Gothic architecture

Norman architecture on either side of the English Channel developed in parallel towards Early Gothic.[27] Gothic features, such as the rib vault, had appeared in England and Normandy in the 11th century.[27] Rib-vaults were employed in some parts of the cathedral at Durham (1093–)[27] and in Lessay Abbey in Normandy (1098).[28] However, the first buildings to be considered fully Gothic are the royal funerary abbey of the French kings, the Abbey of Saint-Denis (1134–44), and the archiepiscopal cathedral at Sens (1143–63) They were the first buildings to systematically combine rib vaulting, buttresses, and pointed arches.[27] Most of the characteristics of later Early English were already present in the lower chevet of Saint-Denis.[1]

The Duchy of Normandy, part of the Angevin Empire until the 13th century, developed its own version of Gothic. One of these was the Norman chevet, a small apse or chapel attached to the choir at the east end of the church, which typically had a half-dome. The lantern tower was another common feature in Norman Gothic.[28] One example of early Norman Gothic is Bayeux Cathedral (1060–70) where the Romanesque cathedral nave and choir were rebuilt into the Gothic style. Lisieux Cathedral was begun in 1170.[29] Rouen Cathedral (begun 1185) was rebuilt from Romanesque to Gothic with distinct Norman features, including a lantern tower, deeply moulded decoration, and high pointed arcades.[30] Coutances Cathedral was remade into Gothic beginning about 1220. Its most distinctive feature is the octagonal lantern on the crossing of the transept, decorated with ornamental ribs, and surrounded by sixteen bays and sixteen lancet windows.[29]

Saint-Denis was the work of the Abbot Suger, a close adviser of Kings Louis VI and Louis VII. Suger reconstructed portions of the old Romanesque church with the rib vault in order to remove walls and to make more space for windows. He described the new ambulatory as "a circular ring of chapels, by virtue of which the whole church would shine with the wonderful and uninterrupted light of most luminous windows, pervading the interior beauty."[31] To support the vaults He also introduced columns with capitals of carved vegetal designs, modelled upon the classical columns he had seen in Rome. In addition, he installed a circular rose window over the portal on the façade.[31] These also became a common feature of Gothic cathedrals.[31][32]

Some elements of Gothic style appeared very early in England. Durham Cathedral was the first cathedral to employ a rib vault, built between 1093 and 1104.[33] The first cathedral built entirely in the new style was Sens Cathedral, begun between 1135 and 1140 and consecrated in 1160.[34][35] Sens Cathedral features a Gothic choir, and six-part rib vaults over the nave and collateral aisles, alternating pillars and doubled columns to support the vaults, and buttresses to offset the outward thrust from the vaults. One of the builders who is believed to have worked on Sens Cathedral, William of Sens, later travelled to England and became the architect who, between 1175 and 1180, reconstructed the choir of Canterbury Cathedral in the new Gothic style.[34]

Sens Cathedral was influential in its strongly vertical appearance and in its three-part elevation, typical of subsequent Gothic buildings, with a clerestory at the top supported by a triforium, all carried on high arcades of pointed arches.[27] In the following decades flying buttresses began to be used, allowing the construction of lighter, higher walls.[27] French Gothic churches were heavily influenced both by the ambulatory and side-chapels around the choir at Saint-Denis, and by the paired towers and triple doors on the western façade.[27]

Sens was quickly followed by Senlis Cathedral (begun 1160), and Notre-Dame de Paris (begun 1160). Their builders abandoned the traditional plans and introduced the new Gothic elements from Saint-Denis. The builders of Notre-Dame went further by introducing the flying buttress, heavy columns of support outside the walls connected by arches to the upper walls. The buttresses counterbalanced the outward thrust from the rib vaults. This allowed the builders to construct higher, thinner walls and larger windows.[36]

High Gothic flying buttresses
Metz Cathedral (1220–)

High Gothic west front, Reims Cathedral (1211–)

Following the destruction by fire of the choir of Canterbury Cathedral in 1174, a group of master builders was invited to propose plans for the reconstruction. The master-builder William of Sens, who had worked on Sens Cathedral, won the competition.[27] Work began that same year, but in 1178 William was badly injured by fall from the scaffolding, and returned to France, where he died.[37][38] His work was continued by William the Englishman who replaced his French namesake in 1178. The resulting structure of the choir of Canterbury Cathedral is considered the first work of Early English Gothic.[27] The cathedral churches of Worcester (1175–), Wells (c.1180–), Lincoln (1192–), and Salisbury (1220–) are all, with Canterbury, major examples.[27] Tiercerons – decorative vaulting ribs – seem first to be have been used in vaulting at Lincoln Cathedral, installed c.1200.[27] Instead of a triforium, Early English churches usually retained a gallery.[27]

High Gothic (c. 1194–1250) was a brief but very productive period, which produced some of the great landmarks of Gothic art. The first building in the High Gothic (French: Classique) was Chartres Cathedral, an important pilgrimage church south of Paris. The Romanesque cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1194, but was swiftly rebuilt in the new style, with contributions from King Philip II of France, Pope Celestine III, local gentry, merchants, craftsmen, and Richard the Lionheart, king of England. The builders simplified the elevation used at Notre Dame, eliminated the tribune galleries, and used flying buttresses to support the upper walls. The walls were filled with stained glass, mainly depicting the story of the Virgin Mary but also, in a small corner of each window, illustrating the crafts of the guilds who donated those windows.[25]

The model of Chartres was followed by a series of new cathedrals of unprecedented height and size. These were Reims Cathedral (begun 1211), where coronations of the kings of France took place; Amiens Cathedral (1220–1226); Bourges Cathedral (1195–1230) (which, unlike the others, continued to use six-part rib vaults); and Beauvais Cathedral (1225–).[27][39]

In central Europe, the High Gothic style appeared in the Holy Roman Empire, first at Toul (1220–), whose Romanesque cathedral was rebuilt in the style of Reims Cathedral; then Trier's Liebfrauenkirche parish church (1228–), and then throughout the Reich, beginning with the Elisabethkirche at Marburg (1235–) and the cathedral at Metz (c.1235–).[27]

In High Gothic, the whole surface of the clerestory was given over to windows. At Chartres Cathedral, plate tracery was used for the rose window, but at Reims the bar-tracery was free-standing.[27] Lancet windows were supplanted by multiple lights separated by geometrical bar-tracery.[5] Tracery of this kind distinguishes Middle Pointed style from the simpler First Pointed.[5] Inside, the nave was divided into by regular bays, each covered by a quadripartite rib vaults.[27]

Other characteristics of the High Gothic were the development of rose windows of greater size, using bar-tracery, higher and longer flying buttresses, which could reach up to the highest windows, and walls of sculpture illustrating biblical stories filling the façade and the fronts of the transept. Reims Cathedral had two thousand three hundred statues on the front and back side of the façade.[39]

The new High Gothic churches competed to be the tallest, with increasingly ambitious structures lifting the vault yet higher. Chartres Cathedral's height of 38 m (125 ft) was exceeded by Beauvais Cathedral's 48 m (157 ft), but on account of the latter's collapse in 1248, no further attempt was made to build higher.[27] Attention turned from achieving greater height to creating more awe-inspiring decoration.[39]

Rayonnant Gothic west front
Strasbourg Cathedral (1276–)

Rayonnant Gothic maximized the coverage of stained glass windows such that the walls are effectively entirely glazed; examples are the nave of Saint-Denis (1231–) and the royal chapel of Louis IX of France on the Île de la Cité in the Seine – the Sainte-Chapelle (c.1241–8).[27] The high and thin walls of French Rayonnant Gothic allowed by the flying buttresses enabled increasingly ambitious expanses of glass and decorated tracery, reinforced with ironwork.[27] Shortly after Saint-Denis, in the 1250s, Louis IX commissioned the rebuilt transepts and enormous rose windows of Notre-Dame de Paris (1250s for the north transept, 1258 for the beginning of south transept).[40] This first 'international style' was also used in the clerestory of Metz Cathedral (c.1245–), then in the choir of Cologne's cathedral (c.1250–), and again in the nave of the cathedral at Strasbourg (c.1250–).[27] Masons elaborated a series of tracery patterns for windows – from the basic geometrical to the reticulated and the curvilinear – which had superseded the lancet window.[5] Bar-tracery of the curvilinear, flowing, and reticulated types distinguish Second Pointed style.[5]

Decorated Gothic similarly sought to emphasize the windows, but excelled in the ornamentation of their tracery. Churches with features of this style include Westminster Abbey (1245–), the cathedrals at Lichfield (after 1257–) and Exeter (1275–), Bath Abbey (1298–), and the retro choir at Wells Cathedral (c.1320–).[27]

The Rayonnant developed its second 'international style' with increasingly autonomous and sharp-edged tracery mouldings apparent in the cathedral at Clermont-Ferrand (1248–), the papal collegiate church at Troyes, Saint-Urbain (1262–), and the west façade of Strasbourg Cathedral (1276–1439)).[27] By 1300, there were examples influenced by Strasbourg in the cathedrals of Limoges (1273–), Regensburg (c.1275–), and in the cathedral nave at York (1292–).[27]

Flamboyant Gothic east end,
Prague Cathedral (1344–)

Perpendicular Gothic east end, Henry VII Chapel (c. 1503–12)

Central Europe began to lead the emergence of a new, international flamboyant style with the construction of a new cathedral at Prague (1344–) under the direction of Peter Parler.[27] This model of rich and variegated tracery and intricate reticulated rib-vaulting was definitive in the Late Gothic of continental Europe, emulated not only by the collegiate churches and cathedrals, but by urban parish churches which rivalled them in size and magnificence.[27] The minster at Ulm and other parish churches like the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster at Schwäbisch Gmünd (c.1320–), St Barbara's Church at Kutná Hora (1389–), and the Heilig-Geist-Kirche (1407–) and St Martin's Church (c.1385–) in Landshut are typical.[27] Use of ogees was especially common.[5]

Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes (1370s)

The flamboyant style was characterised by the multiplication of the ribs of the vaults, with new purely decorative ribs, called tiercons and liernes, and additional diagonal ribs. One common ornament of flamboyant in France is the arc-en-accolade, an arch over a window topped by a pinnacle, which was itself topped with fleuron, and flanked by other pinnacles. Examples of French flamboyant building include the west façade of Rouen Cathedral, and especially the façades of Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes (1370s) and choir Mont-Saint-Michel's abbey church (1448).[36]

In England, ornamental rib-vaulting and tracery of Decorated Gothic co-existed with, and then gave way to, the perpendicular style from the 1320s, with straightened, orthogonal tracery topped with fan-vaulting.[5][27] Perpendicular Gothic was unknown in continental Europe and unlike earlier styles had no equivalent in Scotland or Ireland.[5][41] It first appeared in the cloisters and chapter-house (c. 1332) of Old St Paul's Cathedral in London by William de Ramsey.[41] The chancel of Gloucester Cathedral (c. 1337–57) and its latter 14th century cloisters are early examples.[41] Four-centred arches were often used, and lierne vaults seen in early buildings were developed into fan vaults, first at the latter 14th century chapter-house of Hereford Cathedral (demolished 1769) and cloisters at Gloucester, and then at Reginald Ely's King's College Chapel, Cambridge (1446–1461) and the brothers William and Robert Vertue's Henry VII Chapel (c. 1503–12) at Westminster Abbey.[41][42][43] Perpendicular is sometimes called Third Pointed and was employed over three centuries; the fan-vaulted staircase at Christ Church, Oxford built around 1640.[5][41]

Lacey patterns of tracery continued to characterize continental Gothic building, with very elaborate and articulated vaulting, as at St Barbara's, Kutná Hora (1512).[5] In certain areas, Gothic architecture continued to be employed until the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in provincial and ecclesiastical contexts, notably at Oxford.[5]

Beginning in the mid-15th century, the Gothic style gradually lost its dominance in Europe. It had never been popular in Italy, and in the mid-15th century the Italians, drawing upon ancient Roman ruins, returned to classical models. The dome of Florence Cathedral (1420–1436) by Filippo Brunelleschi, inspired by the Pantheon, Rome, was one of the first Renaissance landmarks, but it also employed Gothic technology; the outer skin of the dome was supported by a framework of twenty-four ribs.[44]

The Kings of France had first-hand knowledge of the new Italian style, because of the military campaign of Charles VIII to Naples and Milan (1494), and especially the campaigns of Louis XII and Francis I (1500–1505) to restore French control over Milan and Genoa.[45] They brought back Italian paintings, sculpture and building plans, and, more important, Italian craftsmen and artists. The Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, chief minister of Louis XII, built the Chateau of Gaillon near Rouen (1502–10) with the assistance of Italian craftsmen. The Château de Blois (1515–24) introduced the Renaissance loggia and open stairway. King Francois I installed Leonardo da Vinci at his Chateau of Chambord in 1516, and introduced a Renaissance long gallery at the Palace of Fontainebleau in 1528–1540. In 1546 Francois I began building the first example of French classicism, the square courtyard of the Louvre Palace designed by Pierre Lescot.[46]

In Germany, some Italian elements were introduced at the Fugger Chapel of St Anne's Church, Augsburg, (1510–1512) combined with Gothic vaults; and others appeared in the Church of St. Michael in Munich, but in Germany Renaissance elements were used primarily for decoration.[46] Some Renaissance elements also appeared in Spain, in the new palace begun by Emperor Charles V in Granada, within the Alhambra (1485–1550), inspired by Bramante and Raphael, but it was never completed.[47] The first major Renaissance work in Spain was El Escorial, the monastery-palace built by Philip II of Spain.[48]

Under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, England was largely isolated from architectural developments on the continent. The first classical building in England was the Old Somerset House in London (1547–1552) (since demolished), built by Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, who was regent as Lord Protector for Edward VI until the young king came of age in 1547. Somerset's successor, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, sent the architectural scholar John Shute to Italy to study the style. Shute published the first book in English on classical architecture in 1570. The first English houses in the new style were Burghley House (1550s–1580s) and Longleat, built by associates of Somerset.[49] With those buildings, a new age of architecture began in England.[50]

Gothic architecture survived the early modern period and flourished again in a revival from the late 18th century and throughout the 19th.[5] Perpendicular was the first Gothic style revived in the 18th century.[41]

The defining characteristic of the Gothic style is the pointed arch, which was widely used in both structure and decoration. The pointed arch did not originate in Gothic architecture; they had been employed for centuries in the Near East in pre-Islamic as well as Islamic architecture for arches, arcades, and ribbed vaults.[51] In Gothic architecture, particularly in the later Gothic styles, they became the most visible and characteristic element, giving a sensation of verticality and pointing upward, like the spires. Gothic rib vaults covered the nave, and pointed arches were commonly used for the arcades, windows, doorways, in the tracery, and especially in the later Gothic styles decorating the façades.[52] They were also sometimes used for more practical purposes, such as to bring transverse vaults to the same height as diagonal vaults, as in the nave and aisles of Durham Cathedral, built in 1093.[53]

The earliest Gothic pointed arches were lancet lights or lancet windows, narrow windows terminating in a lancet arch, an arch with a radius longer than their breadth, (width), and resembling the blade of a lancet.[54][55] In the 12th century First Pointed phase of Gothic architecture, also called the Lancet style and before the introduction of tracery in the windows in later styles, lancet windows predominated Gothic building.[56]

The Flamboyant Gothic style was particularly known for such lavish pointed details as the arc-en-accolade, where the pointed arch over a doorway was topped by a pointed sculptural ornament called a fleuron and by pointed pinnacles on either side. the arches of the doorway were further decorated with small cabbage-shaped sculptures called "chou-frisés".[57]

• 
  Eastern end of Wells Cathedral (begun 1175)
• 
  West front of Reims Cathedral, pointed arches within arches (1211–1275)
• 
  Lancet windows of transept of Salisbury Cathedral (1220–1258)
• 
  Pointed arches in the arcades, triforium, and clerestory of Lincoln Cathedral (1185–1311)
• 
  A detail of the windows and galleries of the west front of Strasbourg Cathedral (1215–1439)

Structure of an early six-part Gothic rib vault. (Drawing by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc)

The Gothic rib vault was one of the essential elements that made possible the great height and large windows of the Gothic style.[58] Unlike the semi-circular barrel vault of Roman and Romanesque buildings, where the weight pressed directly downward, and required thick walls and small windows, the Gothic rib vault was made of diagonal crossing arched ribs. These ribs directed the thrust outwards to the corners of the vault, and downwards via slender colonettes and bundled columns, to the pillars and columns below. The space between the ribs was filled with thin panels of small pieces of stone, which were much lighter than earlier groin vaults. The outward thrust against the walls was countered by the weight of buttresses and later flying buttresses. As a result, the massive thick walls of Romanesque buildings were no longer needed; Since the vaults were supported by the columns and piers, the walls could be thinner and higher, and filled with windows.[59][34][60]

The earlier Gothic rib vaults, used at Sens Cathedral (begun between 1135 and 1140) and Notre-Dame de Paris (begun 1163), were divided by the ribs into six compartments. They were very difficult to build, and could only cross a limited space. Since each vault covered two bays, they needed support on the ground floor from alternating columns and piers. In later construction, the design was simplified, and the rib vaults had only four compartments. The alternating rows of alternating columns and piers receiving the weight of the vaults was replaced by simple pillars, each receiving the same weight. A single vault could cross the nave. This method was used at Chartres Cathedral (1194–1220), Amiens Cathedral (begun 1220), and Reims Cathedral.[61] The four-part vaults made it possible for the building to be even higher. Notre-Dame de Paris, begun in 1163 with six-part vaults, reached a height of 35 m (115 ft). Amiens Cathedral, begun in 1220 with the newer four-part ribs, reached the height of 42.3 m (139 ft) at the transept.[59][62]

• 
  Early six-part rib vaults in Sens Cathedral (1135–1164)
• 
  Rib vaults of choir of Canterbury Cathedral (1174–77)
• 
  Stronger four-part rib vaults in nave of Reims Cathedral (1211–1275)
• 
  Salisbury Cathedral – rectangular four-part vault over a single bay (1220–1258)

Crossing vault, Seville Cathedral

In France, the four-part rib vault, with two diagonals crossing at the center of the traverse, was the type used almost exclusively until the end of the Gothic period. However, in England, several imaginative new vaults were invented which had more elaborate decorative features. They became a signature of the later English Gothic styles.[63]

The first of these new vaults had an additional rib, called a tierceron, which ran down the median of the vault.[64] It first appeared in the vaults of the choir of Lincoln Cathedral at the end of the 12th century, then at Worcester Cathedral in 1224, and then the south transept of Lichfield Cathedral.[63]

The 14th century brought the invention of several new types of vaults which were more and more decorative.[65] These vaults often copied the forms form of the elaborate tracery of the Late Gothic styles.[64] These included the stellar vault, where a group of additional ribs between the principal ribs forms a star design. The oldest vaults of this kind were found in the crypt of Saint Stephen at Westminster Palace, built about 1320. A second type was called a reticulated vault, which had a network of additional decorative ribs, in triangles and other geometric forms, placed between or over the traverse ribs. These were first used in the choir of Bristol Cathedral in about 1311. Another late Gothic form, the fan vault, with ribs spreading upwards and outwards, appeared later in the 14th century. An example is the cloister of Gloucester Cathedral (c. 1370).[63]

Another new form was the skeleton vault, which appeared in the English Decorated style. It has an additional network of ribs, like the ribs of an umbrella, which criss-cross the vault but are only directly attached to it at certain points. It appeared in a chapel of Lincoln Cathedral in 1300.[63] and then several other English churches. This style of vault was adopted in the 14th century in particular by German architects, particularly Peter Parler, and in other parts of central Europe. Another exists in the south porch of the Prague Cathedral[63]

Elaborate vaults also appeared in civic architecture. An example is the ceiling of the Vladislav Hall in Prague Castle in Bohemia designed by Benedikt Ried in 1493. The ribs twist and intertwine in fantasy patterns, which later critics called "Rococo Gothic".[66]

• 
  Lierne vaults of Gloucester Cathedral (Perpendicular Gothic)
• 
  Skeleton-vault in aisle of Bristol Cathedral (c. 1311–1340)
• 
  Lincoln Cathedral – quadripartite form, with tierceron ribs and ridge rib with carved bosses.
• 
  Bremen Cathedral – north aisle, a reticular (net) vault with intersecting ribs.
• 
  Church of the Assumption, St Marein, Austria – star vault with intersecting lierne ribs.
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  Salamanca Cathedral, Spain Flamboyant S-shaped and circular lierne ribs. (16th–18th century)
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  Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse – palm tree vault (1275–1292)
• 
  Peterborough Cathedral, retrochoir – intersecting fan vaults
• 
  "Rococo Gothic" vaults of Vladislav Hall of Prague Castle (1493)
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  Duke University's Chapel Interior (Star vault with intersecting lierne ribs)

In Early French Gothic architecture, the capitals of the columns were modeled after Roman columns of the Corinthian order, with finely-sculpted leaves. They were used in the ambulatory of the Abbey church of Saint-Denis. According to its builder, the Abbot Suger, they were inspired by the columns he had seen in the ancient baths in Rome.[31] They were used later at Sens, at Notre-Dame de Paris and at Canterbury in England.

In early Gothic churches with six-part rib vaults, the columns in the nave alternated with more massive piers to provide support for the vaults. With the introduction of the four-part rib vault, all of the piers or columns in the nave could have the same design. In the High Gothic period, a new form was introduced, composed of a central core surrounded several attached slender columns, or colonettes, going up to the vaults.[67] These clustered columns were used at Chartres, Amiens, Reims and Bourges, Westminster Abbey and Salisbury Cathedral.[68] Another variation was a quadrilobe column, shaped like a clover, formed of four attached columns.[68] In England, the clustered columns were often ornamented with stone rings, as well as columns with carved leaves.[67]

Later styles added further variations. Sometimes the piers were rectangular and fluted, as at Seville Cathedral, In England, parts of columns sometimes had contrasting colours, using combining white stone with dark Purbeck marble. In place of the Corinthian capital, some columns used a stiff-leaf design. In later Gothic, the piers became much taller, reaching up more than half of the nave. Another variation, particularly popular in eastern France, was a column without a capital, which continued upward without capitals or other interruption, all the way to the vaults, giving a dramatic display of verticality.[68]

• 
  Early Gothic – Alternating columns and piers, Sens Cathedral (12th century)
• 
  High Gothic – Clustered columns of Reims Cathedral (13th century)
• 
  Early English Gothic – Clustered columns in Salisbury Cathedral (13th century)
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  Perpendicular Gothic – columns without interruption from floor to the vaults. Canterbury Cathedral nave (late 14th century)
• 
  Late Gothic- Clustered columns in Certosa di Pavia (15th century)

An important feature of Gothic architecture was the flying buttress, a half-arch outside the building which carried the thrust of weight of the roof or vaults inside over a roof or an aisle to a heavy stone column. The buttresses were placed in rows on either side of the building, and were often topped by heavy stone pinnacles, both to give extra weight and for additional decoration.[69]

Buttresses had existed since Roman times, usually set directly against the building, but the Gothic vaults were more sophisticated. In later structures, the buttresses often had several arches, each reaching in to a different level of the structure. The buttresses permitted the buildings to be both taller, and to have thinner walls, with greater space for windows.[69]

Over time, the buttresses and pinnacles became more elaborate supporting statues and other decoration, as at Beauvais Cathedral and Reims Cathedral. The arches had an additional practical purpose; they contained lead channels which carried rainwater off the roof; it was expelled from the mouths of stone gargoyles placed in rows on the buttresses.[70]

Flying buttresses were used less frequently in England, where the emphasis was more on length than height. One example of English buttresses was Canterbury Cathedral, whose choir and buttresses were rebuilt in Gothic style by William of Sens and William the Englishman.[38] However, they were very popular in Germany: in Cologne Cathedral the buttresses were lavishly decorated with statuary and other ornament, and were a prominent feature of the exterior.

• 
  Canterbury Cathedral with simple wall buttresses and flying buttresses (rebuilt into Gothic 1174–1177)
• 
  East end of Lincoln Cathedral, with wall buttress, and chapter house with flying buttresses. (1185–1311)
• 
  Flying buttresses of Notre Dame de Paris (c. 1230)
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  Buttresses of Amiens Cathedral with pinnacles to give them added weight (1220–1266)
• 
  Section of Reims Cathedral showing the three levels of each buttress (1211–1275)
• 
  Decorated buttresses of Cologne Cathedral (1248–1573)

Rouen Cathedral from the south west – façade towers 12th–15th century, the flamboyant tower to the 15th century, spire rebuilt in 16th century

Oxen sculpture in High Gothic towers of Laon Cathedral (13th century)

Towers, spires and flèches were an important feature of Gothic churches. They presented a dramatic spectacle of great height, helped make their churches the tallest and most visible buildings in their city, and symbolised the aspirations of their builders toward heaven.[71] They also had a practical purpose; they often served as bell towers supporting belfries, whose bells told the time by announcing religious services, warned of fire or enemy attack, and celebrated special occasions like military victories and coronations. Sometimes the bell tower is built separate from a church; the best-known example of this is the Leaning Tower of Pisa.[71]

The towers of cathedrals were usually the last part of the structure to be built. Since cathedral construction usually took many years, and was extremely expensive, by the time the tower were to be built public enthusiasm waned, and tastes changed. Many projected towers were never built, or were built in different styles than other parts of the cathedral, or with different styles on each level of the tower.[72] At Chartres Cathedral, the south tower was built in the 12th century, in the simpler Early Gothic, while the north tower is the more highly decorated Flamboyant style. Chartres would have been even more exuberant if the second plan had been followed; it called for seven towers around the transept and sanctuary.[73]

In the Île-de-France, cathedral towers followed the Romanesque tradition of two identical towers, one on either side of the portals. The west front of the Saint-Denis, became the model for the early Gothic cathedrals and High Gothic cathedrals in northern France, including Notre-Dame de Paris, Reims Cathedral, and Amiens Cathedral.[74]

The early and High Gothic Laon Cathedral has a square lantern tower over the crossing of the transept; two towers on the western front; and two towers on the ends of the transepts. Laon's towers, with the exception of the central tower, are built with two stacked vaulted chambers pierced by lancet openings. The two western towers contain life-size stone statues of sixteen oxen in their upper arcades, said to honour the animals who hauled the stone during the cathedral's construction.[75]

In Normandy, cathedrals and major churches often had multiple towers, built over the centuries; the Abbaye aux Hommes (begun 1066), Caen has nine towers and spires, placed on the façade, the transepts, and the centre. A lantern tower was often placed the centre of the nave, at the meeting point with the transept, to give light to the church below.

In later periods of Gothic, pointed needle-like spires were often added to the towers, giving them much greater height. A variation of the spire was the flèche, a slender, spear-like spire, which was usually placed on the transept where it crossed the nave. They were often made of wood covered with lead or other metal. They sometimes had open frames, and were decorated with sculpture. Amiens Cathedral has a flèche. The most famous example was that of Notre-Dame de Paris. The original flèche of Notre-Dame was built on the crossing of the transept in the middle of the 13th century, and housed five bells. It was removed in 1786 during a program to modernize the cathedral, but was put back in a new form designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The new flèche, of wood covered with lead, was decorated with statues of the Apostles; the figure of St Thomas resembled Viollet-le-Duc.[76] The flèche was destroyed in the 2019 fire, but is being restored in the same design.

• 
  Abbaye aux Hommes, Caen (tall west towers added in the 13th century)
• 
  Towers of Chartres Cathedral; Flamboyant Gothic on left, early Gothic on the right.
• 
  The 13th century flèche of Notre Dame, recreated in the 19th c, destroyed by fire in 2019, now being restored
• 
  Duke University Chapel is an ecumenical Christian chapel and the center of religion at Duke University, and has connections to the United Methodist Church.

In English Gothic, the major tower was often placed at the crossing of the transept and nave, and was much higher than the other. The most famous example is the tower of Salisbury Cathedral, completed in 1320 by William of Farleigh. It was a remarkable feat of construction, since it was built upon the pillars of the much earlier church.[77] A crossing tower was constructed at Canterbury Cathedral in 1493–1501 by John Wastell, who had previously worked on King's College at Cambridge. It was finished by Henry Yevele, who also built the present nave of Canterbury.[78] The new central tower at Wells Cathedral caused a problem; it was too heavy for the original structure. An unusual double arch had to be constructed in the centre of the crossing to give the tower the extra support it needed.[77]

England's Gothic parish churches and collegiate churches generally have a single western tower. A number of the finest churches have masonry spires, with those of St James Church, Louth; St Wulfram's Church, Grantham; St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol; and Coventry Cathedral. These spires all exceed 85 m (280 ft) in height.[79]

Westminster Abbey's crossing tower has for centuries remained unbuilt, and numerous architects have proposed various ways of completing it since the 1250s, when work began on the tower under Henry III.[80] A century and half later, an octagonal roof lantern resembling that of Ely Cathedral was installed instead, which was then demolished in the 16th century.[80] Construction began again in 1724 to the design of Nicholas Hawksmoor, after first Christopher Wren had proposed a design in 1710, but stopped again in 1727. The crossing remains covered by the stub of the lantern and a 'temporary' roof.[80]

• 
  Salisbury Cathedral tower and spire over the crossing (1320)
• 
  West towers of York Minster, in the Perpendicular Gothic style.
• 
  The perpendicular west towers of Beverley Minster (c. 1400)
• 
  Crossing tower of Canterbury Cathedral (1493–1505)

Later Gothic towers in Central Europe often followed the French model, but added even denser decorative tracery. Cologne Cathedral had been started in the 13th century, following the plan of Amiens Cathedral, but only the apse and the base of one tower were finished in the Gothic period. The original plans were conserved and rediscovered in 1817, and the building was completed in the 20th century following the origin design. It has two spectacularly ornamented towers, covered with arches, gables, pinnacles and openwork spires pointing upwards. The tower of Ulm Minster has a similar history, begun in 1377, stopped in 1543, and not completed until the 19th century.[81]

• 
  Cologne Cathedral towers (begun 13th century, completed 20th century
• 
  Tower of Ulm Minster (begun 1377, completed 19th century)
• 
  Tower of Freiburg Minster (begun 1340) noted for its lacelike openwork spire
• 
  Prague Cathedral (begun 1344)

Regional variants of Gothic towers appeared in Spain and Italy. Burgos Cathedral was inspired by Northern Europe. It has an exceptional cluster of openwork spires, towers, and pinnacles, drenched with ornament. It was begun in 1444 by a German architect, Juan de Colonia (John of Cologne) and eventually completed by a central tower (1540) built by his grandson.[82]

In Italy the towers were sometimes separate from the cathedral; and the architects usually kept their distance from the Northern European style. the leaning tower of Pisa Cathedral, built between 1173 and 1372, is the best-known example. The Campanile of Florence Cathedral was built by Giotto in the Florentine Gothic style, decorated with encrustations of polychrome marble. It was originally designed to have a spire.[78]

• 
  West towers of Burgos Cathedral (1444–1540)
• 
  Giotto's Campanile of Florence Cathedral (1334–1359)

Beauvais Cathedral, south transept (consecrated 1272)

Tracery is an architectural solution by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone bars or ribs of moulding.[83] Pointed arch windows of Gothic buildings were initially (late 12th–late 13th centuries) lancet windows, a solution typical of the Early Gothic or First Pointed style and of the Early English Gothic.[83][1] Plate tracery was the first type of tracery to be developed, emerging in the later phase of Early Gothic or First Pointed.[83] Second Pointed is distinguished from First by the appearance of bar–tracery, allowing the construction of much larger window openings, and the development of Curvilinear, Flowing, and Reticulated tracery, ultimately contributing to the Flamboyant style.[1] Late Gothic in most of Europe saw tracery patterns resembling lace develop, while in England Perpendicular Gothic or Third Pointed preferred plainer vertical mullions and transoms.[1] Tracery is practical as well as decorative, because the increasingly large windows of Gothic buildings needed maximum support against the wind.[84]

Plate tracery, in which lights were pierced in a thin wall of ashlar, allowed a window arch to have more than one light – typically two side by side and separated by flat stone spandrels.[83] The spandrels were then sculpted into figures like a roundel or a quatrefoil.[83] Plate tracery reached the height of its sophistication with the 12th century windows of Chartres Cathedral and in the "Dean's Eye" rose window at Lincoln Cathedral.[84]

At the beginning of the 13th century, plate tracery was superseded by bar-tracery.[83] Bar-tracery divides the large lights from one another with moulded mullions.[83] Stone bar-tracery, an important decorative element of Gothic styles, first was used at Reims Cathedral shortly after 1211, in the chevet built by Jean D'Orbais.[85] It was employed in England around 1240.[83] After 1220, master builders in England had begun to treat the window openings as a series of openings divided by thin stone bars, while before 1230 the apse chapels of Reims Cathedral were decorated with bar-tracery with cusped circles (with bars radiating from the centre).[84] Bar-tracery became common after c.1240, with increasing complexity and decreasing weight.[84] The lines of the mullions continued beyond the tops of the window lights and subdivided the open spandrels above the lights into a variety of decorative shapes.[83] Rayonnant style (c.1230–c.1350) was enabled by the development of bar-tracery in Continental Europe and is named for the radiation of lights around a central point in circular rose windows.[83] Rayonnant also deployed mouldings of two different types in tracery, where earlier styles had used moulding of a single size, with different sizes of mullions.[84] The rose windows of Notre-Dame de Paris (c.1270) are typical.[84]

Plate tracery, Lincoln Cathedral "Dean's Eye" rose window (c.1225)

The early phase of Middle Pointed style (late 13th century) is characterized by Geometrical tracery – simple bar-tracery forming patterns of foiled arches and circles interspersed with triangular lights.[83] The mullions of Geometrical style typically had capitals with curved bars emerging from them. Intersecting bar-tracery (c.1300) deployed mullions without capitals which branched off equidistant to the window-head.[83] The window-heads themselves were formed of equal curves forming a pointed arch and the tracery-bars were curved by drawing curves with differing radii from the same centres as the window-heads.[83] The mullions were in consequence branched into Y-shaped designs further ornamented with cusps. The intersecting branches produced an array of lozenge-shaped lights in between numerous lancet arched lights.Y-tracery was often employed in two-light windows c.1300.[83]

Second Pointed (14th century) saw Intersecting tracery elaborated with ogees, creating a complex reticular (net-like) design known as Reticulated tracery.[83] Second Pointed architecture deployed tracery in highly decorated fashion known as Curvilinear and Flowing (Undulating).[83] These types of bar-tracery were developed further throughout Europe in the 15th century into the Flamboyant style, named for the characteristic flame-shaped spaces between the tracery-bars.[83] These shapes are known as daggers, fish-bladders, or mouchettes.[83]

Third Pointed or Perpendicular Gothic developed in England from the later 14th century and is typified by Rectilinear tracery (panel-tracery).[83] The mullions are often joined together by transoms and continue up their straight vertical lines to the top of the window's main arch, some branching off into lesser arches, and creating a series of panel-like lights.[83] Perpendicular strove for verticality and dispensed with the Curvilinear style's sinuous lines in favour of unbroken straight mullions from top to bottom, transected by horizontal transoms and bars.[84] Four-centred arches were used in the 15th and 16th centuries to create windows of increasing size with flatter window-heads, often filling the entire wall of the bay between each buttress.[83] The windows were themselves divided into panels of lights topped by pointed arches struck from four centres.[83] The transoms were often topped by miniature crenellations.[83] The windows at Cambridge of King's College Chapel (1446–1515) represent the heights of Perpendicular tracery.[84]

Tracery was used on both the interior and exterior of buildings. It frequently covered the façades, and the interior walls of the nave and choir were covered with blind arcades. It also often picked up and repeated the designs in the stained glass windows. Strasbourg Cathedral has a west front lavishly ornamented with bar tracery matching the windows.[84]

• 
  Lancet Gothic, Ripon Minster west front (begun 1160)
• 
  Plate tracery, Chartres Cathedral clerestory (1194–1220)
• 
  Geometrical Decorated Gothic, Ripon Minster east window
• 
  Rayonnant rose window, Strasbourg Cathedral west front
• 
  Flamboyant rose window, Amiens Cathedral west front
• 
  Curvilinear window, Limoges Cathedral nave
• 
  Perpendicular four-centred arch, King's College Chapel, Cambridge west front
• 
  Early bar tracery in Soissons Cathedral (13th century)
• 
  Bar-tracery, Lincoln Cathedral east window
• 
  Flamboyant, Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes, west front
• 
  Blind tracery, Tours Cathedral (16th century)

Sculpture was an important element of Gothic architecture. Its intent was present the stories of the Bible in vivid and understandable fashion to the great majority of the faithful who could not read.[100] The iconography of the sculptural decoration on the façade was not left to the sculptors. An edict of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 had declared: "The composition of religious images is not to be left to the inspiration of artists; it is derived from the principles put in place by the Catholic Church and religious tradition. Only the art belongs to the artist; the composition belongs to the Fathers."[100]

• 
  Monsters and devils tempting Christians - South portal of Chartres Cathedral (13th century)
• 
  Gallery of Kings and Saints on the façade of Wells Cathedral (13th century)
• 
  Amiens Cathedral, tympanum detail – "Christ in majesty" (13th century)
• 
  Illumination of portals of Amiens Cathedral to show how it may have appeared with original colors
• 
  West portal Annunciation group at Reims Cathedral with smiling angel at left (13th century)

In Early Gothic churches, following the Romanesque tradition, sculpture appeared on the façade or west front in the triangular tympanum over the central portal. Gradually, as the style evolved, the sculpture became more and more prominent, taking over the columns of the portal, and gradually climbing above the portals, until statues in niches covered the entire façade, as in Wells Cathedral, to the transepts, and, as at Amiens Cathedral, even on the interior of the façade.[100]

Some of the earliest examples are found at Chartres Cathedral, where the three portals of the west front illustrate the three epiphanies in the Life of Christ.[101] At Amiens, the tympanum over the central portal depicted the Last Judgement, the right portal showed the Coronation of the Virgin, and the left portal showed the lives of saints who were important in the diocese. This set a pattern of complex iconography which was followed at other churches.[61]

The columns below the tympanum are in the form of statues of saints, literally representing them as "the pillars of the church."[102] Each saint had his own symbol at his feet so viewers could recognize them; a winged lion meant Saint Mark, an eagle with four wings meant Saint John the Apostle, and a winged bull symbolized Saint Luke... Floral and vegetal decoration was also very common, representing the Garden of Eden; grapes represented the wines of Eucharist.[102]

The tympanum over the central portal on the west façade of Notre-Dame de Paris vividly illustrates the Last Judgement, with figures of sinners being led off to hell, and good Christians taken to heaven. The sculpture of the right portal shows the coronation of the Virgin Mary, and the left portal shows the lives of saints who were important to Parisians, particularly Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary.[61]

To make the message even more prominent, the sculpture of the tympanum was painted in bright colors. following a system of colours codified in the 12th century; yellow, called gold, symbolized intelligence, grandeur and virtue; white, called argent, symbolized purity, wisdom, and correctness; black, or sable, meant sadness, but also will; green, or sinople, represented hope, liberty and joy; red or gueules (see gules) meant charity or victory; blue or azure symbolised the sky, faithfulness and perseverance; and violet, or pourpre, was the colour of royalty and sovereignty.[103]

• 
  More naturalistic later Gothic. Temptation of the foolish Virgins, Strasbourg Cathedral.
• 
  Sculpture from façade of Siena Cathedral by Nino Pisano (14th century)

In the later Gothic, the sculpture became more naturalistic; the figures were separated from the walls, and had much more expressive faces, showing emotion and personality. The drapery was very skilfully carved. The torments of hell were even more vividly depicted.[104] The late Gothic sculpture at Siena Cathedral, by Nino Pisano, pointing toward the Renaissance, is particularly notable. Much of it is now kept in a museum to protect it from deterioration.

Grotesque of Selby Abbey (14th century)

Besides saints and apostles, the exteriors of Gothic churches were also decorated with sculptures of a variety of fabulous and frightening grotesques or monsters. These included the chimera, a mythical hybrid creature which usually had the body of a lion and the head of a goat, and the strix or stryge, a creature resembling an owl or bat, which was said to eat human flesh. The strix appeared in classical Roman literature; it was described by the Roman poet Ovid, who was widely read in the Middle Ages, as a large-headed bird with transfixed eyes, rapacious beak, and greyish white wings.[105] They were part of the visual message for the illiterate worshippers, symbols of the evil and danger that threatened those who did not follow the teachings of the church.[106]

The gargoyles, which were added to Notre-Dame in about 1240, had a more practical purpose. They were the rain spouts of the church, designed to divide the torrent of water which poured from the roof after rain, and to project it outwards as far as possible from the buttresses and the walls and windows so that it would not erode the mortar binding the stone. To produce many thin streams rather than a torrent of water, a large number of gargoyles were used, so they were also designed to be a decorative element of the architecture. The rainwater ran from the roof into lead gutters, then down channels on the flying buttresses, then along a channel cut in the back of the gargoyle and out of the mouth away from the church.[107]

Many of the statues at Notre-Dame, particularly the grotesques, were removed from the façade in the 17th and 18th century, or were destroyed during the French Revolution. They were replaced with figures in the Gothic style, designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc during the 19th-century restoration.[107] Similar figures appear on the other major Gothic churches of France and England.

Another common feature of Gothic cathedrals in France was a labyrinth or maze on the floor of the nave near the choir, which symbolised the difficult and often complicated journey of a Christian life before attaining paradise. Most labyrinths were removed by the 18th century, but a few, like the one at Amiens Cathedral, have been reconstructed, and the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral still exists essentially in its original form.[108]

• 
  Gargoyle of Amiens Cathedral (13rh century)
• 
  A strix at Notre-Dame de Paris (19th century copy)
• 
  Labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral (13th century)
• 
  Labyrinth with Chartres pattern at Amiens Cathedral

Rose windows were a prominent feature of many Gothic churches and cathedrals. The rose was a symbol of the Virgin Mary, and they were particularly used in churches dedicated to her, including Notre-Dame de Paris. Nearly all the major Gothic cathedrals had them in the west façade, and many, such as Notre Dame de Paris, Amiens, Chartres, Strasbourg cathedral and Westminster Abbey, had them transepts as well. The designs of their tracery became increasingly complex, and gave their names to two periods; the Rayonnant and the Flamboyant. Two of the most famous Rayonnant rose windows were constructed in the transepts of Notre-Dame in the 13th century.

• 
  Notre Dame de Laon west window (13th century)
• 
  South rose window of Notre Dame de Paris (13th century)
• 
  South rose window of Chartres Cathedral (13th century)
• 
  West rose window of Reims Cathedral (13th century)
• 
  Grand rose of Strasbourg Cathedral (14th century)
• 
  Orvieto Cathedral rose window (14th c.)

• Flying buttresses developed
• Higher vaults were possible because of the flying buttresses
• Larger clerestory windows because of the flying buttresses.
• Clerestory windows had geometric tracery
• Rose windows became larger, with Geometric tracery
• The west front of Notre-Dame set a formula adopted by other cathedrals.
• Transept ends had ornate portals like the west front

• Cathedrals increasingly tall in relation to width, facilitated by the development of complex systems of buttressing
• Quadripartite vaults over a single bay
• Vaults in France maintained simple forms but elsewhere the patterns of ribs became more elaborate.
• Emphasis on the appearance of high internally.
• Abandonment of fourth stage, either the deep triforium gallery or the shallow tribune gallery, in the internal elevation.
• Columns of Classical proportion disappear in favour of increasingly tall columns surrounded by clusters of shafts.
• Complex shafted piers
• Large windows divided by mullions into several lights (vertical panels) with Geometric tracery in the arch
• Large rose windows in Geometric or Radiating designs

• The design of tracery no longer dependent on circular shapes, developed S curves and flame-like shapes.
• Complex vaults with Flamboyant shapes in the ribs, particularly in Spain and Central Europe, but rare in France
• Many rose windows built with Flamboyant tracery, many in France.
• Large windows of several lights with Flamboyant tracery in the arch
• The Flamboyant arch, drafted from four centres, used for smaller openings, e.g. doorways and niches.
• Mouldings of Flamboyant shape often used as non structural decoration over openings, topped by a floral finial (poupée)

• French Gothic
  • Early Gothic
  • High Gothic
  • Rayonnant
  • Flamboyant
• Southern French Gothic

• Iberian Gothic
  • Portuguese Gothic
    • Manueline
  • Spanish Gothic
    • Castilian Gothic
    • Levantine Gothic
    • Valencian Gothic
    • Catalan Gothic
      • Balearic Gothic
    • Isabelline
    • Plateresque
• Italian Gothic
  • Lombard Gothic
  • Venetian Gothic

• English Gothic
  • Early English Gothic
  • Decorated Gothic
  • Perpendicular Gothic
• Low Country Gothic
  • Scheldt Gothic
  • Mosan Gothic
  • Brabantian Gothic
• Czech Gothic
• Sondergotik
• Belarusian Gothic
  • Lithuanian Gothic
  • Polish Gothic

• Romano-Gothic
• Gothic Survival
• Neo-Gothic

• Brick Gothic
• Jettied Buildings
• Gothic Ecclesiastic Architecture
  • Architecture of the medieval cathedrals of England
• Gothic Secular Architecture
  • Military

• St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna

• Mir Castle Complex
• Muravanka Church
• Church of St.Barys And St.Hlieb, Navahradak
• Church of St. Michael, Synkavichy
• Church of the Holy Trinity, Iškaldź

• Brussels Town Hall
• Brussels Cathedral
• Belfry of Bruges
• Belfry of Ghent
• Tournai Cathedral
• Antwerp Cathedral
• Leuven Town Hall
• Mechelen Cathedral

• Zagreb Cathedral

• Prague Cathedral
• Charles Bridge
• Vladislav Hall
• Old Town Hall (Prague)

• Albi Cathedral
• Amiens Cathedral
• Blois-Vienne Church
• Chartres Cathedral
• Fontevraud Abbey
• Notre-Dame de Paris
• Palais des papes
• Reims Cathedral
• Rouen Cathedral
• Saint Denis Basilica
• Sainte-Chapelle
• Strasbourg Cathedral

• Ulm Minster
• Cologne Cathedral
• Maulbronn Monastery
• Regensburg Cathedral
• Freiburg Minster
• Bremen Town Hall

• Matthias Church

• Milan Cathedral
• Orvieto Cathedral
• Siena Cathedral
• Naples Cathedral
• Doge's palace
• Palazzo Publico
• Palazzo Vecchio
• Giotto's Campanile
• White Tower (Brixen)

• Kaunas Castle
• Trakai Peninsula Castle
• Trakai Island Castle
• Medininkai Castle
• Vilnius Upper Castle
• Saint Nicholas Church
• Vytautas' the Great Church
• Kaunas Cathedral Basilica
• Church of St. Anne
• House of Perkūnas

St. John's Cathedral ('s-Hertogenbosch)

Grote Kerk (Breda)

• St. John's Cathedral ('s-Hertogenbosch)
• Ridderzaal, The Hague
• Grote or Sint-Jacobskerk (The Hague)
• Middelburg Town Hall, Middelburg
• St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht
• Nieuwe Kerk (Amsterdam)
• Nieuwe Kerk (Delft)
• Cathedral of St Bavo, Haarlem
• Grote Kerk, Haarlem
• City Hall (Haarlem)
• Grote Kerk (Breda)
• St. Christopher's Cathedral, Roermond
• Dinghuis, Maastricht
• Oude Kerk (Delft)
• Grote Kerk, Dordrecht
• Hooglandse Kerk, Leiden
• Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk (Rotterdam)
• St Eusebius' Church, Arnhem

• Nidaros Cathedral
• Haakon's Hall, Bergenhus

• Kraków Town Hall
• Wrocław Town Hall
• Gdańsk Town Hall
• Old Town City Hall in Toruń
• Copernicus House in Toruń
• Chojna Town Hall
• Frombork Cathedral
• Gniezno Cathedral
• Wawel Cathedral
• Oliwa Cathedral
• Pelplin Abbey
• Poznań Cathedral
• Toruń Cathedral
• St. John's Archcathedral, Warsaw
• Wrocław Cathedral
• Gniew Castle
• Kwidzyn Castle
• Lidzbark Castle
• Malbork Castle
• Corpus Christi Collegiate Church in Biecz
• Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chełmno
• St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków
• Basilica of St. James and St. Agnes, Nysa
• Collegiate Basilica of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Wiślica
• St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk
• St. Catherine's Church, Gdańsk
• St. James the Greater's Church, Toruń
• St. Mary's Church, Stargard
• Basilica of Holy Trinity, Kraków
• Corpus Christi Basilica
• St Elizabeth's Church, Wrocław
• St Dorothea Church, Wrocław
• Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and St. Bartholomew, Wrocław
• Church of St Mary on the Sand
• St. Wojciech (Adalbert) Church, Wrocław
• St. John the Evangelist's Church, Paczków
• Saints Peter and Paul Basilica, Strzegom
• Kraków Barbican
• Collegium Maius, Kraków
• St. Florian's Gate

Monastery of Batalha in Portugal

• Jeronimos Monastery
• Monastery of Batalha
• Monastery of Alcobaça
• Evora Cathedral
• Carmo Convent
• Guarda Cathedral
• Lisbon Cathedral
• Oporto Cathedral
• Silves Cathedral
• Cathedral of Funchal
• Convent of Christ
• Castle of Leiria
• Sabugal Castle
• Castle of Estremoz
• Castle of Bragança
• Castle of Santa Maria da Feira
• Belém Tower
• Monastery of Jesus of Setúbal
• Convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Beja
• Graça Church
• Santa Maria dos Olivais Church
• Leça do Balio Monastery
• Saint John of Alporão Church
• Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha
• Monastery of São Francisco

• Black Church
• Corvin Castle
• Saschiz fortified church
• Sebeș Lutheran church
• Sibiu Lutheran Cathedral
• St. Michael's Church, Cluj-Napoca

• Palace of the Kings of Navarre of Olite
• Palau de la Generalitat
• Llotja de la Seda
• León Cathedral
• Burgos Cathedral
• Toledo Cathedral
• Cathedral of Avila
• Palace of the Borgias
• Oviedo Cathedral
• Valencia Cathedral
• Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic church
• Palma Cathedral

• Linköping Cathedral
• Uppsala Cathedral
• Visby Cathedral

• Basel Minster

• St Elisabeth Cathedral
• St Martin's Cathedral, Bratislava

• Canterbury Cathedral
• Salisbury Cathedral
• Winchester Cathedral
• Christ Church, Oxford
• Bodlean library
• Westminster Abbey
• St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
• Ely Cathedral
• King's College Chapel, Cambridge
• York Minster

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• Fletcher, Banister; Cruickshank, Dan, Sir Banister Fletcher's a History of Architecture, Architectural Press, 20th edition, 1996 (first published 1896). ISBN 0-7506-2267-9. Cf. Part Two, Chapter 14.
• Bumpus, T. Francis (1928). The Cathedrals and Churches of Belgium. T. Werner Laurie. ISBN 978-1-313-40185-2.
• Clifton-Taylor, Alec (1967). The Cathedrals of England. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-18070-9.
• Gardner, Helen; Kleiner, Fred S.; Mamiya, Christin J. (2004). Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Thomson Wadsworth. ISBN 978-0-15-505090-7.
• Harvey, John (1961). English Cathedrals. Batsford. ASIN B0000CL4S8.
• Huyghe, René, ed. (1963). Larousse Encyclopedia of Byzantine and Medieval Art. Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0-600-02357-9.
• Icher, Francois (1998). Building the Great Cathedrals. Abrams Books. ISBN 978-0-8109-4017-8.
• Simson, Otto Georg (1988). The Gothic cathedral: origins of Gothic architecture and the medieval concept of order. ISBN 978-0-691-09959-0.
• Glaser, Stephanie, "The Gothic Cathedral and Medievalism," in: Falling into Medievalism, ed. Anne Lair and Richard Utz. Special Issue of UNIversitas: The University of Northern Iowa Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity, 2.1 (2006). (on the Gothic revival of the 19th century and the depictions of Gothic cathedrals in the Arts)
• Moore, Charles (1890). Development & Character of Gothic Architecture. Macmillan and Co. ISBN 978-1-4102-0763-0.
• Rudolph, Conrad ed., A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, 2nd ed. (2016)
• Tonazzi, Pascal (2007) Florilège de Notre-Dame de Paris (anthologie), Editions Arléa, Paris, ISBN 2-86959-795-9
• Wilson, Christopher (2005). The Gothic Cathedral – Architecture of the Great Church. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-27681-5.
• Summerson, John (1983). Pelican Books (ed.). Architecture in Britain, 1530–1830. ISBN 978-0-14-056003-9.
• Swaan, Wim (1982). Art and Architecture of the Late Middle Ages. Omega Books. ISBN 978-0-907853-35-0.
• Tatton-Brown, Tim; Crook, John (2002). The English Cathedral. New Holland Publishers. ISBN 978-1-84330-120-2.
• Ceccarini, Patrizio (2013). La structure fondatrice gothique. Théologie, sciences et architecture au XIIIe siècle à Saint-Denis (tomeI). Vol. I. ISBN 978-2-336-30184-6.
• Ceccarini, Patrizio (2013). Le système architectural gothique. Théologie, sciences et architecture au XIIIe siècle à Saint-Denis. Vol. II. ISBN 978-2-336-30185-3.
• Rivière, Rémi; Lavoye, Agnès (2007). La Tour Jean sans Peur, Association des Amis de la tour Jean sans Peur. ISBN 978-2-95164-940-8