Romanesque architecture explained

0:00Dr. Beth Harris: We're sitting in Durham Cathedral in Northern England, and we wanted to talk about how you recognize a Romanesque church. And Durham is a great place for us to have this conversation. Dr. Steven Zucker: It's one of the oldest Romanesque churches in England, and it's enormous. Dr. Beth Harris: Romanesque is a word that often is applied to this style of architecture on the continent.

0:29Here in England, we often refer to this style as Anglo-Norman, referring to the Normans who had invaded in 1066 and brought this style of architecture with them from France. Dr. Steven Zucker: And it's often put forward that Romanesque architecture was the first large scale architecture since the Roman Empire in Western Europe. But there was, in fact, large scale building before the Romanesque. One only needs to look at, for example, the Palatine Chapel in Aachen or Saint Ambrosia in Milan.

1:02And art historians are also aware that traditions from the Middle East and from Spain, which was at this time not under the control of Christians, but was under the control of Islam, might also play a role here. Dr. Beth Harris: But what makes the architecture of this period unique is that it addressed the needs of people who were now on the move.

1:22And they were on the move because they were going in large numbers on pilgrimages to visit important religious sites, to visit relics in the hope, often of a miracle that could be performed, a healing, or even acquiring merit that could ultimately lead to less time in purgatory and an arrival sooner in heaven. And the church that we're in was an important pilgrimage destination because it housed and still houses the relics of Saint Cuthbert. Dr. Steven Zucker: And churches had to be built to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims. And those pilgrims brought wealth to the towns that held these relics. And the wealth that pilgrims brought with them, which was spent at local inns or to purchase souvenirs

2:12or direct donations to the church, meant that there was money to build these large scale structures. It also meant that the design of the building needed to be able to allow for large numbers of people to move through without interrupting, for instance, a mass that might be taking place at the high altar. Dr. Beth Harris: And there had to be chapels that contained the relics that the pilgrims could visit.

2:35Dr. Steven Zucker: Let's begin with a basic plan. Dr. Beth Harris: This church uses the plan of a basilica, which is actually an ancient Roman type of building that was adapted by early Christians. Dr. Steven Zucker: Basilicas in the Romanesque era often also included a transept, that is a second hall perpendicular with the main hall, which we call the nave, and therefore gives the entire building the outline of a cross.

2:59Dr. Beth Harris: They also often included an aisle on either side of that main hallway, the nave, sometimes even two aisles, so that you could hold larger numbers of people who needed to circulate through the church. Dr. Steven Zucker: The single most characteristic aspect of Romanesque architecture is its use of the ancient Roman arch, that is the round arch. Dr. Beth Harris: When we look, for example, across the nave, we notice at the very lowest level, a row of round arches. In fact, very deep round arches with rolled molding. Above that, at the gallery level, we see another round arch, this one subdivided into two smaller round arches.

3:43Dr. Steven Zucker: And at Durham, it's a very deep gallery with a walkway that would have been used for members of the church. And above that is a more narrow passage and windows that bring in daylight. But as is typical of Romanesque churches, these are quite small and so these are relatively dark spaces. Dr. Beth Harris: We see yet another round arch, this time subdivided into three smaller round arches, where the central arch is larger than the ones on either side. So the architects of the Romanesque period had to span the nave. And to do that, most Romanesque churches used a barrel vault.

4:23Dr. Steven Zucker: Usually the barrel vault runs the length of the nave. But in certain Romanesque churches, because the Romanesque is a period of experimentation, a series of segmented barrel vaults run laterally across the nave as opposed to down its length. An example of that can be seen at Tournus in Burgundy. Dr. Beth Harris: In the nave, the aisles, the crossing, and the chancel in Durham, we see the use of ribbed groin vaults.

4:48So this is a very early use of a ribbed groin vault, which will see extensive use in the period after the Romanesque called Gothic. Dr. Steven Zucker: Another important characteristic of the Romanesque is its sense of weight, its heaviness, and that's accentuated by the relative darkness. The walls are largely unpierced by windows, and the windows that do exist are relatively small, especially in comparison with the Gothic windows that will come after. You can see the massiveness, especially in the enormous piers that help to support the massive weight of the stone vaulting above. What you can't see is the thickness of the walls beyond the aisles. These walls are as much as nine feet thick in certain places. That is, an enormous amount of stone had to be

5:37piled up in order to support the weight of the stone vaulting. Dr. Beth Harris: And here we begin to see the use of compound piers. Dr. Steven Zucker: In Durham Cathedral, those bundled piers alternate with cylindrical piers or columns, the that are incised with a variety of decorations.

5:56Closest to the west end of the church, we see just vertical fluting. Next we see chevrons, and then we see diamonds. And then as we get closer to the more sacred part of the church, we see a spiral pattern. Dr. Beth Harris: It's very typical for the most sacred part of the church, the eastern end, to be more heavily decorated.

6:15That's where the monks performed their duties, and that's also where the body of Saint Cuthbert lies. There is a wonderful geometric simplicity to a Romanesque church. When you walk through it, you notice these distinct geometric parts. Dr. Steven Zucker: And yet another typical feature of the Romanesque is a love of a kind of architectural marginalia.

6:38If you look at illuminated manuscripts, of course, the scribe is paying most of their attention to accurately copying the text. But there are moments where the scribe will create little drawings that have little to do with the text, that are just playful asides. And there is an architectural equivalent of that. In many Romanesque churches, there are fanciful carvings, often of heads, of monsters, of grotesques, that are meant, perhaps horrify, but also to entertain. And we can see that here in the wonderful heads that form the corbels from which spring the ribbed groin vaults.

7:12It's interesting to note that although the basic building elements, the basilica plan and the round arch, are borrowed directly from ancient Roman architecture, the Romanesque is a truly international style. The elements that we've discussed can be seen in churches from England to Italy.

7:30Dr. Beth Harris: And we're lucky that here at Durham Cathedral, so much of the Romanesque style remains. Often parts of Romanesque churches were torn down to make room for the new Gothic style. But here at Durham, we get a true sense of Anglo Norman or Romanesque architecture.