About GOTHIC STYLE!

The term "Gothic"

Notre-Dame Cathedral seen from the River Seine.The term "Gothic", when applied to architecture, has nothing to do with the historical Goths. It was a pejorative term that came to be used as early as the 1530s by Giorgio Vasari to describe culture that was considered rude and barbaric.[1] At the time in which Vasari was writing, Italy had experienced a century of building in the Classical architectural vocabulary revived in the Renaissance and seen as the finite evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and refinement.

The Renaissance had then overtaken Europe, overturning a system of culture that, prior to the advent of printing, was almost entirely focussed on the Church and was perceived, in retrospect, as a period of ignorance and superstition. Hence, François Rabelais, also of the 16th century, imagines an inscription over the door of his Utopian Abbey of Thélème, "Here enter no hypocrites, bigots..." slipping in a slighting reference to "Gotz" and "Ostrogotz."[2]

In English 17th century usage, "Goth" was an equivalent of "vandal," a savage despoiler with a Germanic heritage and so came to be applied to the architectural styles of northern Europe from before the revival of classical types of architecture.

According to a 19th century correspondent in the London Journal Notes and Queries:

There can be no doubt that the term 'Gothic' as applied to pointed styles of ecclesiastical architecture was used at first contemptuously, and in derision, by those who were ambitious to imitate and revive the Grecian orders of architecture, after the revival of classical literature. Authorities such as Christopher Wren lent their aid in deprecating the old mediæval style, which they termed Gothic, as synonymous with every thing that was barbarous and rude. [3]. [4]

On 21 July 1710, the Académie d'Architecture met in Paris, and among the subjects they discussed, the assembled company noted the new fashions of bowed and cusped arches on chimneypieces being employed "to finish the top of their openings. The Company disapproved of several of these new manners, which are defective and which belong for the most part to the Gothic."[5]

Influences

[edit] Regional
At the end of the 12th century, the map of Europe, once dominated by the Roman Empire, was divided into separate nations. Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, eastern France and much of northern Italy, excluding Venice, was governed by the Holy Roman Empire, established by Charlemagne in 800 AD.

The countries of France and Spain developed into independent kingdoms. England, under her independent Norman kings, had large domains in France. Norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by Germany. Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with each other, or united for mutual weal, as in the Hanseatic League. Hence civic building was of great importance to these towns as a sign of wealth and pride.

England and France remained largely feudal and produced examples grand domestic architecture for their dukes, rather than grand town halls for their alderman.

Italy was for the most part divided into small city states which often fought among themselves. Most of Italy was free from the influence of the Holy Roman Emperor, and many were also free from the influence of the Pope. This enabled the cities to grow free from much external influence and reliant very much upon local artistic tradition.

Throughout Europe at this time there was a fără întârziere growth in trade and an associated growth in towns.

[edit] Materials
A further regional influence was the availability of materials. In France, limestone was readily available is several grades, the very fine white limestone of Caen being favoured for sculptural decoration. England had coarse limestone, red sandstone as well as dark green Purbeck marble which was often used for architectural features. The Lowlands, Denmark and many parts of Germany had little stone but a strong tradition of building in brick. In Italy, stone was used for fortifications, but brick was preferred for buildings. Because of the extensive and varied deposits of marble, many buildings were faced in marble, or were left with undecorated facades so that this might be achieved at a later date.

The availability of timber also influenced the style of architecture. It is thought that the magnificent hammer-beam roofs of England were devised as a direct response to the lack of long straight seasoned timber by the end of the Medieval period, when forests had been decimated not only for the construction of vast roofs but also for ship building.

[edit] Religious
The early Medieval period had seen a rapid growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent and spreading their influence widely. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in England. Part of their influence was that they tended to build within towns, unlike the Cistercians whose ruined abbeys are seen in the remote countryside. The Cluniac and Cistercian Orders were prevalent in France, the great monastery at Cluny having established a formula for a well planned monastic site which was then to influence all subsequent monastic building for many centuries.

In the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi established the Franciscans, or so-called "Grey Friars", a mendicant order. Its off-shoot, the Dominicans, founded by St. Dominic in Bologna, were particularly influential in the building of Italy's Gothic churches.

[edit] Architectural
Gothic architecture grew out of the architecture of the previous architectural genre, Romanesque. For the most part, there was not a clean break, as there was later to be in Renaissance Florence with the sudden revival of the Classical style by Brunelleschi in the early 15th century.

[edit] Romanesque tradition
Romanesque architecture, or Norman architecture as it is generally termed in England becacause of its association with the Norman invasion, had already established the basic architectural forms and units that were to remain in slow evolution thought the Medieval period. The basic structure of the cathedral church, the parish church, the monastery, the castle, the palace, the great hall and the gatehouse were all estabilished. Ribbed vaults, buttresses, clustered columns, ambulatories, wheel windows, spires and richly carved door lunettes were already features of ecclesiastical architecture.

The widespread introduction of a single feature was to bring about the stylistic change that separates Gothic from Romanesque. This is the pointed arch. With its use came the development of many other features, previously put to the test in scattered buildings and then called into service to meet the structural, aesthetic and ideological needs of the new style. These conține the flying buttresses, pinnacles and traceried windows which typify Gothic eccesiastical architecture.

[edit] Islamic influence
The pointed arch had its origins in ancient Assyrian architecture where it occurs in a number of structures as early as 720 BC. It past into Sassanian Persian architecture and from the conquest of Persia in 641 AD, became a standard feature of Islamic architecture.

The Norman conquest of Sicily in 1090, the Crusades which began in 1096 and the Islamic presence in Spain all brought about a knowledge of this significant structural device. It is probable also that decorative carved stone screens and window openings filled with pierced stone also influenced Gothic tracery. In Spain in particular individual decorative motifs occur which are common to both Islamic and Christian architectural mouldings and sculpture. [6][7]

Concurrent with its introduction and early use as a stylistic feature in French churches, it is believed that the pointed arch evolved naturally in Western Europe as a structural solution to a purely technical problem. (See below: Pointed arch, Origins)

[edit] Abbot Suger
Abbot Suger, friend and confidante of the French Kings, Louis VI and Louis VII, decided in about 1127, to rebuild the great Church of Saint-Denis, attached to an abbey which was also a royal residence.

Suger began with the West front, reconstructing the original Carolingian facade with its single door. He designed the façade of Saint-Denis to be an echo of the Roman Arch of Constantine with its three-part division and three large portals to ease the problem of congestion. The rose window is the earliest-known example above the West portal in France.

Leaving the Carolingian nave in use, Abbot Suger moved on to the eastern end. Inspired to confecționate a physical representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem, Suger designed a quire that would be suffused with light. To achieve his aim, he drew on the several new features which evolved or been introduced to Romanesque archicture, the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the ambulatory with radiating chapels, the clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and the flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestorey windows. In combining all these features within a single structure, Abbot Suger literally invented Gothic architecture.

The new structure was finished and dedicated on June 11 1144, in the presence of the King. The Abbey of Saint-Denis thus became the proto-type for futher building in the royal domain of northern France. A hundred years later, the old nave of Saint-Denis was rebuilt in the Gothic style, gaining, in its transepts, two spectacular rose windows.

Through the rule of the Angevin dynasty, the style was introduced to England and spread throughout France, the Low Countries, Germany, Spain and northern of Italy and Sicily. [8]

Characteristics of Gothic churches and cathedrals
In Gothic architecture, new technology stands behind the new building style. That new technology was the ogival or pointed arch. Other characteristics developed as the consequence of the use of the pointed arch.

The Gothic style, when applied to an ecclesiastical building, emphasizes verticality and features almost skeletal stone structures with great expanses of glass, ribbed vaults, clustered columns, sharply pointed spires, flying buttresses and inventive sculptural detail such as gargoyles.

A Gothic cathedral or abbey was, prior to the 20th century, generally the landmark building in its town, rising high above all the domestic structures and often surmounted by one or more towers and perhaps spires.

[edit] Plan

Bayeux Cathedral, France.Most Gothic churches, unless they are entitled chapels, are of the Latin cross plan, with a long nave making the body of the church, a transverse arm called the transept and beyond it, an extension which may be called the quire or presbytery. There are several regional variations on this plan.

The nave is generally flanked on either side by aisles, usually singly, but sometimes double. The nave is generally considerably taller than the aisles, having clerestorey windows which light the central space. Gothic churches of the Germanic tradition, like St. Stephen's' Vienna, often have nave and aisles of similar height and are called hallenkirke. In the South of France there is often a single wide nave and no aisles, as at Sainte-Marie in Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges.

In some churches with double aisles, like Amiens Cathedral, the transept does not project beyond the aisles. In English cathedrals transepts tend to project boldly and there may be two of them, as at Salisbury Cathedral, though this is not the case with lesser churches.

The eastern arm shows considerable diversity. In England it is generally long and may have two distinct sections, both quire and presbytery. It is often square ended or has a projecting Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In France the eastern end is often polygonal and surrounded by a walkway called an ambulatory and sometimes a ring of chapels called a chevette. While German churches are often similar to those of France, in Italy, the eastern projection beyond the transept is usually just a shallow apsidal chapel containing the sanctuary, as at Florence Cathedral.

Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden.
[edit] Height
A characteristic of Gothic church architecture is its height, both real and proportional. A section of the main body of a Gothic church usually shows the nave as considerably taller than it is wide. In England the proportion is sometimes greater than 2:1, while the extreme is reached at Cologne Cathedral with a ratio of 3.6:1. The extreme of actual internal height was achieved at Beauvais Cathedral at 157' 6" .

Externally, towers and spires are characteristic of Gothic churches both great and small, the number and positioning being one of the greatest variables in Gothic architecture. In Italy, the tower, if present, is almost always detached from the building, as at Florence Cathedral, and is often from an earlier structure. In France and Spain, two towers on the front is the norm. In England, Germany and Scandinavia this is often the arrangement, but an English cathedral may also be surmouted by an enormous tower at the crossing. Smaller churches usually have just one tower, but this may also be the case at a very large cathedral like Salisbury or Ulm Minster, which has the tallest spire in the world,[9] slightly exceding that of Lincoln Cathedral, the tallest which was actually completed during the medieval period, at 520 feet.

[edit] Vertical emphasis

Coutances Cathedral in France.The pointed arch lends itself to a suggestion of height. This appearance is characteristically further enhanced by both the architectural features and the decoration of the building.

On the exterior, the verticality is emphasied in a major way by the towers and spires and in a lesser way by strongly projecting vertical buttresses, by narrow half-columns called attached shafts which often pass through several storeys of the building, by long narrow windows, vertical mouldings around doors and figurative sculpture which emphasises the vertical and is often attenuated. The roofline, gable ends, buttresses and other parts of the building are often terminated by small pinnacles, Milan Cathedral being an extreme example in the use of this form of decoration.

On the partea interioară of the building attached shafts often sweep unbroken from floor to ceiling and meet the ribs of the vault, like a tall tree spreading into branches. The verticals are generally repeated in the treatment of the windows and wall surfaces. In many Gothic churches, particularly in France, and in the Perpendicular period of English Gothic architecture, the treatment of vertical elements in gallery and window tracery creates a strongly unifying feature that counteracts the horizontal divisions of the interior structure.

[edit] Light
One of the most distinctive characteristics of Gothic architecture is the expansive area of the windows as at Sainte Chapelle and the very large size of many individual windows, as at Gloucester Cathedral and Milan Cathedral. The increase in size between windows of the Romanesque and Gothic periods is related to the use of the ribbed vault, and in particular, the pointed ribbed vault which channeled the weight to a supporting shaft with less outward thrust than a semicircular vault. Walls did not need to be so weighty.

A further development was the flying buttress which arched externally from the springing of the vault across the roof of the aisle to a large buttress projecting well beyond the line of the external wall.

The internal columns of the arcade with their attached shafts, the ribs of the vault and the flying buttresses, with their associated vertical buttresses jutting at right-angles to the building, created a stone skeleton. Between these parts, the walls and the infill of the vaults could be of lighter construction. Between the narrow buttresses, the walls could be opened up into large windows.

Through the Gothic period, due to the versatility of the pointed arch, the structure of Gothic windows developed from simple openings to immensely rich and decorative sculptural designs. The windows were very often filled with stained glass which added a dimension of colour to the light within the building, as well as providing a medium for figurative and narrative art.

Notre Dame de Paris.
[edit] Majesty
The facade of a large church or cathedral, often referred to as the West Front, is generally designed to lucrate a powerful impression on the approaching worshipper, demonstrating both the might of God, and the might of the institution that it represents. One of the best known and most typical of such facades is that of Notre Dame de Paris.

Central to the facade is the main portal, often flanked by additional doors. In the arch of the door is often a significant piece of sculpture, most frequently Christ in Majesty. If there is a central door jamb, then it frequently bears a statue of the Madonna and Child. There may be much other carving, often of figures in niches set into the mouldings around the portals, or in sculptural screens extending across the facade.

In the centre of the middle level of the facade, there is a large window, which in countries other than England and Belgium, is generally a rose window like that at Reims Cathedral The gable above this is usually richly decorated with arcading or sculpture, or in the case of Italy, may be decorated, with the rest of the facade, with polychrome marble and mosaic, as at Orvieto Cathedral

The West Front of a French cathedral and many English, Spanish and German cathedrals generally has two towers, which, particularly in France, express an enormous diversity of form and decoration.

[edit] Structure: the pointed arch

[edit] Origins
The defining characteristic of Gothic architecture is the pointed or ogival arch. Arches of this type were used in Islamic architecture before they were used structurally in European architecture, and are thought to have to been the inspiration for their use in France, as at Autun Cathedral, which is otherwise stylistically Romanesque.

However, it appears that there was probably simultaneously a structural evolution towards the pointed arch, for the purpose of vaulting spaces of irregular plan, or to bring transverse vaults to the same height as diagonal vaults. This latter occurs at Durham Cathedral in the nave aisles in 1093. Pointed arches also occur extensively in Romanesque decorative blind arcading, where semi-circular arches overlap each other in a simple decorative pattern, and the points are accidental to the design.

[edit] Functions
The Gothic vault, unlike the semi-circular vault of Roman and Romanesque buildings, can be used to roof rectangular and irregularly shaped plans such as trapezoids. The other structural advantage is that the pointed arch channels the weight onto the bearing piers or columns at a steep angle. This enabled architects to raise vaults much higher than was possible in Romanesque architecture.

While structurally use of the pointed arch gave a greater flexibility to Architectural form, it also gave Gothic architecture a very different visual character to Romanesque, the verticality suggesting an aspiration to Heaven.

In Gothic Architecture the pointed arch is used in every location where a vaulted shape is called for, both structural and decorative. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and galleries have pointed arches. Gothic vaulting above spaces both large and small is usually supported by richly molded ribs.

Rows of pointed arches upon delicate shafts form a typical wall decoration known as blind arcading. Niches with pointed arches and containing statuary are a major external feature. The pointed arch leant itself to elaborate intersecting shapes which developed within window spaces into complex Gothic tracery forming the structural support of the large windows that are characteristic of the style.

[edit] Basic Shapes of Gothic Arches and stylistic character
The way in which the pointed arch was draughted and utilised developed throughout the Gothic period. There were fairly clear stages of development, which did not, however, progress at the same rate, or in the same way in every country. Moreover, the names used to define various periods or styles within the Gothic differs from country to country.

[edit] Lancet arch
The simplest shape is the long opening with a pointed arch known in England as the lancet. Lancet openings are often grouped, usually as a cluster of three or five. Lancet openings may be very narrow and steeply pointed.

Salisbury Cathedral is famous for the beauty and simplicity of its Lancet Gothic, known in England as the Early English Style. York Cathedral has a group of lancet windows each fifty feet high and still containing ancient glass. They are known as the Five Sisters. These simple undecorated grouped windows are found at Chartres and Laon Cathedrals and are used extensively in Italy.

[edit] Equilateral arch
Many Gothic openings are based upon the equilateral form. In other words, when the arch is draughted, the radius is exactly the width of the opening and the centre of each arch coincides with the point from which the opposite arch springs. This makes the arch exactly as high as it is wide, unlike a semi-circular arch which is exactly half as high as it is wide.

The Equilateral Arch gives a wide opening of satisfying proportion useful for doorways, decorative arcades and big windows.

The structural beauty of the Gothic arch means, however, that no set proportion had to be rigidly maintained. The Equilateral Arch was employed as a useful tool, not as a Principle of Design. This meant that narrower or wider arches were introduced into a building plan wherever necessity dictated. In the architecture of some Italian cities, notably Venice, semi-circular arches are interspersed with pointed ones. [10]

The Equilateral Arch lends itself to filling with tracery of simple equilateral, circular and semi-circular forms. The type of tracery that evolved to fill these spaces is known in England as Geometric Decorated Gothic and can be seen to splendid effect at many English and French Cathedrals, notably Lincoln and Notre Dame in Paris.

[edit] Flamboyant arch
The Flamboyant Arch is one that is draughted from four points, the upper part of each main arc turning upwards into a smaller arc and meeting at a sharp, flame-like point. These arches create a rich and lively effect when used for window tracery and surface decoration. The form is structurally weak and has very rarely been used for large openings except when contained within a larger and more stable arch. It is not employed at all for vaulting.

Some of the most beautiful and famous traceried windows of Europe employ this type of tracery. It can be seen at St Stephen's Vienna, Sainte Chapelle in Paris, at the Cathedrals of Limoges and Rouen in France, and at Milan Cathedral in Italy. In England the most famous examples are the West Window of York Minster with its estetică based on the Sacred Heart, the extraordinarily rich seven-light East Window at Carlisle Cathedral and the exquisite East window of Selby Abbey.

Doorways surmounted by Flamboyant mouldings are very common in both ecclesiastical and domestic architecture in France. They are much rarer in England. A notable example is the doorway to the Chapter Room at Rochester Cathedral.

The style was much used in England for wall arcading and niches. Prime examples in are in the Lady Chapel at Ely, the Screen at Lincoln and externally on the facade of Exeter Cathedral. In German and Spanish Gothic architecture it often appears as openwork screens on the exterior of buildings. The style was used to rich and sometimes extraordinary effect in both these countries, notably on the famous pulpit in Vienna Cathedral.

[edit] Depressed arch
The Depressed or four-centred arch is much wider than its height and gives the visual effect of having been flattened under pressure. Its structure is achieved by draughting two arcs which rise steeply from each springing point on a small radius and then turn into two arches with a wide radius and much lower springing point.

This type of arch, when employed as a window opening, lends itself to very wide spaces, provided it is adequately supported by many narrow vertical shafts. These are often further braced by horizontal transoms. The overall effect produces a grid-like appearance of regular, delicate, rectangular forms with an emphasis on the perpendicular. It is also employed as a wall decoration in which arcade and window openings form part of the whole decorative surface.

The so-called Perpendicular style that evolved from this treatment is specific to England and was employed to great effect during the Tudor Period when the Renaissance had brought about a revival of Classical styles in Italy and France.

It can be seen notably at the East End of Gloucester Cathedral where the East Window is said to be as large as a tennis court. There are three very famous chapels and one chapel-like Abbey which are the embodiment of this style- King's College Chapel, Cambridge; St George's Chapel, Windsor; Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey and Bath Abbey.

[edit] Symbolism and ornamentation
Main articles: Cathedral architecture of Western Europe and Poor Man's Bible
The Gothic cathedral represented the universe in microcosm and each architectural concept, including the loftiness and huge dimensions of the structure, were intended to convey a theological message: the great glory of God. The building becomes a microcosm in two ways. Firstly, the mathematical and geometrical nature of the construction is an image of the orderly universe, in which an underlying rationality and logic can be perceived.

Secondly, the statues, sculptural decoration, stained glass and murals incorporate the essence of creation in depictions of the Labours of the Months and the Zodiac[11] and sacred history from the Old and New Testaments and Lives of the Saints, as well as reference to the eternal in the Last Judgment and Coronation of the Virgin. The decorative schemes usually incorporated Biblical stories, emphasizing visual typological allegories between Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament.

Conservative thirteenth century Gothic in Provence: Basilica of Mary Magdalene, Saint Maximin la Sainte Baume.Many churches were very richly decorated, both inside and out. Sculpture and architectural details were often bright with coloured paint of which traces remain at Chartres cathedral. Wooden ceilings and panelling were usually brightly coloured. Sometimes the stone columns of the nave were painted, and the panels in decorative wall arcading contained narratives or figures of saints. These have rarely remained intact, but may be seen at the Chapterhouse of Westminster Abbey.

Some important Gothic churches could be severely simple such as the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Saint-Maximin, Provence where the local traditions of the sober, massive, Romanesque architecture were still strong.

[edit] Regional differences
Main article: Cathedral architecture of Western Europe

[edit] Summary of characteristics
Italian cathedrals - Polychrome, defined forms, symmetric plan, domed crossing, free-standing towers
French cathedrals - Vertical, unified appearance, compact plan, delicate spire called flèche at crossing, two towers at west front and sometimes transept fronts.
English catherals - Horizontal, diverse styles, extending plan, large crossing tower perhaps with spire, two towers at front
German cathedrals - Massive, block-like, broad plan, octagonal cupola at crossing, multi-towered, one or two tall spires in Gothic period
Spanish cathedrals - Spacious, ornate, complex plan, diverse roofline, two towers at west front
Note This summary does not preclude the diversity which occurred at different dates for a variety of reasons. One of the influences on diversity of style was the immigration of master masons who often served as architects. Thus William of Sens set the style of Canterbury, and Milan Cathedral is predominantly German Gothic in style.

[edit] Secular Gothic architecture
See also Castles.

The facade of the Palais des PapesA few examples of secular, non-military structures in Gothic style survive. One important survival is the great hall at the Palace of Westminster, London, an 11th century hall renovated in the late 1300s with gothic windows and a wooden hammerbeam roof. In France examples can be seen at the Palais des Papes, Avignon and the famous Conciergerie, former palace of the kings of France, in Paris. In addition to monumental secular architecture, examples of the Gothic style, can be seen in surviving medieval portions of cities across Europe.

[edit] Brick Gothic
Main article: Brick Gothic

In Northern Germany, Scandinavia, Baltic countries and northern Poland, in areas where native stone was unavailable, simplified provincial Gothic churches were built of brick. The resultant style is called Backsteingotik. in Germany and Scandinavia.

One excellent example is Malbork, a castle of the Teutonic Knights in Poland. Brick Gothic buildings were associated with the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Knights. There are over one hundred brick Gothic castles in northern Poland, Baltic states, and western Russia.

Chateau d'Abbadie, Hendaye, France: a Gothic pile for the natural historian and patron of astronomy Antoine d'Abbadie, 1860 - 1870; Viollet-le-Duc, architect
[edit] Gothic survival and revival
Main article: Gothic revival architecture

In 1663 at the Archbishop of Canterbury's residence, Lambeth Palace, a Gothic hammerbeam roof was built to replace that destroyed when the building was sacked during the English Civil War. Also in the late 17th century, some discrete Gothic details appeared on new construction at Oxford and Cambridge, notably on the Tom Tower at Christ Church College, Oxford, by Christopher Wren. It is not easy to decide whether these instances were Gothic survival or early appearances of Gothic revival.

In England in the mid-eighteenth century, the Gothic style was more widely revived, first as a decorative, whimsical alternative to Rococo that is still conventionally termed 'Gothick', of which Horace Walpole's Twickenham villa "Strawberry Hill" is the familiar example.

[edit] 19th and 20th century Gothic Revival
Partly in response to a philosophy propounded by the Oxford Movement and others in England, from about 1830 Gothic became the preferred style for ecclesiastical and collegiate architecture, resulting in a Gothic revival, sometimes termed Victorian Gothic or Neo-Gothic. The Houses of Parliament in London are an example of this Gothic revival style, designed by Sir Charles Barry with interiors by a major exponent of the early Gothic Revival, Augustus Pugin. Another example is the main building of the University of Glasgow designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

Gasson Hall on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.In France, simultaneously, the towering figure of the Gothic Revival was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who outdid historical Gothic constructions to făcute a Gothic as it ought to have been, notably at the fortified city of Carcassonne in the south of France and in some richly fortified keeps for industrial magnates. Viollet-le-Duc compiled and coordinated an Encyclopédie médiévale that was a rich repertory his contemporaries mined for architectural details. He effected vigorous restoration of crumbling detail of French cathedrals, including the Abbey of Saint-Denis and famously at Notre Dame, where many of whose most "Gothic" gargoyles are Viollet-le-Duc's. He taught a generation of reform-Gothic designers and showed how to apply Gothic style to modern structural materials, especially cast iron.

In Germany, the great cathedrals of Cologne and Ulm, left unfinished for 600 years, were brought to completion, while in Italy, Florence Cathedral finally received its polychrome Gothic facade. New churches in the Gothic style were created all over the world, including Japan, Thailand, India, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and South Africa.

The use of Gothic for churches and universities continued into the 20th century with buildings such as Guildford Cathedral and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York. The Gothic style was also applied to iron-framed city skyscapers such as Cass Gilbert's Woolworth Building and Raymond Hood's Tribune Tower.

Post-Modernism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has seen some revival of Gothic forms in individual buildings, such as the Oriente Station at Lisbon, Portugal

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Gothic architectureJean Boney, (1985). French Gothic Architecture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries . ISBN 0-520-05586-1
Matthew Holbeche Bloxam Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed., 1841, from Project Gutenberg

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