Gothic architecture characterizes any of the styles of European architecture, particularly associated with cathedrals and more churches, inside have throughout Europe during the high & late medieval period, from a 12th century onward. It was succeeded by Renaissance architecture, a revival of Roman system, at varying days inside Europe, beginning within Florence in the 15th century. The series of Gothic revivals began around mid-18th century Engl&, triumphed in 19th century Europe & continued, largely for ecclesiastic and university structures, into a 20th century. A term Gothic was originally intended as a stylistic insult since Gothic compared sustaining "barbarian" (ie. savage), however the term has since matured to a neutral description.

Origins
A historical style itself originated at a abbey church of Saint-Denis in Saint-Denis, near Paris, where it exemplified a vision of Abbot Suger. Suger wanted to produce the physical representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the building of the high degree of one-dimensionality that was suffused using weak & color. A number one truly Gothic construction was a choir of the church, consecrated in 1144. By using thinly columns, stained-glass windows, & an overall feel of erectness & ethereality, a choir of Saint-Denis established a elements that would later on become elaborated upon when you took a Gothic time period. This style was adopted foremost around northern France and by the English, and spread throughout France, a Low Countries and parts of Germany and also to Spain and northern Italy.

The term "Gothic"

Gothic architecture has nothing to run by having a historical Goths. It wwhen a dislogistic term that come to exist when utilized as early as the 1530s to describe culture that was considered uncivil & barbaric. François Rabelais imagines an inscription over a door of his Utopian Abbey of Thélème, "Here enter no hypocrites, bigots..." insert the deprecating information to 'Gotz' (rendered when 'Huns' within Thomas Urquhart's English translation) & 'Ostrogotz.' Within English 17th century usage, 'Goth' was an same of 'vandal,' the savage raider, by having a feel of 'Germanic' so come to exist as applied to a architectural styles of northern Europe prior to the revival of antiquity, so 'Gothic' architecture. "''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., according to a correspondent in Notes and Queries No. 9. December 29, 1849.

Characteristics

The style emphasizes verticality and features almost skeletal stone structures with great expanses of glass, sharply pointed spires, cluster columns, flying buttresses, ribbed vaults, pointed arches using the ogive shape, and inventive sculptural detail. These features are all the consequence of a focus on large stained glass windows that allowed more light to enter than was possible with older styles. In order to achieve this, flying buttresses were used to enable higher ceilings and slender columns. Many of these features had already appeared, for example in Durham Cathedral, whose construction started in 1093.

Gothic cathedrals could be highly decorated with statues on the outside and painting on the inside. Both usually told Biblical stories, emphasizing visual typological allegories between Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament.

Important Gothic churches could also be severely simple. At the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Saint-Maximin, Provence (illustration, right), the local traditions of a sober massive Romanesque architecture were strong. The basilica, begun in the 13th century under the patronage of Charles of Anjou, was laid out on an ambitious scale (it was never completed all the way to the western entrance front) to accommodate pilgrims that came to venerate relics. Building in the Gothic style continued at the basilica until 1532.

In Gothic architecture new technology stands behind the new building style. The Gothic cathedral was supposed to be a microcosm representing the world, and each architectural concept, mainly the loftiness and huge dimensions of the structure, were intended to pass a theological message: the great glory of God versus the smallness and insignificance of the mortal being.

Brick Gothic
Main article: Brick Gothic. In Northern Germany, Scandinavia 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 Poland. The biggest brick gothik building is the Teutonic Knights Castle of Malbork in Poland and the biggest brick gothic church is the St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk in Gdansk. The most famous example in Denmark is Roskilde Cathedral. Brick gothic buildings were associated with the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Knights. There are over one hundred brick gothic castles in northern Poland, that were build by the Teutonic Knights.

Gothic architecture in England

Fewer examples of secular structures in Gothic style survive. The "Old Palace" at Hatfield, 1497, is the entrance wing, with its imposing gatehouse, which gave access to the protected inner court. This is an example of the last phase of Gothic design in England, still untouched by the Renaissance under way in central Italy. Local building traditions informed a vernacular style that was as important as Gothic in the final appearance. The roofs are tiled in the East Anglian vernacular tradition. Substantial roofs enclose essential storage area in the spacious attics: the sight of such an expanse of roof evoked a sense of well-being and security. Gothic elements are the paired lancet windows joined under a molding that threw rainwater away from their sills, and the buttresses between each pier and on the angles of the gatehouse tower, with its fortification references.

Sequence of Gothic styles: France

The designations of styles in French Gothic architecture are as follows:

Early Gothic High Gothic Rayonnant Late Gothic or Flamboyant style

These divisions are effective, but debatable. Because Gothic cathedrals were built over several successive campaigns, one not necessarily following the wishes of previous campaigns, the dominant architectural paradigm changes throughout a particular building. Consequently, it is often difficult to declare one building as a member of a certain era of Gothic architecture. It is more useful to use the terms as descriptors for specific elements within a structure, rather than applying it to the building as a whole.

Early Gothic: The East end of the Abbey Church of St Denis

High Gothic: Amiens Cathedral The main body of Chartres Cathedral Notre-Dame of Laon Notre Dame de Paris Reims Cathedral

Rayonnant: The nave of the Abbey Church of St Denis

Late Gothic: The north tower of Chartres Cathedral The rose window of Amiens Cathedral The west facade of the Rouen Cathedral Church of St. Maclou, Rouen. The south transept of the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais

Sequence of Gothic styles: England

The designations of styles in English architecture still follows conventions of labels given them by antiquaries in the 18th century: Early English (ca 1180 - 1275) Decorated (ca 1275 - 1380 ) Perpendicular (ca 1380 - 1520 ).

Early English: Salisbury Cathedral Wells Cathedral Westminster Abbey

Decorated or "Flamboyant": Exeter Cathedral

Perpendicular: King's College Chapel, Cambridge

Gothic revival
Main article: Gothic revival architecture

In England, some discrete Gothic details appeared on new construction at Oxford and Cambridge in the late 17th century, and at the archbishop of Canterbury's residence Lambeth Palace, a Gothic hammerbeam roof was built in 1663 to replace a building that had been sacked during the English Civil War. It is not easy to decide whether these instances were Gothic survival or early appearances of Gothic revival,.

In England in the mid-18th 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. Then, especially after the 1830s, Gothic was treated more seriously in a series of Gothic revivals (sometimes termed Victorian Gothic or Neo-Gothic). The Houses of Parliament in London are an example of this Gothic revival style, designed 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.

In France, the towering figure of the Gothic Revival was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who outdid historical Gothic constructions to create 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 (illustration, left). Viollet-le-Duc compiled and coordinated an Encyclopédie médiévale that was a rich repertory his contemporaries mined for architectural details but also include armor, costume, tools, furniture, weapons and the like. He effected vigorous restoration of crumbling detail of French cathedrals, famously at Notre Dame, many of whose most "Gothic" gargoyles are Viollet-le-Duc's. But he also taught a generation of reform-Gothic designers and showed how to apply Gothic style to thoroughly modern structural materials, especially cast iron.

Gothic in the 20th Century

Neo-Gothic continued to be considered appropriate for churches and college buildings well into the 20th century. Charles Donagh Maginnis's early buildings at Boston College helped establish the prevalence of Collegiate Gothic architecture on American university campuses, such as at Chicago, Princeton and Yale. It was also used, perhaps less appropriately, for early steel skyscrapers.

Cass Gilbert produced his 1907 90 West Street building and the 1914 Woolworth Building, both in Manhattan, in a neo-Gothic idiom. It was Raymond Hood's neo-Gothic tower that won the 1922 competition for the Chicago Tribune Tower, a late example of the vertical style that has been called "Western Perpendicular Gothic."

Another Gothic structure of interest is the jailhouse built in DeRidder, Louisiana in 1914. The iron bars in most of the windows give the structure an eerie appearance. The structure includes shallow arches, dormer windows and has a central tower. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Cathedral is also a neo gothic structure.

The last prominent Gothic architect in America was probably Ralph Adams Cram, working in the 1910s and 1920s. With partner Bertram Goodhue they produced many good examples, like the sensitive and clever French High Gothic St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York with its asymmetrical, urban facade in the heart of Manhattan. Working alone, Cram took up the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, what he meant to be the largest cathedral and largest Gothic struture in the world, again in French High Gothic. It remains unfinished. Both St. Thomas and St. John the Divine are built without steel.

List of notable Gothic structures

France Chartres Cathedral Bourges Cathedral [http://www.beloit.edu/~arthist/historyofart/gothic/bourges.htm Bourges Cathedral] Amiens Cathedral Notre-Dame de Laon Our Lady's Cathedral in Paris (the Notre-Dame for many) Reims Cathedral (where all the kings of France were crowned) Abbey Church of Saint-Denis Sainte-Chapelle in Paris (famous for its colorful stained glass windows) For a list of all Early Gothic buildings in the Paris Basin, see [http://www.johnjames.com.au/medievaldatabase-parischurches-A-B.shtml]

England Westminster Abbey in London Ely Cathedral York Minster Exeter Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral Wells Cathedral King's College Chapel, Cambridge

Spain Santa Eulalia de Barcelona, in Barcelona La Seu, in Palma (Majorca) Cathedral of Burgos, in Burgos Cathedral of León, in León Cathedral of Murcia, in Murcia Cathedral of San Salvador, in Oviedo Cathedral of San Salvador, in Zaragoza

Germany Cologne Cathedral Ulm Münster (features the highest church tower)

Italy Ca' d'Oro, Venice Milan Cathedral, The Duomo Siena Cathedral Orvieto Cathedral

Belgium Bruges City Hall, 1376—1420

The Netherlands Sint Jan's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

Austria Cathedral of Saint Stephan in Vienna

Poland St Mary's Church in Gdańsk (the largest brick church in the world) St Mary's Church in Kraków (with the famous Veit Stoss altar carved in wood) Wawel Cathedral in Kraków City Hall in Toruń The Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork

Slovakia St. Martin's Cathedral in Bratislava

Czech Republic Saint Barbara's Church in Kutná Hora Charles Bridge in Prague

Croatia Zagreb Cathedral

Russia Königsberg Cathedral

Some famous Neo-Gothic structures

Gasson Tower and Bapst Library at Boston College Harkness Tower at Yale University; 1917-21, James Gamble Rogers, architect Palace of Westminster in London, the (Houses of Parliament) Santhome Cathedral, Madras (Chennai), India St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City Tribune Tower in Chicago, Illinois St. James' Cathedral in Toronto PPG Place in Pittsburgh, PA

Structures incorporating Gothic elements
Brooklyn Bridge