History of Romanesque

As the collapse of the Roman Empire gave way to the Dark Ages, the early Christian church and its
political champions took the reins of medieval Europe and, thus, the Romanesque style was born.
Drawing from the architecture of Rome, Byzantine art, and biblical stories about the life of Christ,
Romanesque churches and castles dominated the landscape of the Middle Ages.

 Romanesque Architecture also shows Influences from Corolingian Achitecture

 Romanesque architecture is characterized by towering round arches, massive stone and
brickwork, small windows, thick walls, and a propensity for housing art depicting biblical scenes.
 Romanesque buildings were meant to inspire as much as intimidate.
 Beginning in the twelfth century, Romanesque design began to evolve into the Gothic
style,
For a thousand years since the death of Christ, most Christian architectural movements
occurred from the top down. Early Christian architecture started with the vision of Emperor
Constantine. Byzantine architecture was part of a building project started by Emperor Justinian.
Carolingian architecture got its start with Emperor Charlemagne.
Yet they all have a few things in common. They all seem fixated on the semicircular arch. They
all had intricately decorated exteriors, especially on their western entrances. Unlike their
predecessors, they decked out their buildings out with decorative sculpture, towers, and
arcades. They all make use of a vaulted masonry ceiling rather than a wooden one. This heavy
masonry ceiling required heavier construction. This meant thick walls with few windows and
little light. It also meant supplementing or replacing delicate round columns with sturdier
square piers.
Development of First Romanesque Architecture
Romanesque architecture is divided into two periods: the “First Romanesque” style and the
“Romanesque” style. The First Romanesque style developed in the north of Italy, parts of
France, and the Iberian Peninsula in the 10th century prior to the later influence of the Abbey
of Cluny. The style is attributed to architectural activity by groups of Lombard teachers and
stonemasons working in the Catalan territory during the first quarter of the 11th century. Abbot
Oliba of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll served as a particularly influential impeller,
diffuser, and sponsor of the First Romanesque style. To avoid the term Pre-Romanesque, which
is often used with a much broader meaning to refer to early Medieval and early Christian art
(and in Spain may also refer to the Visigothic, Asturias, Mozarabic, and Repoblación art forms)
Puig i Cadafalch preferred to use the term “First Romanesque.”
The difference between the First Romanesque and later Romanesque styles is a matter of the
expertise with which the buildings were constructed. First Romanesque employed rubble walls,
smaller windows, and unvaulted roofs, while the Romanesque style is distinguished by a more
refined style and increased use of the vault and dressed stone. For example, Abott Oliba
ordered an extension to the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll in 1032 mirroring the First
Romanesque characteristics of two frontal towers, a cruise with seven apses, and Lombard
ornamentation of blind arches and vertical strips.

While Carolingian architecture drew on earlier Roman and Byzantine styles, it also transformed
church façades that would have consequential effects throughout the Middle Ages.
Emphasizing the western entrance to the basilica, the westwork was a monumental addition to
the church, with two towers and multiple stories, that served as a royal chapel and viewing
room for the emperor when he visited.

After a gap of around two hundred years with no large building projects, the architects of
Charlemagne’s day looked to the arched, or arcaded, system seen in Christian Roman edifices
as a model. It is a logical system of stresses and buttressing, which was fairly easily engineered
for large structures, and it began to be used in gatehouses, chapels, and churches in Europe.

Arches

 Semi Circular arch whose intrados if a full semicircle

 Segmented Arch A shallow arch that is less than a semicircle
 Horseshoe arch Also called as the Moorish arch and the keyhole arch
 Stilted Arch An arch whose Curve begins above the impost line

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In the vaulting of the naves of the Romanesque churches
Romanesque architects were nothing if not ambitious. Not only did they want to build huge
new churches, but they also wanted to roof those churches with masonry, not wood. Now, you
can't just run masonry horizontally; you can't build a ceiling like you would a wall. The pieces
would fall out.
To tackle this problem, Romanesque architects turned to their favorite form: the semicircular
arch. An arch allows you to build unsupported openings out of masonry. It only took a little bit
of cleverness to stretch this arch out, making a sort of tunnel. When this arched tunnel is used
to roof a building, it's called vaulting. There were three sorts of vaulting popular in Romanesque
times. First was the barrel vault. Next came the groin vault, which was later improved to ribbed
vault

The barrel vault is the simplest sort of vaulting. It's just a semicircular arch stretched along a
single axis. The barrel vault had been around for a very long time. We see its use in ancient
Egypt and Rome. Earlier Medieval churches had also made use of this technique, but its use was
modest, and, with a few exceptions, underground. With the Romanesque, we see barrel vaults
get pushed to their limits.

Vaulting: Groin Vault

The groin vault is where two barrel vaults meet. It vaults the intervening space with a sort of
square dome. The groin vault has the added bonus of setting the weight more vertically, on
pillars, rather than horizontally on walls. Like barrel vaults, groin vaults are very old. The
Romans used them in their baths and their indoor markets. Carolingians used them in their
crypts. Romanesque architects made groin vaults even larger, grander, and more beautiful.
Artist: Master of Taüll FRESCO
This vivid fresco shows Christ the Pantocrator (ruler of the universe) he faces the
viewer with an intense gaze, while holding a book that reads in Latin "I am the
light of the world. his fresco influenced a number of 20th century Spanish artists,
including Francis Picabia and Pablo Picasso, who kept a poster of it in his studio.