Westminster Abbey western facade (front) Westminster Abbey is a large church in the Gothic style in London, England. Edward the Confessor built an abbey here in 1050 AD, in the Romanesque style. (An abbey is a place for monks or nuns to live and pray) William the Conqueror was crowned in the Abbey. And since his time all English kings and queens have also been crowned [...]
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 [...]
Elevation of the nave inside Reims cathedral One difference between Chartres cathedral and Reims cathedral was that at Reims they didn't build a deep gallery over the aisle. Instead, they just put in a shallow, fake gallery, that looked lighter. As at Chartres, this gallery is tiny compared to the big arches underneath. On the [...]
Laon Cathedral, France(begun 1160 AD) Where is Laon? In 1100 AD, Laon was a very rich town in northern France, with strong walls and a lot of farmland. It's on top of a high hill, so Laon (pronounced LON but you can just barely hear the N) was pretty much safe from enemies. More medieval cathedrals [...]
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 crossways. That made the whole church take the shape of a cross. Roman basilicas Medieval architecture All our medieval Europe articles What is [...]
Chartres nave Inside Chartres cathedral The architect started from the west end of the cathedral, at the nave. The builders built the nave very tall, the highest in France at that time - 120 feet. And, to keep the church from burning down again, they put on a stone roof instead of a wooden one. [...]
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 1211 AD, naturally the bishop of Amiens wanted one too. In fact, Bishop Evrard of Amiens was determined to have the biggest cathedral in France, [...]
Transept of Rouen cathedral (France, 1200s AD) Transepts were part of medieval Christian churches. Most churches were shaped like a cross, to remind people about Jesus' crucifixion, and the transept is the cross-piece of the cross. Floor plan of Chartres Cathedral Sometimes there were big rose windows (round windows) and doors [...]
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 [...]
