Around the middle of the 12th century in plain domination of the Romanesque style, a new architectural style appears. Its name was given by the 17th country people, who despised this art, which was seen as a "barbarian" art, "gothic" from the name of the best known "barbarians" at the end of the Antiquity. Actually, the Gothic art gave to Europe masterpieces comparable to the greatest creations of the human genius.
The Romanesque monuments seemed heavy, massive and dark to the architects of the 12th century, because of their few and narrow windows. The Gothic architects revolutionized the Romanesque spatial vision by the two inventions: the ogive and the flying butters. The semicircular vault is replaced by a vault shaped as a broken arc of a circle, named the ogive, where the vertical pressure is much more reduced.
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The masters built on four columns, disposed in a square plan, two pairs of ogival arches; each was sustained by two columns diagonally opposed. By the multiplication of these groups of arches, one could obtain a very solid construction, capable to sustain, through the crossing of ogives, the vault of the building whatever dimensions it had. The flying butters, the other invention, support, from the exterior, the tall walls of the central nave, along with the butters, in order to contre-balance the lateral pressure of the vaults.
These solutions permitted a new organizations of the space of the church, were the plane with one nave is the most common. One of the glories of the Gothic cathedrals is the tower of an astounding height, the top of which stings the canopy of heaven. Many cathedrals had several towers, but some of them remained unfinished because of the lack of founds, an example being the Cathedral of Anvers, Belgium.
The first Gothic cathedrals appeared in the heart of France, on the royal domain. The very first is the Saint-Denis church, in Paris, built during the 4th and 5th decade of the 12th century, under the guidance of the abbot Suger, the counsellor of King Louis the VIth. Four famous French Gothic cathedrals followed, between 1150 and 1260. The first in Notre-Dame de Paris, in the second half of the 12th century, with five naves and an admirable facade. The entire ansamble suggests equilibrium and harmony. The second is the cathedral of Chartres, with two unequal towers. The cathedral of Amiens is the biggest Gothic monument in France. Finally, the most beautiful remains the cathedral of Reims, compared to Pantheon and the place of the French Kings coronation.
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In Germany, the Gothic appears later, influenced by the French monuments. The best known Gothic works of art are: the domes of Koln, Nurnberg and Bamberg. The characteristic of the German edifices in the plane of the "church-hall", with three naves of equal height. In England, the feature of the Gothic monuments is their massiveness, unknown on the continent. The main Gothic edifices in these parts are the cathedrals of Canterbury, Wells, Lincoln and Salisbury. Also, Spain is under the influence the French Gothic, brought by the pilgrims arrived in the Iberic Peninsula from beyond the Pirinei Mountains. The characteristic of this style appear mainly in the cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo.
Finally, Italy remains refractory to the Gothic inovations, because of the powerful resistance of the Byzantine models. The most representative Gothic monument in the Italic Peninsula is the dome of Milano, built during five centuries, the second biggest religious monument in the Christian world, after the Saint Peter cathedral of Rome. On the other hand, Italy, more than any other European country, gave admirable Gothic monuments in the civilian architecture. Tens of communal palaces in the Italy cities take over the elements of the style, which give them elegance and harmony. Among the most beautiful civilian eidifices there is the Palace of the Doges, in Venice and the admirable "Golden House" ("Ca d'Oro") in the same city of the lagoon.