1. Romanesque Architecture
Lecture – 2
Dr. Binumol Tom
Professor
Dept. of Architecture

2.  Romanesque is inspired by What is Romanesque
Roman architecture. Architecture?
 Similarities between Roman and
Romanesque include round
arches, stone materials, and the
basilica-style plan (used for
secular purposes by the Romans).
 influences that led to the
Romanesque style are far more
complex - Romanesque
architecture also shows
influences from Visi
gothic, Carolingian, Byzantine
and Islamic architecture.
 The Romanesque period cannot
be precisely defined – but
Romanesque architecture
generally dates from 1000 to
1150
 Romanesque was at its height
between about 1075 and 1125.

3.  In some conservative What is Romanesque
regions, Romanesque-style churches
continued to be built well into the Architecture?
1200s, and there was considerable
overlap between the styles. Features that
lie somewhere between Romanesque
and Gothic are called "Transitional”.
 The term "Romanesque" was coined in
1818 by Charles-Alexis-Adrien de
Gerville to describe the form of art and
architecture that preceded Gothic.
The term is Roman in French;
 Romanish in German;
 Romaanse in Dutch,
 Románico in Spanish and
 Romanico in Italian.

4. Introduction to Romanesque Art
 This art appeared during the Middle Age
 It is the first style that can be found all over
Europe, even when regional differences
 The expansion of the style was linked to the
pilgrimages, mainly to Santiago.

5. Development
 Romanesque art developed due to a series of
causes:
 The end of Barbarian invasions
 The decomposition of Cordoba
 The establishment of peace in
the Christian world, with the
development of the cities,
commerce and industry.

6. Expansion
 The factors of the expansion of Romanesque
art were:
 Development of feudal system,
that demanded works (castles)
 The expansion of religious orders
(Benedictines), expanded the monasteries
 The pilgrimage routes
 The crusades

7. Romanesque style
 Combining features of contemporary Western Roman
and Byzantine buildings, Romanesque architecture
is known by its massive quality, its thick
walls, round arches, sturdy piers, groin
vaults, large towers and decorative arcading.
 Each building has clearly defined forms and they are
frequently of very regular, symmetrical plan so that the
overall appearance is one of simplicity when
compared with the Gothic buildings that were to follow.
 The style can be identified right across
Europe, despite regional characteristics and different
materials.

8. Characteristics of Romanesque Architecture
 harmonious proportions
 stone barrel vault or groin
vault
 thick and heavy walls
 thick and heavy pillars
 small windows
 round arches supporting
the roof
 round "blind arches" used
extensively for decoration
inside and out (especially
exteriors)
 nave with side aisles
(though some modest
churches are aisleless)
 galleries above the side
aisles, separated from the
nave by a triforium

9. Characteristics of Romanesque Architecture
 a transept (section crossing
the nave at a right
angle, giving the church a
cross shape)
 an apse (semicircular
niche, usually in the east
end)
 an ambulatory (often with
radiating chapels) around
the apse
 multiple towers, usually at
the west end and over the
transept crossing
 sculptured decoration on
portals, capitals and other
surfaces (except in
Cistercian monasteries)
 painted decoration
throughout the interior (little
of which survives today)

10. Romanesque – to sum up
 Use of the Roman round arch, adoption of the major
forms of antique Roman vaulting
(contained, strong, weighty and sober style)
 Most Romanesque churches retained the basic plan
of the Early Christian basilica: a long, three-aisled
nave intercepted by a transept and terminating in a
semicircular apse crowned by a conch, or half-dome
 European movement in architecture (10-12th
centuries), especially in Italy, France, England and
Germany

11. Typologies
 There are three main architectonical typologies:
Churches Monasteries Castles

12. Monastery
 It was designed as a microcosm, as the city of God
 They had several dependencies:
 Church
 Cloister
 Chapter room
 Abbot’s house
 Monks/ nuns rooms
 Refectory
 Hospital

13. Church
 It was the main building
 It symbolized God’s kingdom
 The holiest part was the apse
 It had cross shape
 Symbolism was important:
 Circular parts reflect perfection so they were
linked to God
 Squared parts are related to the human.

14. Church
 Characteristics:
 Monumental, trying to imitate the Roman models in the
Pilgrimage churches
 Small in country churches
 They were designed for advertising Catholic church
 They were lasting, made of stone
 Plans could be:
 Latin cross
 Polygonal
 Basilical
Latin cross Polygonal Basilical

15. Church
 Parts of the plan

16. Church  Parts from the outside

17. Church
 Elevation:
 The church is covered
by
stoned vaults
 Wall are thick
 They need strong
buttresses
 Foundations are strong
 Few windows

18. Church
Clerestory  Interior elevation: it consists
of three levels:
 First floor with columns or
cross-shaped pillars
 Second floor with the
Tribune
tribune (corridor over
looking the nave, over the
aisles)
 Clerestory: area of windows
opening to the outside.
Pillar
Column

19. Church
 Type of covers:
Barrel vault: it was
used mainly to cover
the central nave
Groin vault was
common in aisles and
ambulatory
Dome: spherical were used
in apses. The central could
stand on pendentives or
squinches

20. Castle
 Castles were
defensive
constructions
 They were fortified
for providing shelter
 The wall was one of
the essential
elements
 They tend to be build
in stepped
areas, easier to
defend.

21. Romanesque Architecture
Building Materials & Construction
methods

22. The building material used in
Romanesque Architecture
 brick
-- Italy, Poland, much of Germany and parts of the Netherland
 limestone, granite
-- other areas
 the building stone
--small and irregular pieces, bedded in thick mortar

23. Building materials and methods
 Romanesque buildings were made of
stone, but often had wooden roofs because
people were still not very good at building
stone roofs yet.
 If they did have stone roofs, the walls had to
be very thick in order to hold up the
roofs, and there couldn't be very many
windows either, so Romanesque buildings
were often very heavy and dark inside.

24. Piers
 support arches ; at the intersection of two
large arches ; cruciform in shape masonry
and square or rectangular in section
 horizontal moulding
 vertical shafts, horizontal mouldings at the
level of base
 highly complex form
--half-segments of large hollow-core column
--a clustered group of smaller shafts

25. Columns
 Salvaged columns
 Drum columns
 Hollow core columns
 Capitals
 Alternation

26.  In Italy, during this period, a great number of antique Roman
columns were salvaged and reused in the interiors and on the
porticos of churches.
 The most durable of these columns are of marble
and have the stone horizontally bedded. The majority are
vertically bedded and are sometimes of a variety of colours.
 They may have retained their original Roman capitals, generally
of the Corinthian or Roman Composite style
 Salvaged columns were also used to a lesser extent in France.

27. Drum columns
 In most parts of Europe, Romanesque columns
were massive, as they supported thick upper walls
with small windows, and sometimes heavy vaults.
The most common method of construction was to
build them out of stone cylinders called drums.

28. Santiago de Compostela has
large columns constructed of
drums, with attached shafts.

29. Hollow core columns
 they were constructed of ashlar masonry
 the hollow core was filled with rubble
 These huge untapered columns are sometimes
ornamented with incised decorations.

30. Durham Cathedral, England, has decorated
masonry columns and the earlist pointed high ribs.

31. Capitals
 round at the bottom
 it sits on a circular column and
square at the top
 it supports the wall or arch
 cutting a rectangular cube
 taking the four lower corners off at
an angle so that the block was
square at the top
 Octagonal at the bottom
 manuscripts illustrations of Biblical
scenes and depictions of beasts and
monsters, others are lively scenes of
the legends of local saints.

32. Paired columns like
those at Duratón, near
Sepúlveda, Spain, are a
feature of Romanesque
cloisters in Spain, Italy
and southern France.
The Corinthian order as used for
the portico of the Pantheon, Rome
provided a prominent model for
Festive Corinthian capitals on the richly- Renaissance and later architects,
appointed General Post Office, New York through the medium of engravings.
(McKim, Mead, and White, 1913)

33. Alternation
 the alternation of piers and
columns.
 The most simple form that
this takes is to have a
column between each
adjoining pier
 Sometimes the columns
are in multiples of two or
three St. Michael's, Hildesheim has
alternating piers and columns.

34. Vaults
 Barrel vault
 Groin vault
 Ribbed vault
 Pointed arched vault

35. Barrel vault
 a tunnel vault or a wagon vault,
 The simplest type of vaulted roof is the barrel vault
in which a single arched surface extends from wall
to wall, the length of the space to be vaulted,
 the barrel vault generally required the support of
solid walls, or walls in which the windows were very
small.

36. Nave of Lisbon Cathedral with a barrel
vaulted soffit. Note the absence of
clerestory windows, all of the light
being provided by the Rose window at The Cloisters,
one end of the vault. New York City

37. Groin Vaults
 A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as
a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the
intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults.
 The word groin refers to the edge between the
intersecting vaults; cf. ribbed vault.
 Sometimes the arches of groin vaults are pointed instead
of round.
 In comparison with a barrel vault, a groin vault provides
good economies of material and labour.
 The thrust is concentrated along the groins or arrises (the
four diagonal edges formed along the points where the
barrel vaults intersect), so the vault need only be abutted
at its four corners.

38.  for the less visible
and smaller vaults
 square in plan and
is constructed of
two barrel vaults
intersecting at right
angles
 Groin vaults are
frequently
separated by
transverse arched
ribs of low profile
Bayeux Cathedral, the crypt has groin vaults
and simplified Corinthian capitals.

42. Rib vault
 In ribbed vaults, not only
are there ribs spanning the
vaulted area
transversely, but each
vaulted bay has diagonal
ribs.
 In a ribbed vault, the ribs
are the structural
members, and the spaces
between them can be filled
with lighter, non-structural
material.

43.  Because Romanesque arches are nearly always
semi-circular, the structural and design problem
inherent in the ribbed vault is that the diagonal span
is larger and therefore higher than the transverse
span

44.  One was to have the centre
point where the diagonal ribs
met as the highest point, with
the infil of all the surfaces
sloping upwards towards it, in
a domical manner.
San Michele Maggiore, Pavia, Italy.
View of the interior.

45.  Another solution was to
stilt the transverse
ribs, or depress the
diagonal ribs so that Cathedral of Reims, France
the centreline of the
vault was horizontal,
At Saint-Etienne, Caen, both
the nave and the tower are
covered by ribbed vaults.
c.1080.

46. Pointed arched vault
 Late in the Romanesque period another
solution came into use for regulating the
height of diagonal and transverse ribs
 use arches of the same diameter for both
horizontal and transverse ribs, causing the
transverse ribs to meet at a point

47. Interior of Durham
Cathedral
Pointed barrel
vault showing
direction of lateral
forces.

48. Romanesque in Italy
 Italian provinces developed
a great diversity of
architectural styles
 Lombardy with groined
vaults of heavy proportions
 Central Italy classical Saint Ambroggio, Milan
decorative elements:
Corinthian
capitals, coloured
marble, open
arches, colonnades and
galleries and façades with
sculptures
Saint Miniato, Florence

49. Romanesque in Italy
 South with Byzantine and
Arabic influences, using
mosaics, interlaced
pointed-arches.
Cefalu, Sicily
 Three separate
buildings:
church, baptistery and
bell tower.
Pisa Cathedral, in
Tuscany, presents three separate
buildings.

50. CAMPANILE -
Tower
CATHEDRAL
CAMPO SANTO -
cemetery
BAPTISTRY

53. Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Tower of Pisa is the bell tower of the Cathedral.
Its construction began in the august of 1173 and continued
(with two long interruptions) for about two hundred years, in
full fidelity to the original project, whose architect is
believed to be Giovanni di Simone.
In the past it was widely believed that the inclination of the
Tower was part of the project ever since its beginning, but
now we know that it is not so.
The Tower was designed to be "vertical“, and started to
incline during its construction.

54. During its construction efforts
were made to halt the incipient
inclination through the use of
special construction devices;
later columns and other
damaged parts were
substituted in more than one
occasion;
today, interventions are being
carried out within the sub-soil
in order to significantly reduce
the inclination and to make
sure that Tower will have a
long life.

55. E
The site
The Tower occupies a site
to one side of the
Cathedral, between the
apsidal area and the
south-eastern portion of
the transept of the latter.
Though not an isolated
case ,this is an unusual
collocation: normally, bell
towers were built near to
the façade or along one
side of churches.

56. The building
The building is formed by
a cylindrical body of
masonry
encircled by arcades
with arches
and columns resting
upon the base,
surmounted by a belfry.

57. The central body of the
structure is composed of a
hollow cylinder, formed by
an external wall facing of
shaped ashlars in white and
grey San Giuliano limestone,
an inner wall facing also of
worked limestone and,
between these two wall
facings, an annular masonry
area.
Within this masonry area is a
spiral stair, which, with 293
steps, climbs up to the sixth
arcade.

58. The basic architectural elements
of the Tower :
the wall facing in marble or
limestone in two colored bands,
the inscribed portals in the
arcades,
the adoption of certain decorative
details ,
the wall facing above the arcades
which, with its strong play of light
and shadow, disguises the load
bearing effect of the internal
cylinder.

59. A sort of visual continuum between the decorations of the Cathedral, the
Baptistery and the Tower is formed, commencing with the decorative
prototype of the Cathedral façade which plays upon constantly varying
rhythms and solutions.

60. The measurements of the Tower
The Tower is 58.36 meters high from
the foundation and 55 from the
ground.
Its weight has been calculated at
14,453 tones.
The tower has an exterior dimension
of 19.58 meters, with a central
aperture of 4.5 meters.
The area of the annular foundation is thus
285m2, and the average pressure on the
ground is 497k Pa.
The present inclination is about 55j - i.e. about
10%; the value corresponding to the
eccentricity on the loads on the foundation is
2.3 meters.

61. PISA CATHEDRAL

62. Pisa Cathedral o Resembles early
basilican church in plan
o Nave, double aisles
o Long rows of columns
connected by arches
o Usual timber roof
o Exterior – bands of red
and white marble
o Ground storey faced with
wall arcading
o Transepts end in aspses
o Elliptical dome over the
crossing is a later addition
o Good proportions
o Delicacy of its
ornamentation

67. West front, Cathedral · Cathedral of Pisa · Pisa, Italy

71. West façade detail

72.  West façade arcade - detail

73. Campo Santo
 The Camposanto ("Holy Field") or Monumental Cemetery in Pisa
was constructed in 1278 around sacred dirt brought back from
Golgotha during the Crusades.
 Later decorated with extensive frescoes, it was the burial place of
the Pisan upper class for centuries.
 The history of the Monumental Cemetery began in the 12th
century, when Archbishop Ubaldo Lanfranchi (1108-78) brought
back shiploads of holy dirt from Golgotha (where Christ was
crucified) during the Crusades.
 In 1278, Giovanni di Simone (architect of the Leaning Tower)
designed a marble cloister to enclose the holy ground, which
became the primary cemetery for Pisa's upper class until 1779. In
the 14th and 15th centuries, the walls of the Camposanto were
decorated with frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi, Spinello
Aretino, Benozzo Gozzoli, Andrea Bonaiuti, Antonio Veneziano, and
Piero di Puccio.

74. Campo Santo
 Tragically, the extensive frescoes of the Camposanto were
almost completely destroyed by a bombing raid during
World War II.
 On July 27, 1944, American warplanes launched a major
air attack against Pisa, which was still held by the Nazis.
 The wooden roof caught fire, its lead panels melted and
the hot metal ran all over the frescoes.
 Many were completely destroyed and the few that
remained were badly damaged.
 The Camposanto has since been fully restored and most
of the surviving frescoes, along with preparatory sketches
(sinopie) found underneath, have been moved to the
Museo delle Sinopie in Pisa.

75. Baptistry
 Designed by Dioti
Salvi – circular plan
with central space/
nave
 18.3 m in diameter
separated by four
piers and eight
columns from the
surrounding two
storied aisle, which
makes the building
nearly 39.3 m in
diameter

81. Romanesque in France
 It was the original
region of Romanesque
art
 From there it expanded
thanks to the pilgrimage
routes, specially to
Santiago in Spain.

82. Romanesque in France
 It is characterized by
various vaulted styles
 Provence: pointed domes Saint
and façades decorated with Trophime
arches , Arles
 long choir, side aisles
around the semicircular
sanctuary forming the
ambulatory in which
radiating chapels open
Saint Sernin
Toulouse

83. Romanesque in France
 Burgundy: barrel-
vaulted, three-aisled
Cluny
basilica
 Normandy: Lombard
influences with groined
vaults supported by
flying buttresses and
façades with two
flanking towers.
Sainte Magdalene, Vezelay

85. ABBAYE-
AUX-
HOMMES,
CAEN

86.  Also known as S. Etienne (finest church in Normandy)
 Western façade, flanked by two square towers crowned by
octagonal spires which with angle pinnacles were added in
the 13th century
 Prototype of later Gothic facades

87.  Fully
developed
triforium
gallery with
half-barrel
vaults

89. Romanesque in Germany
 Churches were planned on a large scale
 They used to be very high
 They had an apse or sanctuary at each end.
 Numerous round or octagonal towers that conferred
them a picturesque silhouette.
Laach
Worms

90. Romanesque in Spain
 First Romanesque:
Catalonia
 In the 11th century the
region was almost
assimilated to France
 Due to this they receive
the art early
 The rest of the Spain
would receive it with the
pilgrimage

91. Romanesque in Spain
 Catalan churches
present, in the
outside, ordered volumes
 Wall are decorated with
Lombard bands, and blind
arches and galleries
 The plan has three
naves, with a small narthex
 The head has triple apse

92. Romanesque in Spain
 Pilgrims route to Santiago was an important
route for Romanesque Art expansion.

93. Romanesque in Spain
 Characteristics of pilgrimage churches:
 Plan with three to five aisles and a transept
 In the transept there are radial chapels
 Inside there is a tribune
 The head has ambulatory and radial chapels

94. Romanesque in Spain
 There are polygonal
buildings too
 They are related to the
Temple
 They are inspired in
Jerusalem’s Holy
Sepulchre
 Examples are
Eunate, Torres del Rio
(both in Navarre) and
Veracruz (Segovia).

95. Romanesque in Spain
 Castile and Leon:
 It is deeply influenced
by the pilgrimage
routes
 The churches are
identified with the spirit
of the Reconquist

96. Romanesque in Spain
 Buildings are simple
and small
 It created a contrast in
relation to the refined
Hispano Muslin
architecture.
 They frequently have a
covered area in the
outside for the
meetings of the
councils.

97. Romanesque in Spain
 The best examples are:
 Santiago’s cathedral
 Fromista
 Sant Climent de Tahull
 San Pere de Roda
 San Juan de la Peña
 There are other buildings
such as castles (Loarre, in
Huesca) or
bridges, essential for
pilgrims
(Puentelarreina, Navarre)

98. Romanesque in England
 Before the 10th century
were made of wood
 Stone buildings were small
and roughly constructed
 The Norman Romanesque
style replace the Saxon in
11th century

99. Romanesque in England
 Long, narrow buildings were
constructed with heavy
walls and piers, rectangular
apses, double transepts
and deeply recessed portals
 Naves were covered with
flat roofs, later replaces by
vaults, and side aisles were
covered with groined vaults.

100. Durham Cathedral was
built in the late 11th and
early 12th centuries to
house the relics of St
Cuthbert (evangelizer of
Northumbria) and the
Venerable Bede. It attests
to the importance of the
early Benedictine monastic
community and is the
largest and finest example
of Norman architecture in
England.

101. Durham
Cathedral
aerial view
The innovative
audacity of its vaulting
foreshadowed Gothic
architecture. Behind the
cathedral stands the
castle, an ancient
Norman fortress which
was the residence of the
prince-bishops of
Durham.

102. Durham Cathedral Cloister

105. Tower of London
Interior of the innermost ward. To the right is the 11th-century White Tower; the
structure at the end of the walkway to the left is Wakefield Tower. Beyond that
can be seen Traitors' Gate.

106.  For over 900 years, The Tower of London
has been standing guard over the capital. As
a Royal Palace, fortress, prison, place of
execution, arsenal, Royal Mint, Royal Zoo
and jewel house, it has witnessed many great
events in British history.

107. Revision - Examples to study
 Pisa group,Italy
 Abbay Aux Hommes
 Tower of London