St. Germain des Pres (Paris, 1000 AD) In 542 AD, the Merovingian king Childebert (Clovis' son) was fighting the Visigoths in Spain when he heard that the people of Saragossa were praying to St. Vincent to save them. Childebert decided not to fight people under the protection of a Christian saint, and the people were so grateful to be [...]
Notre Dame of Paris (1160s AD) In 1160 AD, a hundred years after Matilda built the Abbaye aux Dames in Caen, and about the same time as they were building the new cathedral at Laon, the Bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, decided that Paris should also have a big newChristian church - after all, how could the French king allow his capital to [...]
Notre Dame of Paris (1160s AD) Medieval architects designed most Romanesque and Gothic churches starting with the design of a Roman basilica. But many churches added a part coming out crossways. That made the whole church take the shape of a cross. It gave you more room for people to see the mass. And it reminded people how Jesus died on [...]
Nave of Abbaye aux Dames (Caen, 1050 AD) The nave is the long narrow part of a Roman basilica or a Christian church - the part where people sit in a modern church. The word "nave" comes from the Latin word for "ship", navis, because people in the Middle Ages thought a nave looked like [...]
Flying buttress (Rouen Cathedral, 1200s AD) Gothic cathedrals In the 1100s AD, architects in northern France wanted to build big impressive Gothic cathedrals. They also wanted their cathedrals to be full of light, so they would be inspiring, not dark and depressing. What's a cathedral? Gothic cathedrals Lots of Middle Ages articles But [...]
Buttress of St. Germain des Pres (Paris, 1100s AD) A buttress is a big pile of stone that keeps a building's walls from falling down. If you build a building out of stone, and then put on a stone roof with a barrel vault, you have a problem: the roof is so heavy, and [...]
