Cathedrals

Gothic Cathedrals

In 1337, a man named Suger had new goals for building a church. He wanted more height and more light. He wanted the building to be so tall that it is as like it is reaching the heavens. He wanted more light to remind worshipers in the church that god was the light of the world. If he were to heighten the roof and the walls, that would mean he would have to make the walls thicker, which meant smaller and fewer windows. Smaller and fewer windows do not allow in much light, which was the opposite of one of Suger's goals. Suger came up with a technique known as Gothic style. There were three main building techniques to gothic archetecture.

1. Pointed Ribbed Vaults:

Pointed ribbed vaults were connected from the roof to the columns below to contribute to holding the roofs weight.

The walls in-between were frames for large windows and held no weight.

2. Flying Buttresses:

Flying Buttresses were braces of beautifully carved stone on the outside of the cathedral. These braces held up the walls were used to hold up the pressure of the roof pushing out on the walls.

3. Pointed Arches:

Pointed Arches were used to show the height of the gothic cathedrals. The tallest arches were where all lines met, as if pointing to the heavens. Gothic cathedrals spread quickly over Europe. They spread so fast that between 1170 and 1270, only a one hundred year period, about five hundred gothic cathedrals were built.

Works Cited

Krieger, Larry S., Edward Reynolds, and Kenneth Neill. World History Perspectives