Romanesque churches: architecture, design, and historical significance

Art History

The Architecture of Romanesque Churches

Romanesque architecture represented the first great architectural style to spread across Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Known to a large extent from numerous extant churches and monasteries, it is characterized by an overall sense of solidity and the rather heavy proportions of its classically-inspired elements. In contrast to the Gothic style that succeeded it, Romanesque appears to spring more directly from the Earth, its heavy forms hugging the ground and appearing truer to the geometric originals. The Romanesque style is so called from its prominent use of rounded, Roman-style arches that spring from massive piers. Churches tend to be constructed of sturdy masonry and feature relatively few windows. Floor plans are typically relatively simple. Charlemagne's great Palatine Chapel at Aachen is cruciform in plan, its central orientation emphasizing its liturgical function. Modeled after the Roman palace chapels of San Lorenzo in Milan, and San Vitale in Ravenna, its sixteen sides surrounding an octagon included ample space for the Emperor's impressive collection of relics and his own mausoleum. To complete the Roman effect, columns and capitals were taken from pre-existing Roman monuments and re-installed among the splendor created by Charlemagne.

Eclectic columns and capitals are a notable feature of the Romanesque and can be viewed in innumerable surviving cathedrals and related religious structures. Rather than follows the rigid formulations of the Classical orders, Romanesque architects produced their own variants on the Ancient capital and shaft. Capitals were sculptured in a variety of often ingenious forms, many of them figural, while the shafts were adorned with zigzags and other ornaments. At Saint-Sernin, in Toulouse, the cloisters feature a bewildering variety of very un-Roman ornament. Paired lions and birds alternate with vine tendrils or other plant forms, while miniature angels battle dragons on the tops of the columns.

Key to much Romanesque architecture is the synthesis of medieval imagination and ingenuity with the basic elements of Classical composition. The great cathedrals and monastic structures of the later Romanesque period feature the familiar march of arcades and columns, but assembled in a manner that is mid-way between the Classical and the Gothic. St. Michael's at Hildesheim presents a fine example of the style propagated by Otto, first of the long line of Holy Roman Emperors. Patterned after the old cathedral at Reims, the abbey church displays a similar set of volumes with east and west transepts with crossing towers; an especially large western apse balancing a triple apse at the opposite end.