Medieval European houses Half-timbered houses in Toulouse, France In the Middle Ages, many people in northern Europe (northern France, Germany, and England) built their houses in this half-timbered way. This was [...]
Early Gothic architecture: Notre Dame of Paris (1160s AD) What came after Romanesque? After the Romanesque period in architecture, around 1100 AD, architects in western Europe gradually started to build Christian churches and palaces in [...]
Can you match each of these stained-glass windows from the Sainte Chapelle to the Bible story it illustrates? Noah's Ark Moses and the Burning Bush Marking the doors for Passover Parting the [...]
Notre Dame of Paris (1160s AD) The shape of a cross Medieval architects designed most Romanesque and Gothic churches starting with the design of a Roman basilica. But many churches added a part coming out [...]
Medieval cathedrals: Façade of Amiens cathedral in France What is a cathedral? A cathedral is any Christian church where a bishop has his headquarters. No matter how big a church is, if there's [...]
Elevation of Amiens cathedral (begun 1220 AD) Where Chartres cathedral had a full gallery above the side aisles, Amiens has only a thin false gallery like Reims, with windows behind it that let in [...]
Façade of Amiens cathedral in France Why did Amiens build a big cathedral? Amiens is not far from Reims, in northern France, and when the bishop of Reims began building a big new cathedral in [...]
The Romanesque Abbaye aux Hommes, in Caen (about 1050 AD) Vikings settle in Caen Caen is a port town in north-western France, on the Atlantic Ocean. When the Vikings invaded France in the 700s AD, [...]
Caen - Abbaye aux Dames What is the Abbaye aux Dames? Matilda of Flanders ordered her architects to build this Christian church about 1050 AD in her capital at Caen. (Find out why.) The Abbaye [...]
Aachen cathedral (begun 792 AD) One of the first ambitious buildings in Western Europe after the fall of Rome was Charlemagne's chapel at his capital of Aachen (now in northern Germany) about 792 [...]
