ROMANESQUE IN FRANCE :-• France is practically on the high road between the south and north of Europe, and the relative position of each district influenced the various prevailing types of architecture.• France is exceedingly rich in building materials, especially stone, of which most of the towns are built. The soft, fine-grained stone of Caen, used throughout Normandy, was also exported to England.• France exhibits several varieties of the Romanesque style, in which different peculiarities are traceable, and for this reason it may be divided into southern and northern provinces.• On the death of Charlemagne, Northern France was invaded by the Northmen, from whom Normandy was named.• The South of France may be roughly divided into the provinces of Aquitania, Auvergne, Provence, Anjou and Burgundy.

S. Sernin, Toulouse (A.D. 1080), in Aquitaine, has a cruciform plan with nave, double aisles, and transepts. The nave is crowned by a round-arched barrel vault, with plain square ribs, supporting the roofing slabs direct, and the high triforium chamber has external windows which light the nave, for there is no clear-story. The central octagonal tower belongs to the Gothic period.

West Entrance of the basilica

Nave of Basilica Saint-Sernin

East end elevation of the basilica

• The interior of the basilica measures 115 x 64 x 21 meters,• making it vast for a Romanesque church. The central nave• is barrel vaulted; the four aisles have rib vaults and are •supported by buttresses. Directly under the tower and the• transept is a marble altar, consecrated by Pope Urban II in •1096 and designed by Bernard Gelduin.

Plan of Basilica Saint-Sernin

Bell Tower of Basilica Saint-Sernin

S. Front, Perigueux (A.D 1120), in Aquitaine, is a Greek cross on plan, and, as already mentioned (p. 237), closely resembles S. Mark, Venice. The nave is covered with five spheroidal domes, elongated towards the top, indicating an Eastern influence, due to the trade with Byzantium. The internal arches have recently been changed from pointed (p. 233 F) to semicircular. Attached to the church is a magnificent campanile, 200 ft. high, consisting of a square shaft, surmounted by a circular ring of columns carrying a conical dome. S. Front was a prototype of other churches with cupolas in France.

St. Front's Cathedral, Périgueux

Plan, St. Front's Cathedral, Périgueux

• Auvergne being a volcanic district, the geological influence isfrequently apparent, the buildings having a local characterimparted to them by the inlaid decoration formed of different colored lavas, as at Notre Dame du Port, Clermont-Ferrand, and theChurch at Issoire.

Notre Dame du Port

• Notre Dame, Avignon, in Provence, is one of the numerous churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in which pointed barrel vaults were used, and which show Classical influence.

Notre Dame, Avignon

The Abbey Church, Cluny (A.D. 1089-1131), the most famous in Burgundy, formed part of one of the many monastic establishments in that province, which influenced the architecture of the churches, many of which have been destroyed. It was the longest in France, with double side aisles to the main body of the church, and a chevet of five apsidal chapels. The pointed arch was employed in the nave arcades, the nave was covered with a great barrel vault and the aisles probably had groined vaulting, but little now remains.

• Northern France comprised the provinces of Normandy, the Ile de France and Brittany.• Normandy possesses many fine examples of this period owing to its prosperity and the power of the Norman dukes. These examples are of the vaulted basilican type, which was being developed towards the complete Gothic of the thirteenth century.• The Abbaye-aux-Hommes, Caen (A.D. 1066), also known as S. Etienne, is one of the many fine churches in Normandy of this period.• Its original eastern apse was superseded in A.D. 1166 by the characteristic chevet.• The west facade, flanked by two square towers, crowned by octagonal spires which with angle pinnacles were added in the thirteenth century,was the prototype of later Gothic facades.• Inside is a long Romanesque nave of the 11th

century with a sexpartite vault (a transitional vault on the way to Gothic), an 11th-century transept, and a 13th-century Gothic choir with ambulatory.

The Abbaye-aux-Hommes, Plan

The Abbaye-aux-Dames (La Trinite), Caen (A.D. 1083) , in which the progress of intersecting vaulting is seen, the Church of S. Nicholas, Caen (A.D. 1084), and the Abbey Church of Mont S. Michel (since restored), are notable examples.The Abbey of S. Denis, near Paris, was erected by the greatbuilding abbot, Abbe Suger, in 1144, and the choir and west front still remain as left by him, although a fourteenth century nave Has been wedged between them.

The Abbaye-aux-Dames S. Nicholas, Caen S. Denis, Paris

ROMANESQUE IN GERMANY :-• Churches were Planned on a large scale.• They used to be very high.• They have an apse & sanctuary at each end.• The plans of the churches are peculiar in havingwestern and eastern apses, and no great western entrance as inFrance.• The general architectural character is rich in the multiplication of circular and octagonal turrets, in conjunction with polygonal domes, and the use of arcaded galleries under the eaves.• The most richly ornamented parts are the doorways and capitals, which are bold and effective in execution.

Laach Abbey Church (A.D. 1093-1156)

The Church of the Apostles, Cologne (A.D. 1220-1250)

East side, Church of the Apostles

Plan, Church of the Apostles

In plan it consists of a broad nave, and of aisles half the width of the nave. The eastern portion has three apses, opening from three sides of the central space, crowned by a low octagonal tower, giving richness and importance to this portion of the church. The grouping externally is effective, the face of the wall being divided up by arcading, and crowned withthe characteristic row of small arches under the eaves of the roof.

Worms Cathedral (1110-1200)• The plan is apsidal at both ends, with eastern and western octagons, while one vaulting bay of the nave corresponds with two of the aisles, and cross-vaults are employed in both cases.• Twin circular towers containing stairs flank the eastern and western apses, andthe crossing of the nave and transept iscovered with a low octagonal tower,crowned with a pointed roof.