This article introduces the original Romanesque style and the period it dominated. The design of the Cathedral incorporates the dominant features of pillars, rounded arches, barrel vaults, chevron pattern decorations, doors recessed and use of space.

Romanesque Architecture of western Europe from about AD 1000 to about the late 1100s. After Rome fell in 476, Roman culture was spread by the Christian church. By the end of the pre-Romanesque period, Roman stylistic elements had fused with elements from Byzantium and the Middle East, and from the Germans, the Celts, and other northern tribes in western Europe. These various combinations created a number of local styles, called Romanesque, meaning "in the manner of the Roman."

An outstanding achievement of Romanesque architects was the development of stone vaulted buildings. This masonry vaulting replaced the highly flammable wooden roofs of pre-Romanesque structures. Vaults posed new structural problems for architects, who created a variety of solutions, including the dome, round and pointed vaults, and plain and ribbed groined vaulting .

To support the heavy stone vaults, architects used massive walls and piers, creating a typical building plan that treated the entire structure as a complex composed of smaller units, called bays. A distinguishing feature of Romanesque style, bays are square or rectangular spaces enclosed by groin vaults and used by architects as the basic building unit.

The nave in Romanesque churches was usually made higher and narrower than in earlier structures to make room for windows, called clerestory windows, in the sidewalls below the vault. Doors and windows were usually capped by round arches, and sometimes by slightly pointed arches. These openings were generally small and decorated with moldings, carvings, and sculptures.

Italian provinces developed a great diversity of Romanesque architectural styles. In Lombardy, somberly impressive buildings had groined vaulting of heavy proportions. Architects in central Italy created few structural innovations and continued to use classical decorative elements. Tuscan and Roman churches featured classical Corinthian capitals and acanthus borders, as well as colored marble in geometric patterns; open arcades, colonnades, and galleries; and facades with sculptures in relief. In southern Italy, a rich style combining Byzantine, Roman, Arabic, Lombard, and Norman elements was created, with lavish use of mosaic decorations and interlaced pointed-arch arcades.

French Romanesque
French Romanesque architecture is characterized by various vaulted styles. Provençal churches have pointed domes and facades decorated with tiers of wall arcades filled with sculpture. In the Auvergne region in central France, architects built churches containing a long choir with side aisles and, around the semicircular sanctuary, an arcaded ambulatory (semicircular aisle) with radiating chapels. In Burgundy the barrel-vaulted, three-aisled basilica was highly developed. Norman architects, influenced by Lombardian methods, created an original style with groined vaults supported by flying buttresses, and facades with two high, flanking towers.

German Romanesque
German Romanesque churches were often planned on a large scale. Many of them are very high and have an apse or sanctuary at each end. Numerous round or octagonal towers create a picturesque silhouette.

English Romanesque
The Romanesque period in English architecture can be roughly dated to the years 1066-1180.

Before the 10th century, most English buildings were wood; stone buildings were small and roughly constructed. The Norman Romanesque style replaced the Saxon style in England after the Norman Conquest in 1066, and from about 1120 to 1200, builders erected monumental Norman structures, including numerous churches and cathedrals. The long, narrow buildings were constructed with heavy walls and piers, rectangular apses, double transepts, and deeply recessed portals. Naves were covered with flat roofs, later replaced by vaults, and side aisles were usually covered with groined vaults.

  
The Norman invaders of England introduced their own style of building into their new island domain. Although elements of Romanesque style had been used in England before the Conquest (as in Edward the Confessor's Westminster Abbey), Norman Romanesque marked such a radical departure from the Anglo-Saxon traditions that it must be considered on its own.

The most obvious characteristic of the Norman Romanesque is its reliance on sheer bulk. Everything is larger, more solid, and carries with it an air of permanence very much at odds with earlier Saxon work. Cathedral and castle walls were as thick as 24 feet at the base.

Although the piers which carry the weight of Romanesque buildings may be rounded, polygonal, or compound, they utilize mass to do their job. In part, the very simple style of Norman Romanesque may attributed to the fact that the builders had to utilize untrained Saxon labour; labourers who had a tradition of building in wood, not stone.
Yet the mass of these early piers may be deceiving. Often the piers are simple brick or masonry shells, with a hollow interior filled with rubble. Essentially the Normans never used two stones when one would do.

Early Norman Romanesque builders used barrel vaulting almost exclusively. To visualize a barrel vault, imagine cutting a wooden barrel down the centre lengthwise. The simple rounded shape of the barrel vault helped distribute the weight of walls and roof. Unfortunately, the distance which could be spanned by barrel vaulting was not great.

Look for:
Windows were kept small, in part for defensive purposes, and in part to avoid weakening the walls. Buttresses were extremely simple, little more than a thickening of the outer walls in places.

Decorative elements were few in the 11th century; the most distinctive being the Norman chevron (zigzag) pattern, most frequently found on the recessed orders framing doors and windows. Other decoration also relies on simple geometric patterns. In the 12th century you see more elaborate decoration appearing, such as four-pointed stars, lozenges, and scallop shapes.

These decorative elements were carved in shallow relief; it is only as the 13th century nears that you see deeply cut carvings appear. Subject matter for carvings covered Biblical scenes, but also human, animal, and floral shapes. These carvings are most common on capitals.

The most definitive example of Romanesque style in England may be seen at Durham Cathedral, where the Norman work is largely unaltered by later additions. At Durham also you can see the first attempts at ribbed vaulting which would later evolve into the full-blown Gothic style in the 13th century.

Major Romanesque buildings to visit in England:
Several major English cathedrals contain excellent examples of Romanesque architecture, though much is overshadowed by later Gothic work. Visit:
Canterbury Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
Ely Cathedral
Gloucester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral
Southwell Cathedral

Of non-ecclesiastical work, the best surviving example of Romanesque architecture is probably the White Tower at the Tower of London. This stone keep at the core of the complex of buildings we know as the Tower of London was begun in 1078. In particular, the Chapel of St. John in the Tower shows in superb simplicity the rounded Romanesque arch.

Features of English Roamesque:
~ Rounded arches
~ Barrel vaults
~ Chevron pattern decorations
~ Doors recessed in three orders

With acknowledgment to :

Britain Express site
http://www.britainexpress.com/architecture/romanesque.htm

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.  2001.