Romanesque: Roman-Like

Interior of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, ca 1070-1120, Romanesque Europe

Saint-Sernin, predated Saint-Denis by only 70 years. But, during that time, we see an explosion of architectural, cultural, and religious change.

Built during the Romanesque era, to honor the city’s first bishop, the term denotes the “Roman-like” art of the Middle Ages. As such, Saint-Sernin, represents one of the earliest examples of stone vaulting. During the Romanesque times, pilgrimage was the most conspicuous feature of public devotion. Many of the churches, like Saint-Sernin in Touluse, France, were built along major pilgrimage routes to provide breaks in journeys and housed meaningful relics too; Saint Foy’s remains were at Saint-Sernin. To accommodate these throngs of worshippers churches expanded up and out; meaning longer and wider naves and aisles, transepts and ambulatories with additional chapels and second storey galleries. Radiating chapels were an original feature of Saint-Etienne at Vignory, France. But here, the chapels were only attached to the apse area, as there was no transept in the plan of this church. The first hint of radiating chapels comes form the abbey church at Saint Michael’s at Hildesheim, Germany.

Romanesque building was influenced by regional styling as was the Gothic. While churches in Italy retained their wooden roofs, northern churches either did away with wooden roofs or built in a combination style.

At Saint-Sernin, groin-vaulting, invented by the classical Romans, encloses the tribune galleries, (which housed the overflow of pilgrims), as well as the ground floor aisles, and buttressed the barrel vaulting over the nave. These groin vaults transferred the main thrust to the thick exterior walls. Compound piers supported the heavy interior. Nine radiating chapels housed the relics. And, for the first time, we see chapels extending from the transept as well as the apse.

The exterior of Saint-Sernin had buttresses framing each bay. We would see this building support method expanded upon, first with the interior buttresses of Durham Cathedral, and a little more than seventy years later with the soaring external buttresses of Notre-Dame de Paris, and Chatres Cathedrals.

About the same time Saint-Sernin was being built, a lighter, more “Gothic-looking” church was being built in Caen, France. Again, built over three centuries (as was the norm with most building projects due to delays, fire, war, etc), Saint-Etienne, lays the foundation for Gothic building with its sexpartite vaults, alternating half-columns and pilasters (giving more room for parishioners) and its efficient clerestory. The resulting three-story elevation, with its large arched opening, admits more light to the interior.

It’s worth noting too that monastic life still held the center of the religious core. While it’s true that building of churches outside the monasteries began to increase, the laity still looked to the monks for intellectual as well as spiritual guidance. But, religion became political during this time. In 1095, Pope Urban II’s sermon to the Council of Clermont spawned The Crusades. These Christian warrior pilgrims’ sole purpose was to protect the Holy Lands from the heathens who threatened her, namely the Muslims. This “assault” upon Christianity garnered a frenzy of support from the laity and resulted in three Crusades, each costing the church dearly in money and lives. Back home though, the crusades succeeded in increasing the power and prestige of the towns. Towns purchased their charters from the barons who owned them; the middle class merchants and artisans arose to rival the power of the feudal lords and the great monasteries. Thus, the hold the monasteries had began to wane.