The Romanesque Architecture in Western Europe

  Appeared in the later decades of the 10th century, the Romanesque art crestalize in the epoch of the Gregorian Reform, when the first representative monuments are built. It spreads fast over the Catholic area, and its domination is mantained with regional characteristics, in the next centuries, too. The name of the style was given by the scholars, starting from the same elements of antique Roman inspiration which it assimilated. The Romanesque style takes from the Romans the basilical plan and the semicircular arch.

  As during other artistic epochs, the architects' main problem remains the finding of some solutions for the construction of a solid roof. The Antiquity offered two solutions: the roof in framework and the dome. the first one, characteristic of the basilical edifices, was made of wood. It had the advantage of being light, but also the inconvenient of not being resistant. The dome-shaped roof was the best solution, but there appeared technical difficultes regarding the sustaining of the immense stone mass.

  The Romanesque masters' originality consists in using the semicircular vault for supporting the roof. Known even by the Romans, the vault is now used in order to sustain the two walls of the central nave of the church. The name of this artistic style comes from some Roman vaults. The first edifices had reduced dimensions, because of their low resistance.

  Towards the middle of the 11th century, the columnes appear, in the interior of the building, taking over a big part of the weight of the roof.

  With these technical elements, the Romanesque masters built imposing basilics during the following period. They follow the plan of the Latin cross, with unequal arms, or the plan of the Greek cross, with equal arms. The new churches have a central nave and two or even four lateral naves separated by parallel rows of columns. Other two elements complete the Romanic architecture. The first one is the transept, which crosses the central nave and which follows the short arm of the latin cross. The other one is the steeple-tower, built at the point where the central nave and the transept cross, when the resistance of the construction is higher. The great edifices have other four towers at the extreme points of the cross.

  The title of native land for the first Romanesque monuments is claimed by the regions with an antique cultural tradition. Proventa, in the south of France, Lombardia, in Italy, and Catalonia, in Spain. The church of Cluny, 187 metres long and 30 metres tall today destroyed, is representative for France. Beside it, there can be mentioned Notre-Dame of Clermont and the church of Vezelay. in Spain, the Saint Jacob church of Compostella, with nine towers, was very famous in the epoch. In Germany, the cathedrals of Maintz, Worms, Regensburg and Spreyer are the best known. Finally, in Italy, where the Romanesque art dominates for centuries and penetrates also in the cities, the best known monuments are the baptisery of Florence and the great San Marco basilica of Venice, a masterpiece of the medieval art, built by Byzantine masters.