Pilgrimage II: Western Europe

Architecture for Power and prayer

Power via empires and monastic orders

Prayer via monasteries and pilgrims

What map is this?

Map of the migration period: 4th-6th century

• Regional and tribal states

• Fragmented because of the migration of people

Changes following the migration period

• Roman culture fragments
• Latin no longer common language
• Cities shrink
• Famine, plagues, economic hardships
• Frequent invasions
• Political power diffuses
• Trade with Mediterranean dwindles
• But the Church survives
• The Church as force of stability,
continuity, culture
• Church bishops held legal authority

Feudalism

The dominant social system in Europe during the Middle Ages

Feudalism: The dominant social system in Europe during the Middle Ages

• A form of structuring society based on land holding in exchange for labor
• The nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service
• Land-owners (vassals) were in turn the tenants of the nobility
• Peasants (serfs) were obliged to live on their lord’s land and provide labor and a share of the produce
in exchange for military protection
• Christian monasteries served as key sources of stability, culture

• Agriculture and craft production

• The monastery contained the library

What was the goal for pilgrimage routes?

• Those who moved from France to Spain were critical for people who couldn't make it to Jerusalem

• Increase in urbanization

• Immense growth of churches

• An increase in hospitals, an increase in monasteries

 

Cultural shift in the region

Jerusalem, Rome, or Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

Charlemagne (Charles the Great) r. 768-814

• Crowned by Pope Leo III as Holy Roman Emperor in 800
• Coronation occurred at Old St. Peter’s Basilica
• Connection to Constantine, Old St. Peter’s patron
• Carolingian Empire constitutes the territory under his reign

What is this?

Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne, part of Charlemagne’s palace, Aachen, Germany, c.800

Significance of Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne?

• Uses structures from rome, trier and, revenna

• Basilica of Constantine(similar)

  • Served as an imperial audience hall

  • Reviving the form for his imperial complex

• Attempted to make it look "Classical"

  • Barrel vaulted façade (key roman features)

  • Dome of the RA(Abla) That as pattern/Decoration/repitition of arches

  • Walls feel "Solid"/ The structure is present, the interior function as a solid geometric form

  • Second level: Imperial gallery (Charlmagme and his marble throne)

  • Throne is simple

    • Not for assemblies but for his private life/ Didn't need an audience hall/ Piering down the alter (private view of mass)

• In Ravenna, the structure similar to San Vitale

  • Their interiors are different/similar

    • The palatine chapel is less complex/ more clarity in the form/ clear and direct

    • Light source is different because in the palatine chapel is a direct light source from the clerestory/ open and directed from the clerestory level vrs san vitale which is more warm glowing light

    • Palatine chapel/ earthy weight/ blue stripes vrs the ornamentation of San vitale

• Pantheon

  • Light from above

  • Clarity

  • Center

  • Columns

  • Interior mass

What is this?

Gatehouse of the Abbey of Lorsch, Lorsch, Germany, c. 800

What is the significance of the Gatehouse of the Abbey of Lorsch, Lorsch, Germany, c. 800?

Form: a saddle-roofed central block with two cylindrical stair towers

• Ancient typology: A triumphal arch celebrating Charlemagne's return. And to mark the holy coronation

• Striving to align himself with constantine

• Shared:

  • Three arches

  • Framed with corinthian columns

  • Two-story facades/attic

  • Full of ornamentation

  • Red, white, and yellow sandstone/rotated into diamond panels/star shape

  • Fluted ionic plasters that are visually supporting the entablature

What is this?

Porta Nigra, Trier, Germany, 170.

Significance of the Porta Nigra?

• Semicircular towers

• The gate reflects the typical basilica entrance

Westwork

The narthex, chapels, and twin towers set at the west entrance of Carolingian churches

East side towards the holy land and main facade towards the west

Monastery

the enclosure for a religious order living apart from society

Principal Religous Orders

Benedictine, Cluniac, Carthusian, Cistercian

Key components of Monastic life

Monastic duty, agriculture/crafts, hospitality

What is this

Rendering of the Monastery of St. Gall, c. 820. Benedictine Order.

Key changes in Western Europe

• Growth of towns due to increased trade
• Feudal lords grant independence to towns
• Increase in monastery building
• Boom in church building
• Impact of pilgrimage on both architecture
and urbanization

Major Christian Pilgrimage Sites

Jerusalem (ideal); Rome; Santiago de Compostela

Pilgrimage as key tenant of religion

A testament of faith; an act of repentance; a way to achieve salvation; a cure for illness

What is the significance of the Monastery of St. Gall, c. 820?

• Community of monks that surrounded religious orders

• Control of the church and followed monastic rule

• Monastic life consisted of prayer work, eating, sleeping

• A religious retreat from the world centered on the intellectual and labor

• 1/3 of the complex was devoted monastic duties

• 2/3—agriculture/crafts

• 3.3- Hospitality

• Used to invoke a divine religious order

Relic

A part of a deceased holy person’s body or belongings kept as an object of reverence, thought to have power to heal the body and the soul

Reliquary

A container that holds the relic itself

Reliquary of Sainte Foy, c. 980 Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques, France

Was the victim of persecution of Christianity?

Placed her skull in the statue

Made of wood covered in gold and jewels

Fabricated from a Roman-era helmet

Provide these gifts to the saints in hope of good fortune?

What is this?

Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques, France, 1050-1120

What is this? What is its significance?

West end of Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques, France, 1050-1120, with a view of the tympanum showing the Last Judgment.

• Last judgement: Is the judgement of humankind that is expected to take place at the end of the world, salvation of the few and damnation of the many

• Served as a warning

• Figures are more orderly on the right; angel wings

• And on the left, a very chaotic scene

What is the significance of Church Saint-Foy?

• The church was designed for lots of people and designed in a way not to disrupt the mass

What is this?

Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, c. 10700-1120

Significance of Saint-Serin?

One of the earliest churches to use stone vaulting

• Radiating chapels- a series of chapels that extend from the curve of an ambulatory or apse

• Accommodate the pilgrim

• Enlarged transept

• The plan is significant

  • The entire building is laid out on a grid: nave is half of the crossing square

  • Modular plan gives the church a geometric logic

Radiating chapels

a series of chapels that extend from the curve of an ambulatory or apse

Benefits of a vaulted ceiling (Interior of Saint-Serin, Toulouse, France, C. 1070-1120)

1. Reduced Risk of fire

2. Enhanced Acoustics

3. Created higher ceiling

Rib

A narrow, projecting band on a ceiling or vault, usually structural but sometimes merely decorative, enforcing the lines of structure

Gallery

an upper story that runs above the side aisles and opens to the nave

Bay

a regularly repeated spatial unit of a building or wall, defined by vaults, windows, orders, or other prominent vertical features

Interior of the Saint-Serin, Toulouse, France, 1070-1120: Features of the design

1. Glorify God

2. Accomodate and impress pilgrims

Cluniac Order

FOunded on the rules of Saint Benedict

What is this?

Plan and elevation fo the Benedictine Abbey Church of Cluny III, Cluny (France), 1088-1130

Tribune

Closed Gallery Area

Cloister

A monastery courtyard, usually planted and enclosed by a covered ambulatory

Cistercian Order features:

Austere, Ascetic, Simple, Stripped of decoration

Reflects Cistercian rejection of worldly extravagance

Key features of Pilgrimage II: Western Europe

Carolingian Empire
• Continuation of classical culture
• Monasteries designed as small cities
• Westwork
Pilgrimage Churches
• Aim to glorify God; impress and accommodate pilgrims
• Ambulatory around apse with radiating chapels
• Additional side aisles
• Introduction of stone vaulting (increasing height, enhancing acoustics)
• Design, ornamentation reflects monastic order: Cluniac to Cistercian