The Ancient Greek Architecture

The architecture of ancient Greece is the architecture produced by the Greek-speaking

people (Hellenic people) whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean
Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD,
with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC.[1]
Ancient Greek architecture is best known from its temples, many of which are found throughout the
region, mostly as ruins but many substantially intact. The second important type of building that survives
all over the Hellenic world is the open-air theatre, with the earliest dating from around 525-480 BC.
Other architectural forms that are still in evidence are the processional gateway (propylon), the public
square (agora) surrounded by storied colonnade (stoa), the town council building (bouleuterion), the
public monument, the monumental tomb (mausoleum) and the stadium.
Ancient Greek architecture is distinguished by its highly formalised characteristics, both of structure
and decoration. This is particularly so in the case of temples where each building appears to have been
conceived as a sculptural entity within the landscape, most often raised on high ground so that the
elegance of its proportions and the effects of light on its surfaces might be viewed from all
angles. Nikolaus Pevsner refers to "the plastic shape of the [Greek] temple ... placed before us with a
physical presence more intense, more alive than that of any later building".
The formal vocabulary of ancient Greek architecture, in particular the division of architectural style
into three defined orders: the Doric Order, the Ionic Order and the Corinthian Order, was to have
profound effect on Western architecture of later periods. The architecture of ancient Rome grew out
of that of Greece and maintained its influence in Italy unbroken until the present day. From
the Renaissance, revivals of Classicism have kept alive not only the precise forms and ordered details of
Greek architecture, but also its concept of architectural beauty based on balance and proportion. The
successive styles of Neoclassical architecture and Greek Revival architecture followed and adapted
Ancient Greek styles closely.

Structure
Post and lintel

The architecture of ancient Greece is of a trabeated or "post and lintel" form, i.e. it is composed of
upright beams (posts) supporting horizontal beams (lintels). Although the existent buildings of the era are
constructed in stone, it is clear that the origin of the style lies in simple wooden structures, with vertical
posts supporting beams which carried a ridged roof. The posts and beams divided the walls into regular
compartments which could be left as openings, or filled with sun dried bricks, lathes or straw and
covered with clay daub or plaster. Alternately, the spaces might be filled with rubble. It is likely that
many early houses and temples were constructed with an open porch or "pronaos" above which rose a low
pitched gable or pediment.
The earliest temples, built to enshrine statues of deities, were probably of wooden construction, later
replaced by the more durable stone temples many of which are still in evidence today. The signs of the
original timber nature of the architecture were maintained in the stone buildings.
A few of these temples are very large, with several, such as the Temple of Zeus Olympus and the
Olympians at Athens being well over 300 feet in length, but most were less than half this size. It appears
that some of the large temples began as wooden constructions in which the columns were replaced
piecemeal as stone became available. This, at least was the interpretation of the historian Pausanias
looking at the Temple of Hera at Olympia in the 2nd century AD.
The stone columns are made of a series of solid stone cylinders or "drums" that rest on each other
without mortar, but were sometimes centred with a bronze pin. The columns are wider at the base than
at the top, tapering with an outward curve known as "entasis". Each column has a capital of two parts,
the upper, on which rests the lintels, being square and called the "abacus". The part of the capital that
rises from the column itself is called the "echinus". It differs according to the order, being plain in the
Doric Order, fluted in the Ionic and foliate in the Corinthian. Doric and usually Ionic capitals are cut
with vertical grooves known as "fluting". This fluting or grooving of the columns is a retention of an
element of the original wooden architecture.
Entablature and pediment

The columns of a temple support a structure that rises in two main stages, the entablature and the
pediment.
The entablature is the major horizontal structural element supporting the roof and encircling the entire
building. It is composed of three parts. Resting on the columns is the architrave made of a series of
stone "lintels" that spanned the space between the columns, and meet each other at a joint directly
above the centre of each column.
Above the architrave is a second horizontal stage called the "frieze". The frieze is one of the major
decorative elements of the building and carries a sculptured relief. In the case of Ionic and Corinthian
architecture, the relief decoration runs in a continuous band, but in the Doric Order, it is divided into
sections called "metopes" which fill the spaces between vertical rectangular blocks called "triglyphs". The
triglyphs are vertically grooved like the Doric columns, and retain the form of the wooden beams that
would once have supported the roof.
The upper band of the entablature is called the "cornice", which is generally ornately decorated on its
lower edge. The cornice retains the shape of the beams that would once have supported the wooden
roof at each end of the building. At the front and rear of each temple, the entablature supports a
triangular structure called the "pediment". The triangular space framed by the cornices is the location
of the most significant sculptural decoration on the exterior of the building.
Masonry

Every temple rested on a masonry base called the crepidoma, generally of three steps, of which the upper
one which carried the columns was the stylobate. Masonry walls were employed for temples from about
600 BC onwards. Masonry of all types was used for ancient Greek buildings, including rubble, but the
finest ashlar masonry was usually employed for temple walls, in regular courses and large sizes to minimise
the joints. The blocks were roug hewn and hauled from quarries to be cut and bedded very precisely,
with mortar hardly ever being used. Blocks, particularly those of columns and parts of the building
bearing loads were sometimes fixed in place or reinforced with iron clamps, dowels and rods of wood,
bronze or iron fixed in lead to minimise corrosion.
Openings

Door and window openings were spanned with a lintel, which in a stone building limited the possible
width of the opening. The distance between columns was similarly affected by the nature of the lintel,
columns on the exterior of buildings and carrying stone lintels being closer together than those on the
interior, which carried wooden lintels.Door and window openings narrowed towards the top.Temples
were constructed without windows, the light to the naos entering through the door. It has been
suggested that some temples were lit from openings in the roof. A door of the Ionic Order at the
Erechtheion (17 feet high and 7.5 feet wide at the top) retains many of its features intact, including
mouldings, and an entablature supported on console brackets.
The widest span of a temple roof was across the cella, or internal space. In a large building, this space
contains columns to support the roof, the architectural form being known as hypostyle. It appears that,
although the architecture of ancient Greece was initially of wooden construction, the early builders did
not have the concept of the diagonal truss as a stabilising member. This is evidenced by the nature of
temple construction in the 6th century BC, where the rows of columns supporting the roof the cella rise
higher than the outer walls, unnecessary if roof trusses are employed as an integral part of the wooden
roof. The indication is that initially all the rafters were supported directly by the entablature, walls and
hypostyle, rather than on a trussed wooden frame, which came into use in Greek architecture only in the
3rd century BC.
Ancient Greek buildings of timber, clay and plaster construction were probably roofed with thatch.
With the rise of stone architecture came the appearance of fired ceramic roof tiles. These early roof
tiles showed an S-shape, with the pan and cover tile forming one piece. They were much larger than
modern roof tiles, being up to 90 cm (35.43 in) long, 70 cm (27.56 in) wide, 3–4 cm (1.18–1.57 in) thick and
weighing around 30 kg (66 lb) apiece.
Only stone walls, which were replacing the earlier mudbrick and wood walls, were strong enough to
support the weight of a tiled roof.
The earliest finds of roof tiles of the Archaic period in Greece are documented from a very restricted
area around Corinth, where fired tiles began to replace thatched roofs at the temples
of Apollo and Poseidon between 700 and 650 BC.[33] Spreading rapidly, roof tiles were within fifty years in
evidence for a large number of sites around the Eastern Mediterranean, including Mainland Greece,
Western Asia Minor, Southern and Central Italy. Being more expensive and labour-intensive to produce
than thatch, their introduction has been explained by the fact that their fireproof quality would have
given desired protection to the costly temples. As a side-effect, it has been assumed that the new stone
and tile construction also ushered in the end of overhanging eaves in Greek architecture, as they made
the need for an extended roof as rain protection for the mudbrick walls obsolete.
Vaults and arches were not generally used, but begin to appear in tombs (in a "beehive" or cantilevered
form such as used in Mycenaea) and occasionally, as an external feature, exedrae
of voussoired construction from the 5th century BC. The dome and vault never became significant
structural features, as they were to become in ancient Roman architecture.
Most ancient Greek temples were rectangular, and were approximately twice as long as they were wide,
with some notable exceptions such as the enormous Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens with a length of
nearly 2½ times its width. A number of surviving temple-like structures are circular, and are referred to
as tholos. The smallest temples are less than 25 metres (approx. 75 feet) in length, or in the case of the
circular tholos, in diameter. The great majority of temples are between 30–60 metres (approx. 100–200
feet) in length. A small group of Doric temples, including the Parthenon, are between 60–80 metres
(approx. 200–260 feet) in length. The largest temples, mainly Ionic and Corinthian, but including the
Doric Temple of the Olympian Zeus, Agrigento, were between 90–120 metres (approx. 300–390 feet) in
length.
The temple rises from a stepped base or "stylobate", which elevates the structure above the ground on
which it stands. Early examples, such as the Temple of Zeus at Olympus, have two steps, but the
majority, like the Parthenon, have three, with the exceptional example of the Temple of Apollo at
Didyma having six. The core of the building is a masonry-built "naos" within which is a cella, a windowless
room originally housing the statue of the god. The cella generally has a porch or "pronaos" before it, and
perhaps a second chamber or "antenaos" serving as a treasury or repository for trophies and gifts. The
chambers were lit by a single large doorway, fitted with a wrought iron grill. Some rooms appear to have
been illuminated by skylights.
On the stylobate, often completely surrounding the naos, stand rows of columns. Each temple is defined
as being of a particular type, with two terms: one describing the number of columns across the entrance
front, and the other defining their distribution.
Proportion and optical illusion

The ideal of proportion that was used by ancient Greek architects in designing temples was not a simple
mathematical progression using a square module. The math involved a more complex geometrical
progression, the so-called Golden mean. The ratio is similar to that of the growth patterns of many spiral
forms that occur in nature such as rams' horns, nautilus shells, fern fronds, and vine tendrils and which
were a source of decorative motifs employed by ancient Greek architects as particularly in evidence in
the volutes of capitals of the Ionic and Corinthian Orders. The ancient Greek architects took a
philosophic approach to the rules and proportions. The determining factor in the mathematics of any
notable work of architecture was its ultimate appearance. The architects calculated for perspective,
for the optical illusions that make edges of objects appear concave and for the fact that columns that
are viewed against the sky look different from those adjacent that are viewed against a shadowed wall.
Because of these factors, the architects adjusted the plans so that the major lines of any significant
building are rarely straight. The most obvious adjustment is to the profile of columns, which narrow from
base to top. However, the narrowing is not regular, but gently curved so that each columns appears to
have a slight swelling, called entasis below the middle. The entasis is never sufficiently pronounced as to
make the swelling wider than the base; it is controlled by a slight reduction in the rate of decrease of
diameter.
The Parthenon, the Temple to the Goddess Athena on the Acropolis in Athens, is referred to by many
as the pinnacle of ancient Greek architecture. Helen Gardner refers to its "unsurpassable excellence",
to be surveyed, studied and emulated by architects of later ages. Yet, as Gardner points out, there is
hardly a straight line in the building. Banister Fletcher calculated that the stylobate curves upward so
that its centres at either end rise about 2.6 inches above the outer corners, and 4.3 inches on the longer
sides. A slightly greater adjustment has been made to the entablature. The columns at the ends of the
building are not vertical but are inclined towards the centre, with those at the corners being out of
plumb by about 2.6 inches.These outer columns are both slightly wider than their neighbors and are
slightly closer than any of the others.
 The Ancient Egyptian Architecture
Ancient Egyptian architecture is the architecture of one of the most influential civilizations throughout
history, which developed a vast array of diverse structures and great architectural monuments along
the Nile, including pyramids and temples.
Due to the scarcity of wood,[1] the two predominant building materials used in ancient Egypt were sun-
baked mud brick and stone, mainly limestone, but also sandstone and granite in considerable
quantities.[2] From the Old Kingdom onward, stone was generally reserved for tombs and temples, while
bricks were used even for royal palaces, fortresses, the walls of temple precincts and towns, and for
subsidiary buildings in temple complexes. The core of the pyramids consisted of locally quarried stone,
mudbricks, sand or gravel. For the casing stones were used that had to be transported from farther
away, predominantly white limestone from Tura and red granite from upper Egypt.
Ancient Egyptian houses were made out of mud collected from the damp banks of the Nile river. It was
placed in moulds and left to dry in the hot sun to harden for use in construction. If the bricks were
intended to be used in a royal tomb like a pyramid, the exterior bricks would also be finely chiselled and
polished.
Many Egyptian towns have disappeared because they were situated near the cultivated area of the Nile
Valley and were flooded as the river bed slowly rose during the millennia, or the mud bricks of which they
were built were used by peasants as fertilizer. Others are inaccessible, new buildings having been erected
on ancient ones. However, the dry, hot climate of Egypt preserved some mud brick structures. Examples
include the village Deir al-Madinah, the Middle Kingdom town at Kahun,[3] and the fortresses
at Buhen[4] and Mirgissa. Also, many temples and tombs have survived because they were built on high
ground unaffected by the Nile flood and were constructed of stone.
Thus, our understanding of ancient Egyptian architecture is based mainly on religious
monuments,[5] massive structures characterized by thick, sloping walls with few openings, possibly
echoing a method of construction used to obtain stability in mud walls. In a similar manner, the incised
and flatly modeled surface adornment of the stone buildings may have derived from mud wall
ornamentation. Although the use of the arch was developed during the fourth dynasty, all monumental
buildings are post and lintel constructions, with flat roofs constructed of huge stone blocks supported
by the external walls and the closely spaced columns.
Exterior and interior walls, as well as the columns and piers, were covered with hieroglyphic and pictorial
frescoes and carvings painted in brilliant colors.[6] Many motifs of Egyptian ornamentation are symbolic,
such as the scarab, or sacred beetle, the solar disk, and the vulture. Other common motifs
include palm leaves, the papyrus plant, and the buds and flowers of the lotus. Hieroglyphswere inscribed
for decorative purposes as well as to record historic events or spells. In addition, these pictorial
frescoes and carvings allow us to understand how the Ancient Egyptians lived, statuses, wars that were
fought and their beliefs. This was especially true when exploring the tombs of Ancient Egyptian officials
in recent years.
Ancient Egyptian temples were aligned with astronomically significant events, such
as solstices and equinoxes, requiring precise measurements at the moment of the particular event.
Measurements at the most significant temples may have been ceremonially undertaken by
the Pharaoh himself.

The Giza Complex

The Giza Necropolis stands on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of
ancient monuments is located some 8 kilometers (5 mi) inland into the desert from the old town
of Giza on the Nile, some 20 kilometers (12 mi) southwest of Cairo city center. This Ancient
Egyptian necropolis consists of the Pyramid of Khufu (also known as the Great Pyramid and the Pyramid
of Cheops), the somewhat smaller Pyramid of Khafre (or Kephren/Chefren), and the relatively modest-
sized Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinus/Mycerinus), along with a number of smaller satellite edifices,
known as "queens" pyramids, the Great Sphinx as well as a few hundred mastabas, and chapels.
The pyramids, which were built in the Fourth Dynasty, testify to the power of the pharaonic religion and
state. They were built to serve both as grave sites and also as a way to make their names last forever. The
size and simple design show the high skill level of Egyptian design and engineering on a large
scale. The Great Pyramid of Giza, which was probably completed c. 2580 BC, is the oldest of the Giza
pyramids and the largest pyramid in the world, and is the only surviving monument of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World. The pyramid of Khafre is believed to have been completed around 2532 BC, at the
end of Khafre's reign. Khafre ambitiously placed his pyramid next to his fathers. It is not as tall as his
father's pyramid but he was able to give it the impression of appearing taller by building it on a site with a
foundation 33 feet (10 m) higher than his father's. Along with building his pyramid, Chefren commissioned
the building of the giant Sphinx as guardian over his tomb. The face of a human, possibly a depiction of
the pharaoh, on a lion's body was seen as a symbol of divinity among the Greeks fifteen hundred years
later. The Great Sphinx is carved out of the limestone bedrock and stands about 65 feet (20 m) tall.
Menkaure's pyramid dates to circa 2490 BC and stands 213 feet (65 m) high making it the smallest of the
Great Pyramids.
Popular culture leads people to believe that Pyramids are highly confusing, with many tunnels within the
pyramid to create confusion for grave robbers. This is not true. The shafts of pyramids are quite simple,
mostly leading directly to the tomb. The immense size of the pyramids attracted robbers to the wealth
that lay inside which caused the tombs to be robbed relatively soon after the tomb was sealed in some
cases.[10] However, there are sometimes additional tunnels, but these were used for the builders to
understand how far they could dig the tomb into the crust of the Earth. Also, it is popular thought that
due to grave robbers, future Kings were buried in the Valley of the Kings to help keep them hidden. This
is also false, as the Pyramid construction continued for many Dynasties, just on a smaller scale. Finally,
the pyramid construction was stopped due to economic factors, not theft.
Evidence suggests that they were built by paid laborers and craftsmen that were well cared for and not
by slaves.

Luxor Temple
The Luxor Temple is a huge ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the River
Nile in the city today known as Luxor(ancient Thebes). Construction work on the temple began during
the reign of Amenhotep III in the 14th century BC. Horemheb and Tutankhamun added columns,
statues, and friezes – and Akhenaten had earlier obliterated his father's cartouches and installed a
shrine to the Aten – but the only major expansion effort took place under Ramesses II some 100 years
after the first stones were put in place. Luxor is thus unique among the main Egyptian temple complexes
in having only two pharaohs leave their mark on its architectural structure.
The temple proper begins with the 24 m (79 ft) high First Pylon, built by Ramesses II. The pylon was
decorated with scenes of Ramesses's military triumphs (particularly the Battle of Qadesh); later
pharaohs, particularly those of the Nubian and Ethiopian dynasties, also recorded their victories there.
This main entrance to the temple complex was originally flanked by six colossal statues of Ramesses –
four seated, and two standing – but only two (both seated) have survived. Modern visitors can also see a
25 m (82 ft) tall pink granite obelisk: this one of a matching pair until 1835, when the other one was taken
to Paris where it now stands in the centre of the Place de la Concorde.
Through the pylon gateway leads into a peristyle courtyard, also built by Ramesses II. This area, and the
pylon, were built at an oblique angle to the rest of the temple, presumably to accommodate the three
pre-existing barque shrines located in the northwest corner. After the peristyle courtyard comes the
processional colonnade built by Amenhotep III – a 100 m (330 ft) corridor lined by 14 papyrus-
capital columns. Friezes on the wall describe the stages in the Opet Festival, from sacrifices at Karnak at
the top left, through Amun's arrival at Luxor at the end of that wall, and concluding with his return on
the opposite side. The decorations were put in place by Tutankhamun: the boy pharaoh is depicted, but
his names have been replaced with those of Horemheb.
Beyond the colonnade is a peristyle courtyard, which also dates back to Amenhotep's original
construction. The best preserved columns are on the eastern side, where some traces of original color
can be seen. The southern side of this courtyard is made up of a 36-column hypostylecourt (i.e., a roofed
space supported by columns) that leads into the dark inner rooms of the temple.

Temple of Karnak
The temple complex of Karnak is located on the banks of the Nile River some 2.5 kilometers (1.5 mi) north
of Luxor. It consists of four main parts, the Precinct of Amon-Re, the Precinct of Montu, the Precinct
of Mut and the Temple of Amenhotep IV (dismantled), as well as a few smaller temples and sanctuaries
located outside the enclosing walls of the four main parts, and several avenues of ram-headed sphinxes
connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amon-Re and Luxor Temple. This temple complex is
particularly significant, for many rulers have added to it. However, notably every ruler of the New
Kingdom added to it. The site covers over 200 acres and consists of a series of pylons, leading into
courtyards, halls, chapels, obelisks, and smaller temples. The key difference between Karnak and most of
the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used.
Construction work began in the 16th century BC, and was originally quite modest in size. But eventually,
in the main precinct alone, as many as twenty temples and chapels would be constructed. Approximately
30 pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity and diversity not seen
elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of those
features is overwhelming.

One of the greatest temples in Egyptian history is that of Amun-Ra at Karnak. As with many other
temples in Egypt, this one details the feats of the past (including thousands of years of history detailed
via inscriptions on many of the walls and columns found on site, often modified or completely erased and
redone by following rulers), and honors the gods. The temple of Amun-Re was constructed in three
sections, the third being constructed by the later New Kingdom pharaohs. In cannon with the
traditional style of Egyptian architecture, many of the architectural features, such as the inner sanctum
of the complex, were aligned with the sunset of the summer solstice.
One of the architectural features present at the site is the 5,000 sq m (50,000 sq ft) hypostyle hall built
during the Ramesside period. The hall is supported by approximately 139 sandstone and mud brick
columns, with 12 central columns (~69 feet tall) that would have all been brightly painted.
Temple Ramesseum
Ramses II, a 19th Dynasty pharaoh ruled Egypt from around 1279 to 1213 BCE. Among Ramses II many
accomplishments, such as the expanding of the Egyptian borders, he constructed a massive temple called
the Ramesseum. The temple is located near the city of Thebes, which at the time was the capital for the
New kingdom pharaoh. The Ramesseum was a magnificent temple, completed with monument status to
guard its entrance; the most impressive of which was a 62 foot tall statue of Ramses himself. Only
fragments of this structure remain, particularly its base and torso are all that remain of the this
impressive statue of the enthroned pharaoh, and thus the dimensions and weight (approximately 1000
pounds) are based on estimates. The temple was also accompanied with impressive reliefs many of which
detail a number of Rames' military victories, such as the Battle of Kadesh (ca. 1274 BC) and the pillaging
of the city "Shalem".

Temple of Malkata
Under the tenure of Amenhotep III workers constructed over 250 buildings and monuments. One of the
most impressive building projects was the temple complex of Malkata, known among the ancient
Egyptians as the “house of rejoicing”, was constructed to serve his royal residence on the west bank of
Thebes, just south of the Theban necropolis. The site is approximately 226,000 square meters (or
2,432,643 square feet).[18] Given the immense size of the site, along with its many buildings, courts, parade
grounds, and housing, it is considered to have served not just as a temple and dwelling of the Pharaoh
but a town.
The central area of the complex consisted in the Pharaoh’s apartments that were made up of a number
of rooms and courts, all of which were oriented around a columned banquet hall. Accompanying the
apartments, that presumably housed the royal cohort and foreign guests, was a large throne room
connected to smaller chambers, for storage, waiting, and smaller audiences. The greater elements of this
area of the complex are what have been come to be called the West Villas (just west of the King’s
Palace), the North Palace and Village, and Temple.
The temple’s external dimensions are approximately 183.5 by 110.5 m, and consists of two parts: the large
forecourt and the temple proper. The large front court is 131.5 by 105.5 m, oriented on the east-west axis,
and occupies the east part of the temple complex. The western part of the court is on a higher level and
is divided from the rest of the court by a low retaining wall. The lower court is almost square, whereas
the upper terrace was rectangular in shape. The upper section of the court was paved with mud bricks
and has a 4 m wide entrance to it from the lower part of the fore-court, connecting the base to the
upper landing was a ramp enclosed by walls. This ramp and entrance were both at the center of the
temple, with the same orientation as the front court entrance and the temple proper.
The temple proper might be seen as divided in to three distinct parts: central, north, and south. The
central part is indicated by a small rectangular anteroom (6.5 by 3.5 m), many of the door jambs including
those of the antechamber include inscriptions, such as 'given life like Ra forever'. A 12.5 by 14.5 m hall
follows the anteroom from which is entered via a 3.5 m wide door in the center of the front wall of the
hall. There is evidence the ceiling of this chamber was decorated with yellow stars on blue background,
whereas the walls today show only the appearance of a white stucco over mud plaster. Notwithstanding,
we might speculate given the numerous decorative plaster fragments found within the room's deposit
that these too were ornately decorated with various images and patterns. Supporting the ceiling are six
columns arranged in two rows with east-west axis. Only small fragments of the column bases have
survived, though they suggest the diameter of these columns to have been about 2.25 m. The columns
are placed 2.5 m away from the walls and in each row the columns are approximately 1.4 m away from the
next, while the space between the two rows is 3 m. A second hall (12.5 by 10 m) is accessed by a 3 m door
at the center of the back wall of the first. The second hall is similar to the first, first its ceiling seems to
have been decorated with similar if not identical patterns and images as the first. Second, in the same
way the ceiling is supported by columns, four to be precise, ordered in two rows on the same axis as
those of the first hall, with a 3 m wide space between them. In hall two, at-least one of the rooms
appears to have been dedicated to the cult of Maat, which suggests the other three in this area might
have likewise served such a religious purpose.
The southern part of the temple may be divided into two sections: western and southern. The western
section consists of 6 rooms, whereas the southern area given its size (19.5 by 17.2 m) suggests it might
have served as another open court. In many of these rooms were found blue ceramic tiles inlaid with
gold around their edge.The Northern part of the temple proper consists of ten rooms, similar in style to
those of the southern.
The temple itself seems to have been dedicated to the Egyptian deity Amun, given the number of bricks
stamped with various inscriptions, such as "the temple of Amun in the house of Rejoicing" or
"Nebmaarta in the Temple of Amun in the house of Rejoicing". Overall the temple of Malakata shares
many with other cult temples of the New Kingdom, with magnificent halls and religiously oriented rooms
with many others more closely resemble store rooms.

Fortifications within Ancient Egypt were built in times of conflict between rival principalities. Out of all
fortresses analyzed within this time frame, most (if not all) were built of the same materials. The only
exception to the rule were some fortresses from the Old Kingdom as fortresses such as the fort
of Buhen utilized stone with the creation of its walls. The main walls were mainly built with mud brick
but were reinforced with other materials such as timber. Rocks were also utilized to not only preserve
them from erosion as well as paving. Secondary walls would be built outside of fortresses main walls and
were relatively close to one another. As a result, this would prove to be a challenge to invaders were as
they forced to destroy this fortification before they could reach the main walls of the fort. Another
strategy was utilized if the enemy managed to break through the first barrier. Upon making it to the main
wall, a ditch would be constructed that would be positioned between the secondary and first walls. The
purpose of this was to place the enemy in a position that would leave them exposed to the enemy, making
the invaders susceptible to arrow fire. The position of this ditch Walls within the interior of fortresses
would become demilitarized during times of unity; leading to them being demolished. The parts that were
used to construct said walls could then be reused, making the overall design extremely beneficial.
 Ancient Roman Architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the
purposes of the ancient Romans, but differed from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style.
The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture. Roman architecture flourished
in the Roman Republic and even more so under the Empire, when the great majority of surviving buildings
were constructed. It used new materials, particularly concrete, and newer technologies such as
the arch and the dome to make buildings that were typically strong and well-engineered. Large numbers
remain in some form across the empire, sometimes complete and still in use.
Roman Architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to
about the 4th century AD, after which it becomes reclassified as Late Antique or Byzantine
architecture. Almost no substantial examples survive from before about 100 BC, and most of the major
survivals are from the later empire, after about 100 AD. Roman architectural style continued to
influence building in the former empire for many centuries, and the style used in Western Europe
beginning about 1000 is called Romanesque architecture to reflect this dependence on basic Roman
forms.
The Romans only began to achieve significant originality in architecture around the beginning of
the Imperial period, after they had combined aspects of their original Etruscan architecture with others
taken from Greece including most elements of the style we now call classical architecture. They moved
from trabeated construction mostly based on columns and lintels to one based on massive walls,
punctuated by arches, and later domes, both of which greatly developed under the Romans. The
classical orders now became largely decorative rather than structural, except in colonnades. Stylistic
developments included the Tuscan and Composite orders; the first being a shortened, simplified variant
on the Doric order and the Composite being a tall order with the floral decoration of
the Corinthian and the scrolls of the Ionic. The period from roughly 40 BC to about 230 AD saw most of
the greatest achievements, before the Crisis of the Third Century and later troubles reduced the
wealth and organizing power of the central government.
The Romans produced massive public buildings and works of civil engineering, and were responsible for
significant developments in housing and public hygiene, for example their public and private baths and
latrines, under-floor heating in the form of the hypocaust, mica glazing (examples in Ostia Antica), and
piped hot and cold water (examples in Pompeii and Ostia).

Materials

Stone
Marble is not found especially close to Rome, and was only rarely used there before Augustus, who
famously boasted that he had found Rome made of brick and left it made of marble, though this was
mainly as a facing for brick or concrete. The Temple of Hercules Victor of the late 2nd century BC is
the earliest surviving exception in Rome. From Augustus' reign the quarries at Carrara were extensively
developed for the capital, and other sources around the empire exploited,[13] especially the prestigious
Greek marbles like Parian. Travertine limestone was found much closer, around Tivoli, and was used
from the end of the Republic; the Colosseum is mainly built of this stone, which has good load-bearing
capacity, with a brick core.[14] Other more or less local stones were used around the empire.
The Romans were extremely fond of luxury imported coloured marbles with fancy veining, and the
interiors of the most important buildings were very often faced with slabs of these, which have usually
now been removed even where the building survives. Imports from Greece for this purpose began in the
2nd century BC.

Roman brick
The Romans made fired clay bricks from about the beginning of the Empire, replacing earlier sun-dried
mud-brick. Roman brick was almost invariably of a lesser height than modern brick, but was made in a
variety of different shapes and sizes. Shapes included square, rectangular, triangular and round, and the
largest bricks found have measured over three feet in length. Ancient Roman bricks had a general size
of 1½ Roman feet by 1 Roman foot, but common variations up to 15 inches existed. Other brick sizes in
ancient Rome included 24" x 12" x 4", and 15" x 8" x 10". Ancient Roman bricks found in France measured
8" x 8" x 3". The Constantine Basilica in Trier is constructed from Roman bricks 15" square by 1½"
thick. There is often little obvious difference (particularly when only fragments survive) between Roman
bricks used for walls on the one hand, and tiles used for roofing or flooring on the other, so
archaeologists sometimes prefer to employ the generic term ceramic building material (or CBM).

The Romans perfected brick-making during the first century of their empire and used it ubiquitously, in
public and private construction alike. The Romans took their brickmaking skills everywhere they went,
introducing the craft to the local populations. The Roman legions, which operated their own kilns,
introduced bricks to many parts of the empire; bricks are often stamped with the mark of the legion
that supervised their production. The use of bricks in southern and western Germany, for example, can
be traced back to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius. In the British Isles, the
introduction of Roman brick by the ancient Romans was followed by a 600–700 year gap in major brick
production.

Roman concrete
Concrete quickly supplanted brick as the primary building material, and more daring buildings soon
followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches and domes rather than dense lines
of columns suspending flat architraves. The freedom of concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a
row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller-scale architecture, concrete's
strength freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a more free-flowing environment. Most of these
developments are described by Vitruvius, writing in the first century AD in his work De Architectura.

Although concrete had been used on a minor scale in Mesopotamia, Roman architects perfected Roman
concrete and used it in buildings where it could stand on its own and support a great deal of weight. The
first use of concrete by the Romans was in the town of Cosasometime after 273 BC. Ancient Roman
concrete was a mixture of lime mortar, aggregate, pozzolana, water, and stones, and was stronger than
previously-used concretes. The ancient builders placed these ingredients in wooden frames where they
hardened and bonded to a facing of stones or (more frequently) bricks. The aggregates used were often
much larger than in modern concrete, amounting to rubble.
When the framework was removed, the new wall was very strong, with a rough surface of bricks or
stones. This surface could be smoothed and faced with an attractive stucco or thin panels of marble or
other coloured stones called revetment. Concrete construction proved to be more flexible and less
costly than building solid stone buildings. The materials were readily available and not difficult to
transport. The wooden frames could be used more than once, allowing builders to work quickly and
efficiently. Concrete is arguably the Roman contribution most relevant to modern architecture.
City design
The ancient Romans employed regular orthogonal structures on which they molded their colonies. They
probably were inspired by Greek and Hellenic examples, as well as by regularly planned cities that were
built by the Etruscans in Italy.
The Romans used a consolidated scheme for city planning, developed for military defense and civil
convenience. The basic plan consisted of a central forum with city services, surrounded by a compact,
rectilinear grid of streets, and wrapped in a wall for defense. To reduce travel times, two diagonal
streets crossed the square grid, passing through the central square. A river usually flowed through the
city, providing water, transport, and sewage disposal. Hundreds of towns and cities were built by the
Romans throughout their empire. Many European towns, such as Turin, preserve the remains of these
schemes, which show the very logical way the Romans designed their cities. They would lay out the
streets at right angles, in the form of a square grid. All roads were equal in width and length, except for
two, which were slightly wider than the others. One of these ran east–west, the other, north–south, and
they intersected in the middle to form the center of the grid. All roads were made of carefully fitted
flag stones and filled in with smaller, hard-packed rocks and pebbles. Bridges were constructed where
needed. Each square marked off by four roads was called an insula, the Roman equivalent of a
modern city block.
Each insula was 80 yards (73 m) square, with the land within it divided. As the city developed, each insula
would eventually be filled with buildings of various shapes and sizes and crisscrossed with back roads
and alleys. Most insulae were given to the first settlers of a Roman city, but each person had to pay to
construct his own house.
The city was surrounded by a wall to protect it from invaders and to mark the city limits. Areas outside
city limits were left open as farmland. At the end of each main road was a large gateway with
watchtowers. A portcullis covered the opening when the city was under siege, and additional
watchtowers were constructed along the city walls. An aqueduct was built outside the city walls.
The development of Greek and Roman urbanization is relatively well-known, as there are relatively many
written sources, and there has been much attention to the subject, since the Romans and Greeks are
generally regarded as the main ancestors of modern Western culture. It should not be forgotten, though,
that the Etruscans had many considerable towns and there were also other cultures with more or less
urban settlements in Europe, primarily of Celtic origin.

Building Types
Amphitheatre
The amphitheatre was, with the triumphal arch and basilica, the only major new type of building
developed by the Romans. Some of the most impressive secular buildings are the amphitheatres, over 200
being known and many of which are well preserved, such as that at Arles, as well as its progenitor,
the Colosseum in Rome. They were used for gladiatorialcontests, public displays, public meetings
and bullfights, the tradition of which still survives in Spain. Their typical shape, functions and name
distinguish them from Roman theatres, which are more or less semicircular in shape; from
the circuses (akin to hippodromes) whose much longer circuits were designed mainly for horse or chariot
racing events; and from the smaller stadia, which were primarily designed for athletics and footraces.
The earliest Roman amphitheatres date from the middle of the first century BC, but most were built
under Imperial rule, from the Augustan period (27 BC–14 AD) onwards. Imperial amphitheatres were built
throughout the Roman empire; the largest could accommodate 40,000–60,000 spectators, and the most
elaborate featured multi-storeyed, arcaded façades and were elaborately decorated
with marble, stucco and statuary. After the end of gladiatorial games in the 5th century and of animal
killings in the 6th, most amphitheatres fell into disrepair, and their materials were mined or recycled.
Some were razed, and others converted into fortifications. A few continued as convenient open meeting
places; in some of these, churches were sited.
Architecturally, they are typically an example of the Roman use of the classical orders to decorate large
concrete walls pierced at intervals, where the columns have nothing to support. Aesthetically, however,
the formula is successful.

Basilica
The Roman basilica was a large public building where business or legal matters could be transacted. They
were normally where the magistrates held court, and used for other official ceremonies, having many of
the functions of the modern town hall. The first basilicas had no religious function at all. As early as the
time of Augustus, a public basilica for transacting business had been part of any settlement that
considered itself a city, used in the same way as the late medieval covered market houses of northern
Europe, where the meeting room, for lack of urban space, was set above the arcades, however.
Although their form was variable, basilicas often contained interior colonnades that divided the space,
giving aisles or arcaded spaces on one or both sides, with an apse at one end (or less often at each end),
where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais. The central aisle tended to be wide and was
higher than the flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows.
The oldest known basilica, the Basilica Porcia, was built in Rome in 184 BC by Cato the Elder during the
time he was Censor. Other early examples include the basilica at Pompeii (late 2nd century BC). After
Christianity became the official religion, the basilica shape was found appropriate for the first large
public churches, with the attraction of avoiding reminiscences of the Greco-Roman temple form.

Circus
The Roman circus was a large open-air venue used for public events in the ancient Roman Empire. The
circuses were similar to the ancient Greek hippodromes, although circuses served varying purposes and
differed in design and construction. Along with theatres and amphitheatres, Circuses were one of the
main entertainment sites of the time. Circuses were venues for chariot races, horse races, and
performances that commemorated important events of the empire were performed there. For events
that involved re-enactments of naval battles, the circus was flooded with water.
The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two
linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running along the length of about two thirds
the track, joined at one end with a semicircular section and at the other end with an undivided section
of track closed (in most cases) by a distinctive starting gate known as the carceres, thereby creating a
circuit for the races.

Forum
A forum was a central public open space in a Roman municipium, or any civitas, primarily used as a
marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls. Other large
public buildings were often sited at the edges or close by. Many forums were constructed at remote
locations along a road by the magistrate responsible for the road, in which case the forum was the only
settlement at the site and had its own name, such as Forum Popili or Forum Livi. During the years of the
Republic, Augustus claimed he "found the city in brick and left it in marble". While chances are high
that this was an exaggeration, there is something to be said for the influx of marble use in Roman Forum
from 63 BC onwards. During Augustus reign, the Forum was described to have been "a larger, freer
space than was the Forum of imperial times.The Forum began to take on even more changes upon the
arrival of Julius Casear who drew out extensive plans for the market hub. While Casear's death came
prematurely, the ideas himself, as well as Augustus had in regards to the Forum proved to be the most
influential for years to come. According to Walter Dennison's The Roman Forum As Cicero Saw It, the
author writes that "the diverting of public business to the larger and splendid imperial fora erected in
the vicinity resulted in leaving the general design of the Forum Romanum".
Every city had at least one forum of varying size. In addition to its standard function as a marketplace, a
forum was a gathering place of great social significance, and often the scene of diverse activities,
including political discussions and debates, rendezvous, meetings, etc. Much the best known example is
the Roman Forum, the earliest of several in Rome.
In new Roman towns the forum was usually located at, or just off, the intersection of the main north-
south and east-west streets (the cardo and decumanus). All forums would have a Temple of Jupiter at
the north end, and would also contain other temples, as well as the basilica; a public weights and
measures table, so customers at the market could ensure they were not being sold short measures; and
would often have the baths nearby.

Horreum
A horreum was a type of public warehouse used during the ancient Roman period. Although
the Latin term is often used to refer to granaries, Roman horrea were used to store many other types of
consumables; the giant Horrea Galbae in Rome were used not only to store grain but also olive oil, wine,
foodstuffs, clothing and even marble. By the end of the imperial period, the city of Rome had nearly 300
horrea to supply its demands. The biggest were enormous, even by modern standards; the Horrea Galbae
contained 140 rooms on the ground floor alone, covering an area of some 225,000 square feet (21,000 m²).

The first horrea were built in Rome towards the end of the 2nd century BC, with the first known public
horreum being constructed by the ill-fated tribune, Gaius Gracchus in 123 BC. The word came to be
applied to any place designated for the preservation of goods; thus it was often used refer to cellars
(horrea subterranea), but it could also be applied to a place where artworks were stored, or even to a
library.Some public horrea functioned somewhat like banks, where valuables could be stored, but the
most important class of horrea were those where foodstuffs such as grain and olive oil were stored and
distributed by the state.
The word itself is thought to have linguist roots tied to the word hordeum which in Latin means
'barley'. In the John's Hopkin's University Press, The Classical Weekly states that "Pliny the Elder does
indeed make a distinction between the two words. He describes the horreum as a structure made of
brick, the walls of which were not less than three feet thick; it had no windows or openings for
ventilation". Furthermore, the storehouses would also host oil and wine and also utilize large jars that
could serve as cache's for large amounts of products.These storehouses were also used to house keep
large sums of money and were used much like personal storage units today are. Romans were "These
horrea were divided and subdivided, so that one could hire only so much space as one wanted, a whole
room (cella), a closet (armarium), or only a chest or strong box (arca, arcula, locus, loculus).
Insula
Multi-story apartment blocks called insulae catered to a range of residential needs. The cheapest rooms
were at the top owing to the inability to escape in the event of a fire and the lack of piped water.
Windows were mostly small, facing the street, with iron security bars. Insulae were often dangerous,
unhealthy, and prone to fires because of overcrowding and haphazard cooking arrangements. There are
examples in the Roman port town of Ostia, that date back to the reign of Trajan, but they seem to have
been found only in Rome and a few other places. Elsewhere writers report them as something
remarkable, but Livy and Vituvius refer to them in Rome.[44] External walls were in "Opus Reticulatum"
and interiors in "Opus Incertum", which would then be plastered and sometimes painted.

To lighten up the small dark rooms, tenants able to afford a degree of painted colourful murals on the
walls. Examples have been found of jungle scenes with wild animals and exotic plants. Imitation windows
(trompe l'oeil) were sometimes painted to make the rooms seem less confined.
Ancient Rome had elaborate and luxurious houses owned by the elite. The average house, or in cities
apartment, of a commoner or plebedid not contain many luxuries. The domus, or single-family residence,
was only for the well-off in Rome, with most having a layout of the closed unit, consisting of one or two
rooms. Between 312 and 315 A.D. Rome had 1781 domus and 44,850 of insulae.
Insulae have been the subject of great debate for historians of Roman culture, defining the various
meanings of the word. Insula was a word used to describe apartment buildings, or the apartments
themselves,meaning apartment, or inhabitable room, demonstrating just how small apartments for Plebes
were. Urban divisions were originally street blocks, and later began to divide into smaller divisions, the
word insula referring to both blocks and smaller divisions. The insula contained cenacula, tabernae,
storage rooms under the stairs, and lower floor shops. Another type of housing unit for Plebes was a
cenaculum, an apartment, divided into three individual rooms: cubiculum, exedra, and medianum.
Common Roman apartments were mainly masses of smaller and larger structures, many with narrow
balconies that present mysteries as to their use, having no doors to access them, and they lacked the
excessive decoration and display of wealth that aristocrats’ houses contained. Luxury in houses was not
common, as the life of the average person did not consist of being in their houses, as they instead would
go to public baths, and engage in other communal activities.

Lighthouses
Many lighthouses were built around the Mediterranean and the coasts of the empire, including
the Tower of Hercules at A Coruña in northern Spain, a structure which survives to this day. A smaller
lighthouse at Dover, England also exists as a ruin about half the height of the original. The light would
have been provided by a fire at the top of the structure.

Thermae
All Roman cities had at least one thermae, a popular facility for public bathing, exercising and
socializing. Exercise might include wrestling and weight-lifting, as well as swimming. Bathing was an
important part of the Roman day, where some hours might be spent, at a very low cost subsidized by the
government. Wealthier Romans were often accompanied by one or more slaves, who performed any
required tasks such as fetching refreshment, guarding valuables, providing towels, and at the end of the
session, applying olive oil to their masters' bodies which was then scraped off with a strigil, a scraper
made of wood or bone. Romans did not wash with soap and water as we do now.
Roman bath-houses were also provided for private villas, town houses and forts. They were normally
supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or by aqueduct. The design of thermae is
discussed by Vitruvius in De Architectura.

Temples
Roman temples were among the most important and richest buildings in Roman culture, though only a
few survive in any sort of complete state. Their construction and maintenance was a major part
of ancient Roman religion, and all towns of any importance had at least one main temple, as well as
smaller shrines. The main room (cella) housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple
was dedicated, and often a small altar for incense or libations. Behind the cella was a room or rooms
used by temple attendants for storage of equipment and offerings.
Some remains of many Roman temples survive, above all in Rome itself, but the relatively few near-
complete examples were nearly all converted to Christian churches (and sometimes subsequently
to mosques), usually a considerable time after the initial triumph of Christianity under Constantine.
The decline of Roman religion was relatively slow, and the temples themselves were not appropriated by
the government until a decree of the Emperor Honorius in 415. Some of the oldest surviving temples
include the Temple of Hercules Victor (mid 2nd century BC) and Temple of Portunus (120-80 BC), both
standing within the Forum Boarium.
The form of the Roman temple was mainly derived from the Etruscan model, but using Greek style.
Roman temples emphasised the front of the building, which followed Greek temple models and typically
consisted of wide steps leading to a portico with columns, a pronaos, and usually a
triangular pediment above, which was filled with statuary in the most grand examples; this was as often
in terracotta as stone, and no examples have survived except as fragments. However, unlike the Greek
models, which generally gave equal treatment to all sides of the temple, which could be viewed and
approached from all directions, the sides and rear of Roman temples might be largely undecorated (as in
the Pantheon, Rome and Vic), inaccessible by steps (as in the Maison Carrée and Vic), and even back on
to other buildings. As in the Maison Carrée, columns at the side might be half-columns, emerging from
("engaged with" in architectural terminology) the wall. The platform on which the temple sat was
typically raised higher in Roman examples than Greek, with up ten or twelve or more steps rather than
the three typical in Greek temples; the Temple of Claudius was raised twenty steps. These steps were
normally only at the front, and typically not the whole width of that.
The Greek classical orders in all their details were closely followed in the façades of temples, as in other
prestigious buildings. However the idealized proportions between the different elements set out by the
only significant Roman writer on architecture to survive, Vitruvius, and subsequent Italian
Renaissance writers, do not reflect actual Roman practice, which could be very variable, though always
aiming at balance and harmony. Following a Hellenistic trend, the Corinthian order and its variant
the Composite order were most common in surviving Roman temples, but for small temples like that at
Alcántara, a simple Tuscan order could be used.
There was considerable local variation in style, as Roman architects often tried to incorporate elements
the population expected in its sacred architecture. This was especially the case in Egypt and the Near
East, where different traditions of large stone temples were already millennia old. The Romano-Celtic
temple was a simple style for small temples found in the Western Empire, and by far the most common
type in Roman Britain. It often lacked any of the distinctive classical features, and may have had
considerable continuity with pre-Roman temples of the Celtic religion.
Theatres
Roman theatres were built in all areas of the empire from Spain, to the Middle East. Because of the
Romans' ability to influence local architecture, we see numerous theatres around the world with
uniquely Roman attributes. These buildings were semi-circular and possessed certain inherent
architectural structures, with minor differences depending on the region in which they were
constructed. The scaenae frons was a high back wall of the stage floor, supported by columns.
The proscaenium was a wall that supported the front edge of the stage with ornately decorated niches
off to the sides. The Hellenistic influence is seen through the use of the proscaenium. The Roman
theatre also had a podium, which sometimes supported the columns of the scaenae frons.
The scaenae was originally not part of the building itself, constructed only to provide sufficient
background for the actors. Eventually, it became a part of the edifice itself, made out of concrete. The
theatre itself was divided into the stage (orchestra) and the seating section (auditorium). Vomitoria or
entrances and exits were made available to the audience.

Villa
A Roman villa was a country house built for the upper class, while a domus was a wealthy family's house
in a town. The Empire contained many kinds of villas, not all of them lavishly appointed
with mosaic floors and frescoes. In the provinces, any country house with some decorative features in
the Roman style may be called a "villa" by modern scholars. Some were pleasure palaces such as those—
like Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli— that were situated in the cool hills within easy reach of Rome or— like
the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum— on picturesque sites overlooking the Bay of Naples. Some villas
were more like the country houses of England or Poland, the visible seat of power of a local magnate,
such as the famous palace rediscovered at Fishbourne in Sussex.
Suburban villas on the edge of cities were also known, such as the Middle and Late Republican villas
that encroached on the Campus Martius, at that time on the edge of Rome, and which can be also seen
outside the city walls of Pompeii, including the Villa of the Mysteries, famous for its frescos. These early
suburban villas, such as the one at Rome's Auditorium site or at Grottarossa in Rome, demonstrate the
antiquity and heritage of the villa suburbana in Central Italy. It is possible that these early, suburban
villas were also in fact the seats of power (maybe even palaces) of regional strongmen or heads of
important families (gentes).
A third type of villa provided the organizational center of the large farming estates called latifundia;
such villas might be lacking in luxuries. By the 4th century, villa could simply mean an agricultural estate
or holding: Jerome translated the Gospel of Mark (xiv, 32) chorion, describing the olive grove
of Gethsemane, with villa, without an inference that there were any dwellings there at all (Catholic
Encyclopedia "Gethsemane").
With the colossal Diocletian's Palace, built in the countryside but later turned into a fortified city, a
form of residential castle emerges, that anticipates the Middle Ages.

Watermills
The initial invention of the watermill appears to have occurred in the hellenized eastern
Mediterranean in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great and the rise of Hellenistic science
and technology. In the subsequent Roman era, the use of water-power was diversified and different
types of watermills were introduced. These include all three variants of the vertical water wheel as well
as the horizontal water wheel. Apart from its main use in grinding flour, water-power was also applied to
pounding grain, crushing ore, sawing stone and possibly fulling and bellows for iron furnaces.
 Gothic Architecture
Gothic architecture is a style that flourished in Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages. It
evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Originating in
12th-century France, it was widely used, especially for cathedrals and churches, until the 16th century.
Its most prominent features included the use of the rib vault and the flying buttress, which allowed the
weight of the roof to be counterbalanced by buttresses outside the building, giving greater height and
more space for windows.[1] Another important feature was the extensive use of stained glass, and
the rose window, to bring light and color to the interior. Another feature was the use of realistic
statuary on the exterior, particularly over the portals, to illustrate biblical stories for the largely illiterate
parishioners. These technologies had all existed in Romanesque architecture, but they were used in more
innovative ways and more extensively in Gothic architecture to make buildings taller, lighter and
stronger.
The first notable example is generally considered to be the Abbey of Saint-Denis, near Paris, whose choir
and facade were reconstructed with Gothic features. The choir was completed in 1144. The style also
appeared in some civic architecture in northern Europe, notably in town halls and university buildings.
A Gothic revival began in mid-18th-century England, spread through 19th century Europe and continued,
largely for ecclesiastical and university structures, into the 20th century.
The plan of the Gothic cathedral was based on the model of the ancient Roman basilica, which was a
combined public market and courthouse; which was also the basis of the plan of the Romanesque
cathedral. The cathedral is in the form of a Latin cross. The entrance is traditionally on the west end,
has three portals decorated with sculpture, usually a rose window, and is flanked by two towers. The
long nave, where the congregation worshiped, occupies the west end. This is usually divided from the
nave by rows of pillars, which support the roof, flanked by one or two aisles, called collaérals. There are
usually small chapels on the two sides, placed between the buttresses, which provide additional support
to the walls.
The cathedral usually has a transept, a crossing, roughly in the middle, which sometimes projects
outwards some distance, and in other cases, such as Notre-Dame, is minimal. The croisée or crossing of
the transept, is the center of the church, and is surrounded by particularly massive pillars, which
sometimes support a lantern tower, which brings light into the center of the cathedral. The north and
south facades of the transept often feature rose windows, as at Notre Dame de Paris.
To the east of the transept is the choir, where the altar is located, where ceremonies take place, and
where only the clergy was allowed. This space grew greatly in the 12th century, as ceremonies became
more elaborate. Behind the choir is single or double a walkway called the ambulatory. At the eastern end
of the church is the apse usually in the form of a half-circle, and the chevet. There is usually a chapel
here dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which can be very large. Around chevet there are usually several
other smaller chapels.
The earlier Gothic cathedrals had four levels, from the floor to the roof. On the ground floor there
were two rows grand arcades with large pillars, which received the weight of the vaults of the ceiling.
Above these were the tribunes, a section of arched openings, giving more support. Above these was
the triforium, a section of small arches. On the top level, just below the vaults, were the upper windows,
the main source of light for the Cathedral.The lower walls were supported by massive contreforts or
buttresses placed directly up against them, with pinnacles on top which provided additional weight.
Later, with the development of the flying buttress, the supports moved further away from the walls, and
the walls were built much higher. Gradually the tribunes and the triforium disappeared, and the walls
above the arcades were occupied almost entirely with stained glass. The eastern arm shows considerable
diversity. In England it is generally long and may have two distinct sections, both choir and presbytery. It
is often square ended or has a projecting Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In France the
eastern end is often polygonal and surrounded by a walkway called an ambulatory and sometimes a ring of
chapels called a "chevet". While German churches are often similar to those of France, in Italy, the
eastern projection beyond the transept is usually just a shallow apsidal chapel containing the sanctuary,
as at Florence Cathedral.
Another characteristic feature of the Gothic style, domestic and ecclesiastical alike, is the division of
interior space into individual cells according to the building's ribbing and vaults, regardless of whether or
not the structure actually has a vaulted ceiling. This system of cells of varying size and shape juxtaposed
in various patterns was again totally unique to antiquity and the Early Middle Ages and scholars, Frankl
included, have emphasised the mathematical and geometric nature of this design. Frankl in particular
thought of this layout as "creation by division" rather than the Romanesque's "creation by addition."
Others, namely Viollet-le-Duc, Wilhelm Pinder, and August Schmarsow, instead proposed the term
"articulated architecture. The opposite theory as suggested by Henri Focillon and Jean Bony is of
"spacial unification", or of the creation of an interior that is made for sensory overload via the
interaction of many elements and perspectives. Interior and exterior partitions, often extensively
studied, have been found to at times contain features, such as thoroughfares at window height, that
make the illusion of thickness. Additionally, the piers separating the isles eventually stopped being part
of the walls but rather independent objects that jut out from the actual aisle wall itself.

The pointed arch and the rib vault

Both the pointed arch and the rib vault had been used in romanesque architecture, but Gothic builders
refined them and used them to much greater effect. They made the structures lighter and stronger, and
thus allowed the great heights and expanses of stained glass found in Gothic cathedrals.
In Romanesque architecture, the rounded arches of the barrel vaults that supported the roof pressed
directly down on the walls with crushing weight. This required massive columns, thick walls and small
windows, and naturally limited the height of the building. The pointed or broken arch, introduced during
the Romanesque period, was stronger, lighter, and carried the thrust outwards, rather than directly
downwards.
The rib vault took advantage of the strength of the pointed arch. The vault was supported by thin ribs
or arches of stone, which reached downwards and outwards to cluster around supporting pillars along
the inside of the walls. The earlier rib vaults, used at Notre Dame, Noyon, and Laon, were divided by the
ribs into six compartments, and could only cross a limited space. In later cathedral construction, the
design was improved, and the rib vaults had only four compartments, and could cover a wider span; a
single vault could cross the nave, and fewer pillars were needed. The four-part vault was used at
Amiens, Reims, and the other later cathedrals, and eventually at cathedrals across Europe.
In the later period of the Gothic style, the rib vaults lost their elegant simplicity, and were loaded with
additional ribs, sculptural designs, and sometimes pendants and other purely decorative elements.

Flying buttress
Another important feature of Gothic architecture was the flying buttress, designed to support the
walls by means of arches connected to counter-supports outside the walls. Flying buttresses had existed
in simple forms since Roman times, but the Gothic builders raised their use to a fine art, balancing the
thrust from the roof inside against the counter-thrust of the buttresses. The earliest Gothic
cathedrals, including Saint-Denis and Notre-Dame in its beginning stages, did not have flying buttresses.
Their walls were supported by heavy stone abutments placed directly against the walls, The roof was
supported by the ribs of the vaults, which were bundled with the columns below.
In the later 12th and early 13th century, the buttresses became more sophisticated. New arches carried
the thrust of the weight entirely outside the walls, where it was met by the counter-thrust of stone
columns, with pinnacles placed on top for decoration and for additional weight. Thanks to this system of
external buttresses, the walls could be higher and thinner, and could support larger stained glass
windows. The buttresses themselves became part of the decoration; the pinnacles became more and
more ornate, becoming more and more elaborate, as at Beauvais Cathedral and Reims Cathedral. The
arches had an additional practical purpose; they contained lead channels which carried rain water off
the roof; it was expelled from the mouths of stone gargoyles placed in rows on the buttresses.
In the late Gothic periods the buttresses became extremely ornate, with a large amount of non-
functional decoration in the form of pinnacles, curving arches, counter-curves, statuary and ornamental
pendants.

Height
An important characteristic of Gothic church architecture is its height, both absolute and in
proportion to its width, the verticality suggesting an aspiration to Heaven. The increasing height of
cathedrals over the Gothic period was accompanied by an increasing proportion of the wall devoted to
windows, until, by the late Gothic, the interiors became like cages of glass. This was made possible by the
development of the flying buttress, which transferred the thrust of the weight of the roof to the
supports outside the walls. As a result, the walls gradually became thinner and higher, and masonry was
replaced with glass. The four-part elevation of the naves of early Cathedrals such as Notre-Dame
(arcade, tribune, triforium, claire-voie) was transformed in the choir of Beauvais Cathedral to very tall
arcades, a thin triforium, and soaring windows up to the roof.
Beauvais Cathedral reached the limit of what was possible with Gothic technology. A portion of the
choir collapsed in 1284, causing alarm in all of the cities with very tall cathedrals. Panels of experts were
created in Sienna and Chartres to study the stability of those structures. Only the transept and choir of
Beauvais were completed, and in the 21st century the transept walls were reinforced with cross-beams.
No cathedral built since exceeded the height of the choir of Beauvais.
A section of the main body of a Gothic church usually shows the nave as considerably taller than it is
wide. In England the proportion is sometimes greater than 2:1, while the greatest proportional difference
achieved is at Cologne Cathedral with a ratio of 3.6:1. The highest internal vault is at Beauvais
Cathedral at 48 metres (157 ft).

Stained glass windows

One of the most prominent features of Gothic architecture was the use of stained glass window, which
steadily grew in height and size and filled cathedrals with light and color. Historians including Viollet-le-
Duc, Focillon, Aubert, and Max Dvořák contended that this is one of the most universal features of the
Gothic style.
Religious teachings in the Middle Ages, particularly the writings of Religious Pseudo-Dionysius, a 6th-
century mystic whose book, The Celestial Hierarchy, was popular among monks in France, taught that all
light was divine. When the Abbot Suger ordered the reconstruction of the Basilica of Saint Denis, he
instructed that the windows in the choir admit as much light as possible.
Many earlier Romanesque churches had stained glass windows, and many had round windows,
called oculi, but these windows were necessarily small, due to the thickness of the walls. The primary
interior decorations of Romanesque cathedrals were painted murals. In the Gothic period, the
improvements in rib vaults and flying buttresses allowed Cathedral walls to be higher, thinner and
stronger, and windows were consequently considerably larger, The windows of churches in the late
Gothic period, such as Sainte Chapelle in Paris, filled the entire wall between the ribs of stone.
Enormous windows were also an important element of York Minster and Gloucester Cathedral.
The main threat to cathedral windows was the wind; frames had to be extremely strong. The early
windows were fit into openings cut into the stone. The small pieces of colored glass were joined together
with pieces of lead, and then their surfaces were painted with faces and other details. and then the
windows were mounted in the stone frames. Thin vertical and horizontal bars of iron,
called vergettes or barlotierres, were placed inside the window to reinforce the glass.
The stories told in the glass were usually episodes from the Bible, but they also sometimes illustrated the
professions of the guilds which had funded the windows, such as the drapers, stonemasons or the
barrel-makers.
Much of the stained glass in Gothic cathedrals today dates from later restorations, but a few
cathedrals, notably Chartres Cathedral and Bourges Cathedral, still have many of their original windows.

Portals and the tympanum

Early Gothic Cathedrals traditionally have their main entrance at the western end of the church,
opposite the choir. Based on the model of the Basilica of Saint Denis and Notre-Dame de Paris, there
are usually three doorways with pointed arches, richly filled with sculpture. The tympanum, or arch, over
each doorway is filled with realistic statues illustrating biblical stories, and the columns between the
doors are often also crowded with statuary. Following the example of Amiens, the tympanum over the
central portal traditionally depicted the Last Judgement, the right portal showed the coronation of the
Virgin Mary, and the left portal showed the lives of saints who were important in the diocese.
The iconography of the sculptural decoration on the facade was not left to the artists. An edict of
the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 had set the rules: "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."
The portals and interiors were much more colorful than they are today. Each sculpture on the tympanum
and in the interior was painted by the peintre imagier, or image painter, following a system of colors
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 sinopole, represented hope, liberty and joy; red or guelues meant charity or victory; blue,
or azure symbolized the sky, faithfulness and perseverance; and violet, or pourpre, was the color of
royalty and sovereignty.

Towers and spires

The plan for the Basilica of Saint-Denis called for two towers of equal height on the west facade, and
this general plan was copied at Notre-Dame and most of the early cathedrals. The towers of Notre-Dame
de Paris, 69 meters (226 ft) tall, were intended to be seen throughout the city; they were the tallest
towers in Paris until the completion of the Eiffel Towerin 1889. An informal but vigorous competition
began in northern France for the tallest Cathedral towers.[28]
To make the churches taller and more prominent, and visible from a distance, heir builders often added
a flèche, a spire usually made of wood and covered with lead, to the top of each tower, or, as in Notre-
Dame de Paris, in the center of the transept. Later in the Gothic period, more massive towers were
constructed over the transept, rivaling or exceeding in height the towers of the facade.
The towers were usually the last part of the Cathedral to be constructed. They were often built many
years or decades after the rest of the building. Sometimes, by the time the towers were built, the plans
had changed, or the money had run out. As a result, some Gothic cathedrals had just one tower, or two
towers of different heights or styles. On the other hand, Laon Cathedral, begun just before Notre-
Dame, boasted five towers; two on the facade, two on the transept, and a central lantern. An additional
two were planned but not built. The Abbey of Saint-Étienne, Caen originally built in the Romanesque
style, was rebuilt with nine Gothic towers in the 13th century.
The informal competition for the tallest church in Europe went on throughout the Gothic period,
sometimes with disastrous results. Beauvais Cathedral had the tallest tower (153 meters or 502 feet),
completed in 1569, for a brief time, until its tower collapsed in the wind in 1573. Lincoln Cathedral (159.7
meters or 524 feet) also had the record from 1311 until 1549 until its tower also collapsed. Today the
tallest cathedral tower in France is Rouen Cathedral, and Cologne Cathedral (151.0 meters or 495 feet) is
the tallest cathedral in Europe.
The Gothic Old St Paul's Cathedral (1087–1314) had been the tallest cathedral in England until it was
destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Today the tallest combined Gothic tower and spire in the
UK belongs to Salisbury Cathedral, (123 meters or 404 feet), built 1220–1258.
In Italy, the tower, if present, is almost always detached from the building, as at Florence Cathedral, and
is often from an earlier structure. In France and Spain, two towers on the front is the norm.
In England, Germany and Scandinavia this is often the arrangement, but an English cathedral may also be
surmounted by an enormous tower at the crossing. Smaller churches usually have just one tower, but
this may also be the case at larger buildings, such as Salisbury Cathedral or Ulm
Minster in Ulm, Germany, completed in 1890 and possessing the tallest spire in the world, slightly
exceeding that of Lincoln Cathedral, the tallest spire that was actually completed during the medieval
period, at 160 metres (520 ft).

Sculpture and decoration

The exteriors and interiors of Gothic cathedrals, particularly in France, were lavishly ornamented with
sculpture and decoration on religious themes, designed for the great majority of parishioners who could
not read. They were described as "Books for the poor." To add to the effect, all of the sculpture on the
facades was originally painted and gilded.
Each feature of the Cathedral had a symbolic meaning. The main portals at Notre Dame de Paris, for
instance, represented the entrance to paradise, with the last judgementdepicted on the tympanum over
the doors, showing Christ surrounded by the apostles, and by the signs of the zodiac, representing the
movements of the heavens. The columns below the tympanum are in the form of statues of saints,
literally reprinting them as "the pillars of the church."
Each Saint had his own symbol; a winged lion stood for Saint Mark; an eagle with four wings meant Saint
John the Apostle, and a winged bull symbolized Saint Luke. Sculpted angels had specific functions,
sometimes as heralds, blowing trumpete, or holding up columns, as guardian angels; or holding crowns of
thorns or crosses, as symbols of the crucifixion of Christ, or waving a container with incense, to
illustrate theirfunction at the throne of God. Floral and vegetal decoration was also very common,
representing the Garden of Eden; grapes represented the wines of Eucharist.
The tympanum over the central portal on the west facade 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.
The exteriors of cathedrals and other 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. They were part of the visual
message for the illiterate worshipers, symbols of the evil and danger that threatened those who did not
follow the teachings of the church.
The gargoyles, which were added to Notre Dame in about 1240, had a more practical purpose. They were
the rain spouts of the cathedral, 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 cathedral.
Many of the statues, particularly the grotesques, were removed from facade in the 17th and 18th
century, or were destroyed during the French Revolution. They were replaced with figures in the Gothic
style, designed by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, during the 19th century restoration. Similar figures appear on
the other Gothic Cathedrals of France.
Another common feature of Gothic cathedrals in France was a labyrinth or maze on the floor of the
nave near the choir, which symbolized 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.

French Gothic
From the 12th century onwards, the Gothic style spread from Northern France to other regions of
France and gradually to the rest of the Europe. It was often carried by the highly skilled craftsmen who
had trained in the Ile-de-France and then carried their crafts to other cities. The style was adapted to
local styles and materials.
In Normandy, the new naves were usually very long, sometimes more than one hundred meters, and, from
the long Romanesque tradition, the walls were thicker than in northern France, and had shorter
buttresses. The interiors were narrower than in the north, and were given a strong sense of verticality by
long and narrow bays and lancet arches. Rose windows were rare, replaced on the exterior by a large bay
in tiers point. The facades had less sculptural decoration; decoration in the interior was largely in
geometric forms.Norman Gothic also usually featured a profusion of towers, lanterns and spires; spires
and spires sometimes were seventy meters high. Bayeux Cathedral, Rouen Cathedral, and Coutances
Cathedral are notable examples of Norman Gothic.
In Burgundy, which had a long Romanesque style tradition, a lantern tower was often included, and
cathedrals often had a narrow passage the length of the cathedral at the level of the stained glass
windows. as in Auxerre Cathedral.
In the Southwest of France, the walls were thicker, with narrow openings, and doubled with arches. The
flying buttress were rarely used, replaced by heavy abutments with chapels between.
In the South of France, the Gothic cathedrals were often built with brick and tile rather than stone.
They generally had thick walls and narrow windows, and were braced by heavy abutments rather than
flying buttresses. The form of the tower of Toulouse Cathedral was copied by several cathedrals in the
south. They generally had a single nave or two or three of equal height. Some Gothic cathedrals in the
Midi took unusual form; the Cathedral of Albi (1282–1480) was originally built as fortress, then converted
to a cathedral. Albi Cathedral has another very distinctive feature; a colorful interior and painted
ceiling.
The facade of Toulouse Cathedral is unusual; it is the combination of two unfinished cathedral
buildings, begun in the 13th century and finally put together. Toulouse Cathedral has no flying
buttresses; it is supported by massive contreforts the height of the building, with chapels between.

English Gothic
The Gothic style was imported very early into England, in part due to the close connection with
the Duchy of Normandy, which until 1204 was still ruled by the Kings of England. The first period is
generally called early English Gothic, and was dominant from about 1180 to 1275. The first part of major
English cathedral to feature the new style was the choir of Canterbury Cathedral, begun about 1175. It
was created by a French master builder, William of Sens. He added several original touches, including
colored marble pavement, double columns in the arcades, and engaged slender colonettes which reached
up to the vaults, borrowed from the design of Laon Cathedral.[37] Westminster Abbey was rebuilt from
1245 to 1517. Salisbury Cathedral (1220–1320) is also a good example of early Gothic, with the exception of
its tower and spire, which were added in 1320.
The second period of English Gothic is known as Decorated Gothic. It is customarily divided into two
the "Geometric" style (1250–90) and the "Curvilinear" style (1290–1350), and it is similar to the
French Rayonnant style, with an emphasis on curvilinear forms, particularly in the windows. This period
saw detailed stone carving reach its peak, with elaborately carved windows and capitals, often with
floral patterns, or with an accolade, a carved arch over a window decorated with pinnacles and
a fleuron, or carved floral element.
The rib vaults of the Decorated Gothic became extremely ornate, with a profusion of ribs which were
purely ornamental. The vaults were often decorated with hanging stone pendants. The columns also
became more ornamental, as at Peterborough Cathedral, with ribs spreading upward.
The Perpendicular Gothic (c. 1380–1520) was final phase of English Gothic, lasting into the 16th century.
As the name suggests, its emphasis was on clear horizontal and vertical lines, meeting at right angles.
Columns extended upwards all the way to the roof, giving the interior the appearance of a cage of glass
and stone, as in the nave of Gloucester Cathedral. The Tudor Arch appeared, wider and lower and
often framed by moldings, which was used to create larger windows and to balance the strong vertical
elements. The design of the rib vaults became even more complex, including the fan vault with pendants
used in the Henry IV chapel at Westminster Abbey (1503–07).
A distinctive characteristic of English cathedrals is their extreme length, and their internal emphasis
upon the horizontal, which may be emphasised visually as much or more than the vertical lines. Each
English cathedral (with the exception of Salisbury) has an extraordinary degree of stylistic diversity,
when compared with most French, German and Italian cathedrals. It is not unusual for every part of the
building to have been built in a different century and in a different style, with no attempt at creating a
stylistic unity. Unlike French cathedrals, English cathedrals sprawl across their sites, with double
transepts projecting strongly and Lady Chapels tacked on at a later date, such as at Westminster Abbey.
In the west front, the doors are not as significant as in France, the usual congregational entrance being
through a side porch. The West window is very large and never a rose, which are reserved for the
transept gables. The west front may have two towers like a French Cathedral, or none. There is nearly
always a tower at the crossing and it may be very large and surmounted by a spire. The distinctive English
east end is square, but it may take a completely different form. Both internally and externally, the
stonework is often richly decorated with carvings, particularly the capitals.

Northern European Gothic

Between the 13th and 16th centuries, Gothic cathedrals were constructed in most of the major cities of
northern Europe. For the most part, they followed the French model, but with variations depending upon
local traditions and the materials available. The first Gothic churches in Germany were built from about
1230. They included Liebfrauenkirche ( ca. 1233–1283) in Trier, claimed to be the oldest Gothic church in
Germany,[40] and Freiburg Cathedral, which was built in three stages, the first beginning in 1120, though
only the foundations of the original cathedral still exist. It is noted for its 116-metre tower, the only
Gothic church tower in Germany that was completed in the Middle Ages (1330).
Prague, in the region Bohemia within the Holy Roman Empire, was another flourishing center for Gothic
architecture. Charles IV of Bohemia was both King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Empire, and he had
monumental tastes. He began construction of Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral in the Gothic style in 1344, as
well as a Gothic palace, Karlstein Castle in Central Bohemia, and Gothic buildings for the new University
of Prague. The nave of Prague Cathedral featured the filet vault, a decorative type of vault in which
the ribs criss-crossed in a mesh pattern, similar to the vaults of Bristol Cathedral and other English
churches. His other Gothic projects included the lavishly-decorated Chapel of the Holy Cross
inside Karlstein Castle (1357-1367), and the choir of Aachen Cathedral begun in 1355, which was built on
the model of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Gothic architecture in Germany and the kingdoms of the Holy
Roman Empire generally followed the French formula, but the towers were much taller and, if
completed, were often surmounted by enormous openwork spires. The distinctive character of the
interior of German Gothic cathedrals is their breadth and openness. German and Czech cathedrals, like
the French, tend not to have strongly projecting transepts. There are also many hall
churches (Hallenkirchen) without clerestory windows. Cologne Cathedral is after Milan Cathedral the
largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Construction began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, until
1880 to complete – a period of over 600 years. It is 144.5 metres long, 86.5 m wide and its two towers are
157 m tall.
Brick Gothic (German: Backsteingotik) is a specific style common in Northern Europe, especially in
Northern Germany and Poland in the regions around the Baltic Sea without natural rock resources. A
prime example is St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk (1379–1502).
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna (1339–1365) has the distinctive feature of a polychrome roof. Another
regional variation is the Brabantine Gothic a style found in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is
characterized by using light-colored sandstone or limestone, which allowed rich detailing but was prone
to erosion. Features included columns with sculpted cabbage-like foliage, arched windows whose points
came right up into the vaults. and, sometimes, a wooden ceiling. Examples include Grote Kerk, Haarlem,
in Haarlem, the Netherlands, originally built as a Catholic Cathedral, now a Protestant church, and
the Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon in Brussels (15th century).

Spain and Portugal

Strikingly different variations of the Gothic style appeared in southern Europe, particularly in Spain and
Portugal. Important examples of Spanish Gothic include Toledo Cathedral, León Cathedral, and Burgos
Cathedral. The distinctive characteristic of Gothic cathedrals of the Iberian Peninsula is their spatial
complexity, with many areas of different shapes leading from each other. They are comparatively wide,
and often have very tall arcades surmounted by low clerestories, giving a similar spacious appearance to
the Hallenkirche of Germany, as at the Church of the Batalha Monastery in Portugal. Many of the
cathedrals are completely surrounded by chapels. Like English cathedrals, each is often stylistically
diverse. This expresses itself both in the addition of chapels and in the application of decorative details
drawn from different sources. Among the influences on both decoration and form are Islamic
architecture and, towards the end of the period, Renaissance details combined with the Gothic in a
distinctive manner. The West front, as at Leon Cathedral, typically resembles a French west front, but
wider in proportion to height and often with greater diversity of detail and a combination of intricate
ornament with broad plain surfaces. At Burgos Cathedral there are spires of German style. The roofline
often has pierced parapets with comparatively few pinnacles. There are often towers and domes of a
great variety of shapes and structural invention rising above the roof.
In the territories under the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, Roussillon in France, the Balearic
Islands, the Valencian Community, among others in the Italian islands), the Gothic style suppressed
the transept and made the side-aisles almost as high as the main nave, creating wider spaces, and with
few ornaments. There are two different Gothic styles in the Aragonese lands: Catalan
Gothic and Valencian Gothic, which are different from those in the Kingdom of Castile and France.
The most important samples of Catalan Gothic style are the cathedrals
of Girona, Barcelona, Perpignan and Palma (in Mallorca), the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar (in
Barcelona), the Basílica del Pi (in Barcelona), and the church of Santa Maria de l'Alba in Manresa.
The most important examples of Valencian Gothic style in the old Kingdom of Valencia are the Valencia
Cathedral, Llotja de la Seda (Unesco World Heritage site), Torres de Serranos, Torres de
Quart, Monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba, in Alfauir, Palace of the Borgias in Gandia, Monastery of
Santa María de la Valldigna, Basilica of Santa Maria, in Alicante, Orihuela Cathedral, Castelló
Cathedral and El Fadrí, Segorbe Cathedral, etc.

Italy
Italian Gothic architecture went its own particular way, departing from the French model. It was
influenced by other styles, notably the Byzantine style introduced in Ravenna. Major examples
include Milan Cathedral, the Orvieto Cathedral, and particularly Florence Cathedral, before the
addition of the Duomo in the Renaissance.
The Italian style was influenced by the materials available in the different regions; marble was available in
great quantities in Tuscany, and was lavishly used in churches; it was scarce in Lombardy, and brick was
used instead. But many of the architectural elements were used apparently mainly to be different from
the French style.
The Cistercian monastic order introduced some of the first Gothic churches into Italy, in Fossanova
Abbey (consecrated 1208) and the Casamari Abbey (1203-1217). They followed the basic plan of the
Gothic Cistercian churches of Burgundy, particularly Cîteaux Abbey.
The Italian plan is usually regular and symmetrical, Italian cathedrals have few and widely spaced
columns. The proportions are generally mathematically equilibrated, based on the square and the
concept of "armonìa," and except in Venice where they loved flamboyant arches, the arches are almost
always equilateral. Italian Gothic cathedrals often retained Romanesque features; the nave of Orvieto
Cathedral had Romanesque arches and vaults.
Italian Cathedrals also offered a variety of plans; Florence Cathedral (begun 1246) had a rectangular
choir, based on the Cistercian model, but was designed to have three wings with polygonal chapels.
Italian Gothic cathedrals were general not as tall as those in France; they rarely used flying buttresses,
and generally had only two levels, an arcade and a claire-voie with small windows; but Bologna
Cathedral (begun in 1388), rivaled Bourges Cathedral in France in height. The smallest notable Italian
Gothic church is Santa Maria della Spinain Pisa (about 1330), which resembles a Gothic jewel box.
A distinctive characteristic of Italian Gothic is the use of polychrome decoration, both externally as
marble veneer on the brick façade and internally where the arches are often made of alternating black
and white segments. The columns were sometimes painted red, and the walls were decorated with
frescoes and the apse with mosaic. Italian cathedral façades are often polychrome and may include
mosaics in the lunettes over the doors. The façades have projecting open porches and occular or wheel
windows rather than roses, and do not usually have a tower. The crossing is usually surmounted by a
dome. There is often a free-standing tower and baptistry. The eastern end usually has an apse of
comparatively low projection. The windows are not as large as in northern Europe and, although stained
glass windows are often found, the favourite narrative medium for the interior is the fresco. The facade
of Orvieto Cathedral, begun in 1310, is a striking example of mosaic decoration. Another innovation of
Italian Gothic is the bronze doorway covered with sculpture; the most famous examples are the doors of
the Baptistry of Florence, by Andrea Pisano (1330-1336).
Italian Gothic cathedrals did not have the elaborate sculptural tympanums over the entrances of French
cathedrals, but they had abundant realistic sculptural decoration. Some of the finest work was done
by Nicola Pisano at the Baptistry of Pisa Cathedral (1259–60), and in Siena Cathedral; and by his
son Giovanni Pisano on the west facade of Pisa Cathedral (1284–85).

Abbeys and Monasteries

While cathedrals were the most prominent structures in the Gothic style, Gothic features were also
built for many monasteries across Europe. Prominent examples were built by the Benedictines in England,
France, and Normandy. They were the builders of the Abbey of St Denis, and Abbey of Saint-
Remi in France. Later Benedictine projects (constructions and renovations) include Rouen's Abbey of
Saint-Ouen,the Abbey La Chaise-Dieu, and the choir of Mont Saint-Michel in France.
English examples are Westminster Abbey, originally built as a Benedictine order monastic church; and the
reconstruction of the Benedictine church at Canterbury. The Cisterciansspread the style as far east
and south as Poland and Hungary. Smaller orders such as the Carthusians and Premonstratensians also
built some 200 churches, usually near cities. The Franciscans and Dominicans also carried out a
transition to Gothic in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Teutonic Order, a military order, spread Gothic
art into Pomerania, East Prussia, and the Baltic region.
The earliest example of Gothic architecture in Germany is Maulbronn Monastery, a
Romanesque Cistercian abbey in southwest Germany whose narthex was built in the early 12th century by
an anonymous architect.
Batalha Monastery (1386-1517) is a Dominican monastery in Batalha, Portugal. The monastery was built in
the Flamboyant Gothic style to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Kingdom of
Castile in the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385.

Civic Architecture
The Gothic style appeared in palaces in France, including the Papal Palace in Avignon and the Palais de
la Cité in Paris, close to Notre-Dame de Paris, begun in 1119, which was the principal residence of the
French Kings until 1417. Most of the Palais de la Cité is gone, but two of the original towers along the
Seine, of the towers, the vaulted ceilings of the Hall of the Men-at-Arms (1302), (now in
the Conciergerie; and the original chapel, Sainte-Chapelle, can still be seen.
The largest civic building built in the Gothic style in France was the Palais des Papes (Palace of the
Popes) constructed between 1252 and 1364, when the Popes fled the political chaos and wars enveloping
Rome. Given the complicated political situation, it combined the functions of a church, a seat of
government and a fortress.
In the 15th century, following the late Gothic or flamboyant period, elements of Gothic decoration
borrowed from cathedrals began to appear in the town halls of northern France, in Flanders and in the
Netherlands. The Hôtel de Ville of Compiègne has an imposing gothic bell tower, featuring a spire
surrounded by smaller towers, and its windows are decorated with ornate accolades or ornamental
arches. Similarly flamboyant town halls were found in Arras, Douai, and Saint-Quentin, Aisne, and in
modern Belgium, in Brussels and Ghentand Bruges.
Notable Gothic civil architecture in Spain includes the Silk Exchange in Valencia, Spain (1482-1548), a
major marketplace, which features a main hall with twisting columns beneath its vaulted ceiling. Another
Spanish Gothic landmark is the Palace of the Kings of Navarre in Olite (1269-1512), which combining the
features of a palace and a fortress.

University Gothic
The first universities in Europe were closely associated with the Catholic church, and in the late 15th
century they adapted variations of the Gothic style for their architecture. The Gothic style was adapted
from English monasteries for use in the first colleges of Oxford University, including Magdalen College.
It was also used at the University of Salamanca in Spain. The use of the late Gothic style at Oxford
and Cambridge University inspired the picturesque Gothic architecture in U.S. colleges in the 19th and
20th century.
By the late Middle Ages university towns had grown in wealth and importance as well, and this was
reflected in the buildings of some of Europe's ancient universities. Particularly remarkable examples still
standing nowadays include the Collegio di Spagna in the University of Bologna, built during the 14th and
15th centuries; the Collegium Carolinum of the Charles University in Prague in Bohemia; the Escuelas
mayores of the University of Salamanca in Spain; the chapel of King's College, Cambridge; or
the Collegium Maius of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

Military Architecture
In the 13th century, the design of the chateau fort, or castle, was modified, based on the Byzantine and
Moslem castles the French knights had seen during the Crusades. The new kind of fortification was
called Phillipienne, after Philippe Auguste, who had taken part in the Crusades. The new fortifications
were more geometric, usually square, with a high main donjon or tower, in the center, which could be
defended even if the walls of the castle were captured. The Donjon of the Chateau de Vincennes,
begun by Philip VI of France, was a good example. It was 52 meters high, the tallest military tower in
Europe.
In the Phillipienne castle other towers, usually round were placed at the corners and along the walls,
close enough together to support each other. The walls had two levels of walkways on the inside, an
upper parapet with openings (Crénaux) from which soldiers could watch or fire arrows on besiegers
below; narrow openings (Merlons) through which they could be sheltered as they fired arrows; and floor
openings (Mâchicoulis), from which they could drop rocks, burning oil or other objects on the besiegers.
The upper walls also had protected protruding balconies, Échauguettes and Bretéches, from which
soldiers could see what was happening at the corners or on the ground below. In addition, the towers
and walls were pierced with narrow vertical slits, called Meurtriéres, through which archers could fire
arrows. In later castles the slits took the form of crosses, so that archers could fire arbalètes,
or crossbows, in different directions.
Castles were surrounded by deep moat, spanned by a single drawbridge. The entrance was also protected
by a grill of iron which could be opened and closed. The walls at the bottom were often sloping, and
protected with earthen barriers. One good surviving example is the Château de Dourdan in the Seine-et-
Marne department, near Nemours.
After the end of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), with improvements in artillery, the castles lost most
of their military importance. They remained as symbols of the rank of their noble occupants; the
narrowing openings in the walls were often widened into the windows of bedchambers and ceremonial
halls. The tower of the Chateau of Vincennes became a royal residence.