THE CHURCH WHERE "GOTHIC" ARCHITECTURE BEGAN

"GOTHIC" —  OR "BARBARIAN" — IS A 16TH- CENTURY TERM OF CONTEMPT

It would be better named "pointed arch architecture," which began at Saint-Denis. 

-- This page adopts the ideas of  Notre-Dame of Paris by Allan Temko, 1957

When Crusaders described arches seen in Syria...

Procession in Jaffa by Gustave Bauenfried, 1890, zoom 

Attempts to adopt them immediately began. The aim was not to reach toward Heaven as layers did already... 

Claude Abron

Angoulême, early 12th century 

But to obtain the uninterrupted interior space necessary for the meetings, classes, conferences, etc., which the towns that were springing up everywhere required and that much greater height allowed:

Conference at Notre-Dame by Henri Ladordaire, 1845, anonymous / zoom 

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While round arches collapse under weights of stone...

Claude Abron

Saint-Amand Montron, early 11th century

Pointed arches meet at keystones, to carry stones' weight to pillars that take it to the ground... 

Claude Abron 

Soissons, early 13th century

And flying buttresses reinforce the walls:

Saint-Eustache, the last Gothic church in Paris, 1532-62

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But the churches fell down.

Then suddenly at Saint-Denis arches stayed stable even when built around the chevet's curve:

(In 1164)

Internet, no photographer named

The chevet, the most sacred part of a church, is separated from the public by the altar. In the Middle Ages it faced east toward Jerusalem and the rising sun, symbol of Resurrection.

The colossal churches immediately spread throughout Christendom, becoming the symbols of the new towns:

         In The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, 1854 ed.

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Characteristics of Western culture: The Greek heritage, Roman law, the Judeo-Christian tradition...

And pointed-arch architecture,

which gives Saint-Denis its full importance.

 

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