Salisbury Cathedral - English Gothic Architecture

Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, and is considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture. The main body was completed in only 38 years, from 1220 to 1258.
Building such a great and tall Cathedral in only 38 years was a great success for English people. Such a cathedrals were usually built for over 100 years.

                                     

The cathedral has the tallest church spire in the United Kingdom (123m/404 ft). Visitors can take the "Tower Tour" where the interior of the hollow spire, with its ancient wood scaffolding, can be viewed. The cathedral also has the largest cloister and the largest cathedral close in Britain (80 acres (320,000 m2)). The cathedral contains the world's oldest working clock (from AD 1386) and has the best surviving of the four original copies of the Magna Carta (all four original copies are in England). Although commonly known as Salisbury Cathedral, the official name is the Cathedral of Saint Mary. In 2008, the cathedral celebrated the 750th anniversary of its consecration in 1258.
The cathedral is the Mother Church of the Diocese of Salisbury and seat of the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Revd Nick Holtam.

History:

As a response to deteriorating relations between the clergy and the military at Old Sarum, the decision was taken to resite the cathedral and the bishopric was moved to its present place in Salisbury. The move occurred during the tenure of Bishop Richard Poore, who was a wealthy man and donated the new land for construction. The new cathedral was also paid for by donations, principally by all the canons and vicars of South East England, who were asked to contribute a fixed annual sum until its completion. Legend has it that the Bishop of Old Sarum shot an arrow in the direction he would build the cathedral; the arrow hit a deer and the deer finally died in the place where Salisbury Cathedral is now.
The foundation stone was laid on 28 April 1220. Much of the freestone for the cathedral came from Teffont Evias quarries. Due to the high water table in the new location, the cathedral was built on only four feet of foundations, and by 1258 the nave, transepts and choir were complete. The west front was ready by 1265. The cloisters and chapter house were completed around 1280. Because the cathedral was built in only 38 years, it has a single consistent architectural style, Early English Gothic.
The only major sections of the cathedral built later were the cloisters, chapter house, tower and spire, which at 404 feet (123 m) dominated the skyline from 1320. Although the spire is the cathedral's most impressive feature, it has also proved to be troublesome. Together with the tower, it added 6,397 tons (6,500 tonnes) to the weight of the building. Without the addition of buttresses, bracing arches and anchor irons over the succeeding centuries, it would have suffered the fate of spires on later great ecclesiastical buildings (such as Malmesbury Abbey) and fallen down; instead, Salisbury remains the tallest church spire in the UK. To this day the large supporting pillars at the corners of the spire are seen to bend inwards under the stress. The addition of reinforcing tie beams above the crossing, designed by Christopher Wren in 1668, arrested further deformation. The beams were hidden by a false ceiling, installed below the lantern stage of the tower.
Significant changes to the cathedral were made by the architect James Wyatt in 1790, including replacement of the original rood screen and demolition of the bell tower which stood about 320 feet (100 m) north west of the main building. Salisbury is one of only three English cathedrals to lack a ring of bells, the others being Norwich Cathedral and Ely Cathedral. However it does strike the time every 15 minutes with bells.

This is one of the best examples of English Gothic architecture.

Gothic Architecture

Gothic architecture was developed in first half of the 12th century.
It was developed first in the north Europe.

At first it begun on small part of the Paris. About a hundred years later it spread over the entire France.
You could say that the France is "the crib" of Gothic architect style.

Some characteristic of the Gothic style:

Gothic cathedral was in center of the city (usually) and was the most important building. It was taller than any other. The entire city was building it.
A characteristic of Gothic church architecture is its height, both absolute and in proportion to its width, the verticality suggesting an aspiration to Heaven. 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 greatest proportional difference achieved is at Cologne Cathedral with a ratio of 3.6:1. The highest internal vault is at Beauvais Cathedral at 48 metres (157 ft).
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 York Minster, 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.



The façade of a large church or cathedral, often referred to as the West Front, is generally designed to create 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 façades is that of Notre Dame de Paris.
Central to the façade is the main portal, often flanked by additional doors. In the arch of the door, the tympanum, is often a significant piece of sculpture, most frequently Christ in Majesty and Judgment Day. If there is a central door jamb or a trumeau, 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 façade.
Above the main portal there is generally a large window, like that at York Minster, or a group of windows such as those at Ripon Cathedral. In France there is generally a rose window like that at Reims Cathedral. Rose windows are also often found in the façades of churches of Spain and Italy, but are rarer elsewhere and are not found on the façades of any English Cathedrals. The gable is usually richly decorated with arcading or sculpture or, in the case of Italy, may be decorated with the rest of the façade, 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. However some German cathedrals have only one tower located in the middle of the façade (such as Freiburg Münster).

                                                       
                                                                       Notre Dame de Paris.


France

The distinctive characteristic of French cathedrals, and those in Germany and Belgium that were strongly influenced by them, is their height and their impression of verticality. Each French cathedral tends to be stylistically unified in appearance when compared with an English cathedral where there is great diversity in almost every building. They are compact, with slight or no projection of the transepts and subsidiary chapels. The west fronts are highly consistent, having three portals surmounted by a rose window, and two large towers. Sometimes there are additional towers on the transept ends. The east end is polygonal with ambulatory and sometimes a chevette of radiating chapels. In the south of France, many of the major churches are without transepts and some are without aisles.

Interior of Amiens Cathedral, France.


England

The distinctive characteristic of English cathedrals is their extreme length, and their internal emphasis upon the horizontal, which may be emphasised visually as much or more than the vertical lines. Each English cathedral (with the exception of Salisbury) has an extraordinary degree of stylistic diversity, when compared with most French, German and Italian cathedrals. It is not unusual for every part of the building to have been built in a different century and in a different style, with no attempt at creating a stylistic unity. Unlike French cathedrals, English cathedrals sprawl across their sites, with double transepts projecting strongly and Lady Chapels tacked on at a later date. In the west front, the doors are not as significant as in France, the usual congregational entrance being through a side porch. The West window is very large and never a rose, which are reserved for the transept gables. The west front may have two towers like a French Cathedral, or none. There is nearly always a tower at the crossing and it may be very large and surmounted by a spire. The distinctive English east end is square, but it may take a completely different form. Both internally and externally, the stonework is often richly decorated with carvings, particularly the capitals.

The longitudinal emphasis in the nave of Wells is typically English



Plan
Most Gothic churches, unless they are entitled chapels, are of the Latin cross (or "cruciform") 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 choir, chancel or presbytery. There are several regional variations on this plan.
The nave is generally flanked on either side by aisles, usually single, but sometimes double. The nave is generally considerably taller than the aisles, having clerestory windows which light the central space. Gothic churches of the Germanic tradition, like St. Stephen of Vienna, often have nave and aisles of similar height and are called Hallenkirche. 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 Notre Dame, Paris, 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 choir 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 "chevet". 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.

The structure of a typical Gothic cathedral.


Plan of Amiens Cathedral.


Plan of Wells Cathedral.


Gothic style influenced Renaissance style a lot. And even today a lot of architects use some of the characteristics from Gothic style when designing.
This period has left us some of the most beautiful buildings of all time.
Specially Notre Dame cathedrals.

Roman Architecture - Ancient Roman Architecture

When it comes to Roman architecture there is A LOT to be said. First of all let me tell you something about their history. Roman, or Rome people inhabited almost everything from other cultures, from Greeks, their ancestors Etruscan and from others. Rome had a capitol in city 'Rome'. They were the strongest and the biggest empire in their time. Their empire lasted for over 1000 years. They had magnificent buildings.
Roman people inhabited arc and the idea of aqueduct from Etruscan people.

The Rome country was made by the two people (as legend says).
The legend goes that two brothers (one was named Rome) were adopted by the wolf. And that one day they made a city Rome.

Now about their architecture.
First of all I have to say that they found much new building materials like concrete and brick.
Their brick was not sun-dried but was burned in high temperature ovens. They had a fabric which was massivly producing brick. That is the origin of the word "Fabric" because this is how they called it and it is the first fabric on the world.
Theirs concrete was made out of volcanic ash and other things, it was lite concrete.
They had a lot of engineers and architects so calculating and measuring was not a problem.

They were able to dry an entire lake like they did when they build a colosseum.
The colosseum was built on a place where was lake. That was the only suitable place where it could be built so they decided to dry the lake. They did it by guiding the water almost 100km using canals in a much more bigger lake.
The colosseum was built using brick and concrete and stone.
The Colosseum has three rings. First one is from stone, second from brick and the third is from concrete. This is because of the weight. Roman architect calculated that if the whole colosseum was made from stone it would crack and demolish it self from huge weight. The Colosseum was built mostly from arches on
pillars. It has 76 arches in every level of colloseum.
The colloseum was used for games, music, as theater.. and much more.
This was the most magnificent building of its time.

                                                 The Colosseum in Rome, in Italy
                                       



Roman people Housing
Their houses for general population were modest. Rich people lived a perfect life, they had it all.
In rich people houses were bathrooms. The roman people guided the water from mountains into and through their bathrooms. They had a toilets! And they also had public bath. There were pools with hot and warm and cold water. Public baths were aveable to everyone.
Poor people lived in "Insula" those were buildings on couple of floors. And those buildings were aranged in blocks. The darkest and the cheapest rooms were at bottom, and more lighter and cleaner rooms were at the top but cost more.
The windows were protected by metal bars. Life in insulas was difficult. Fire was the biggest problem.
In those tight rooms and tight building blocks when the fire appear it would burn the entire building block.
                                                 
                                                  Roman Insula
                                                 

The use of arch and cupola (duomo)
Like I said the Romans used arches in their many structures like Colosseum or aqueducts.
But what they were really were famous for are their domes. Since they were building with small pieces of material like bricks they were able to build such a structures.
Dome its self is beautiful when looked from beneath.

                                                 

Their "Basilicas" were built with a dome. Basilicas were something like court houses. This is where they had trials going.

This was intro into Roman architecture and their history!