Alexis Rickards
Gothic Architecture
2 December 2014
Art History 1 1303 Gothic Architecture
Traveling the streets of France I see a beautiful church that catches my eye. Walking up to it, I notice first its extraordinary architecture. The structure looks to me as a Gothic church which contained openings on the outside so every day light could come through the building. Looking up, one could notice the massive towers and spires. The walls had such great detail that were solid so the building could hold the impressive roofs. This is not a Romanesque church, if it were the building would have much less windows and the building would be much more symmetrical.
A Romanesque churches would be massive but nothing compared to this Gothic church. It would contain thick walls, piers, large towers, round arches, and decorative arcading. Walking into the church, is what confirmed my beliefs that I'm viewing a Gothic church.
Walking in I see “four buttresses that divided the facade into three bays corresponding to the nave and aisles. Looking above the buttresses, the towers also display a triple division and a progressively greater piercing of the walls from lower to upper stages. The tripartite division extends throughout the facade, both vertically and horizontally (pg 358).” Walking further into the church, I look up at the roof and notice the beautiful detailed vault. It was a concaves cylinder roof that looked like a barrel. Due to the large

Rickards 2 amount of light that is let in because of the arched openings the nave appears very tall. Now that
I am paying more attention to the walls and were the light is coming from I notice the stained glasses that has many different designs. The work that has been done on the windows is very detailed and skilled. While viewing this church I start to remember the other churches I have seen that show some similarities to this one but also many differences and I am reminded of the
Romanesque church. If this church was a Romanesque church I would have walked into very different architecture because the Romanesque