absolute and in proportion to its width, the
verticality suggesting an aspiration to Heaven. A section of the main body of a Gothic church usually shows the
nave as considerably taller than it is wide. In England the proportion is sometimes greater than 2:1, while the
greatest proportional difference achieved is at Cologne Cathedral with a ratio of 3.6:1. The highest internal vault
is at Beauvais Cathedral at 48 meters (157 ft.).
 CATHEDRAL

Spires Transept Crossing

Ambulatory

Clerestory Tribune

Gargoiles
Apse

Radial chapels
Rose window
Nave

Façade Lateral façade

Flying butresses
• Plans continue being of Latin cross but it is more difficult to distinguish because the number of naves
increases in the transept
• They have three or five nave, normally five after the crossing
• They have ambulatory
• There are radial chapel
• The cover is of ribbed vaults
• There are two towers in the façade.

The plans can be:

Saloon Basilical
• In the elevation it can be seen the aisles, over them the triforium and
finally, the clerestory.
•The inside is full of light thanks
to the numerous windows
•The cathedral has three levels:
low, gallery and clerestory
•The walls are open, allowing a lot
of light into the church, with
different levels of intensity (more
light in the highest parts because
light comes directly).
•Windows can be open because
there are new supports that are
not glued to the wall.
FRENCH GOTHIC
• The distinctive characteristic of French
cathedrals, and those in Germany and Belgium
that were strongly influenced by them, is their
height and their impression of verticality.
• They are compact, with slight or no projection of
the transepts and subsidiary chapels.
• The west fronts have three portals surmounted
by a rose window, and two large towers.
• The east end is polygonal with ambulatory and
sometimes a chevette of radiating chapels.
• In the south of France, many of the major
churches are without transepts and some are
without aisles
 BRITISH GOTHIC
• The distinctive characteristic of English cathedrals is
their extreme length and their internal emphasis
upon the horizontal.
• It is not unusual for every part of the building to
have been built in a different century and in a
different style, with no attempt at creating a stylistic
unity.
• English cathedrals sprawl across their sites, with
double transepts projecting strongly and Lady
Chapels tacked on at a later date.
• In the west front the doors are not significant
• The West window is very large and never a rose,
which are reserved for the transept gables.
• The west front may have two towers or none.
• There is nearly always a tower at the crossing and it
may be very large and surmounted by a spire.
• The distinctive English east end is square.
ITALIAN GOTHIC
• It uses polychrome decoration, both externally as marble veneer on
the brick facade and also internally where the arches are often
made of alternating black and white segments.
• The plan is usually regular and symmetrical and have few and
widely spaced columns.
• The proportions are generally mathematically simple, based on the
square, the arches are almost always equilateral.
• It may include mosaics in the lunettes over the doors.
• The facades have projecting open porches and occular or wheel
windows rather than roses, and do not usually have a tower.
• The crossing is usually surmounted by a dome.
• There is often a free-standing tower and baptistry.
• The windows are not as large as in northern Europe and,
although stained glass windows are used, the decoration is fresco
or mosaic.
GERMAN GOTHIC
• It is characterised by huge towers and spires.
• The west front generally follows the French
formula, but the towers are taller, and if
complete, are surmounted by enormous
openwork spires.
• The eastern end follows the French form.
• The distinctive character of the interior of
German Gothic cathedrals is their breadth and
openness.
• Cathedrals tend not to have strongly projecting
transepts.
• There are also many hallenkirke without
clerestorey windows.
SPANISH GOTHIC
• Spanish Gothic cathedrals are of spacial
complexity.
• They are comparatively short and wide, and are
often completely surrounded by chapels.
• Spanish Cathedrals are stylistically diverse.
• Influences on both decoration and form are
Islamic architecture, and towards the end of the
period, Renaissance details combined with the
Gothic in a distinctive manner.
• The West front resembles a French west front,
• There are spires of German style.
• Few pinnacles.
• There are often towers and domes of a great
variety of shapes and structural invention rising
above the roof.