Gothic Design

This Gothic Design period reigned throughout 1140 to 1500, During this time, a lot of historic epidemics took place. In 1163, construction began on the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. In 1180 to 1192, the third crusade took place. During 1280, eyeglasses were invented in Italy. The One Hundred Years War took place between 1337 to 1453 against the French and English. Last but not least, the Black Plague began in Europe during 1347. This ended up killing off 75 million people; nearly a third of the population.

The society had many similarities as well as differences from the Romanesques' way of life. Paris was the center of the Gothic world. Like Romanesque, churches were the center of city life. New rivals began to come about between city states and nations. Competition and unity came about within the construction of the cathedrals. Their religious expression was the heart of design. The popes had immense power on all religious aspects. The design demonstrated represented wealth and power within the church. Because there were a large number of worshipers, it required large worship spaces to accommodate the occupancy.

Just like Romanesque, the Gothic period reigned in architecture. They created and improved three great features of architecture: pointed arch, ribbed vault, and the flying buttress. Because of these new architectural features, cathedrals had an appearance of weightlessness. The interior was stemmed with tall walls with stained glass to show off their many windows. It created a transcend earthly experience when you entered the building. One of the great features in almost every cathedral of this time was the rose window. An example of the first Gothic cathedral is St. Denis. This came about in France in 1130. Within this great architectural monument, you can see the stained glass windows, the pointed arches, the rose window and many many more elements from this time.

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