ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE in

THE BRITISH ISLES AND

SCANDINAVIA
1st to 12th Century
 INFLUENCES
• GEOGRAPHICAL

In Northern Europe, remote from Rome,

development largely upon a common concern with
sea and river routes. The geographical similarities of
political divisions of Scandinavia are sufficient to
give the whole region a unity which was emphasize
by the greater ease of sailing across the narrow
waters within the region than of crossing the
mountains towards the rest of Europe.
Skill in navigation during the early middle ages
led to the Nordic colonization of Iceland and
Greenland and to cultural and commercial
contact with Ireland and Britain.
Natural resources in Scandinavia provided for
principally agrarian products in the South and
East, and for forestry fur- trading in the North.
The export of copper and iron ore led to strong
mercantile connections with the continent. The
deep Norwegian valleus dictated both an
independent and generally slower rate of
evolution, and a wider variety of local building
techniques.
SCANDINAVIA IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY
THE BRITISH ISLES IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY
 GEOLOGICAL
Geological formation of Great Britain was varied.
The English hardwood forests, particularly in the
North- western and the South- eastern
countries, provided roof framing material for the
more important buildings, and for lesser
buildings which were entirely timber framed.
 CLIMATIC
The generally low northern light tended to
encourage the development of ways of producing
larger or multiple openings in walls. Massive
masonry construction and steeply- pitched roofs
were customary devices for dealing with the more
severe Northern European climate, though in those
parts of Scandinavia where snow could normally be
expected to persist for sometime, roof pitches were
often reduced in order that it should assist in
retaining heat within buildings.
 HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS
THE BRITISH ISLES
The roman conquest of Britain was preceded by
the landings of Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 B.C.
During the military occupation following the
Claudian invasion of A.D. 43 progress was made
in developing natural resources such as tin, iron
and led; orderly government was ensured by the
Roman legions, and improved methods in
agriculture stabilized society.
Christianity first made its way into Britain during
the Roman occupation, but during the years of
Anglo- Saxon settlements, after the middle of
the fifth century, church building was of
historical importance only in Ireland. The
conversion of Christianity of the Anglo- Saxon
kings and their people is evidenced by
numerous surviving churches, towers, and
crosses of the 7th and 8th centuries.
In 1042, Edward son of the English Ethelred,
acceded to the throne. He begun in 1045 the
building of Westminster Abbey, the church
planned in the current Norman Benedictine
fashion, and the comentual buildings based
largely upon the Cluniac pattern.
The Norman conquest of 1066 linked England to
the continent and introduced a fully developed
feudal system. Castle were built to strengthen
the position of the conquers. Towns which grew
up around abbeys and castles, became trading
centres. Settled government prompted the
pursuit of learning, based in the 12th and 13th
centuries upon monastic schools and upon the
two English universities.
French was the language commonly used in
court circles until 13th century. The crusades
gave impetus to the progress of learning and in
the foundation of the military orders which
influenced some aspects of church- building
later in the middle ages.
 SCANDINAVIA
The kingdoms were first in the Denmark and
Norway, and that by about the year 1000 Sweden
was united as part of the Svear kingdom. The Viking
expansion of the 9th century, which included in the
early Danish settlement in North-East England, the
colonization of Normandy and the establishment of
Svear colonies in Latvia, all brought Northrn
influences to bear upon European development.
Thee earliest domestic building customs were
based upon timber techniques allied to forms
probably derived from Greek cultures.
The most distinctive building development of the
period in Scandinavia followed the conversion of
the northern races, which was started by the
Frankish missionary Angar at Hedeby in Denmark in
826. The Norse church itself was established from
Britain, and Christianity was legally maintained in
Norway, Greenland and Iceland by the end of the
10th century. In 980 the Danish King Harold made
his people Christians, English bishops were
introduced and the empire was spread into
England.
The earliest Christian Scandinavia buildings
those of Frankish missionaries, were certainly,
Timber- Built, and particularly in Norway, the
development of timber techniques continued
well into the 13th century. Subsequent building
stone reflects predominantly German and
Cluniac influences in Denmark.
The monastic orders played an important part in
reinforcing Scandinavian links with Europe and
the Benedictine Church Architecture of Denmark
and Norway followed very closely much of the
custom of the order, though with some Cluniac
modifications, and in both Denmark and
Sweden were established several examples of
Cistercian abbeys displaying the simple and
robust characteristics of Burgendy.
 ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
THE BRITISH ISLES
a. ROMAN PERIOD
Examples of mosaic flooring, pottery and
sculpture indicate the cave which the Romans
bestowed on dwellings houses and public
buildings. The characteristics of Roman-
Architecture were so virile that they inevitably
influenced subsequent Anglo- Saxon and
Romanesque Architecture in Britain.
The form of the Christian Church in Britain
before the end pf the Roman occupation is
exemplified at Silchester.
PORTICOES-----------------------------------------------------
OFFICES------------------------------------------------------------

BASILICA HALL---------------------------------------------------------
TRIBUNAL----------------------------------------------------

OFFICES-----------------------------------------------------------
FORUM COURT---------------------------------------------------------------------
FORTICOES

SHOPS-------------------------------------------------------------------
ENTRY
This was a small church, with a Basilican plan,
built early in the 4th century. It had a western
apse, for the vitual at this time required that the
celebrant face east from beyond the altar.
 b. ANGLO- SAXON PERIOD
Domestic building was largely dependent upon
the use of timber, but little evidence remains of
methods of construction. The masonry of church
building s from about the middle of the 7th
century shows sign of dependence on Timber
prototypes, as in the long and short works in
groins.
RESTORED-----------------

S. BENET: CAMBRGE TOWER

EARLS BARTON: TOWER

Pilaster strips derived from the ‘ Liesenen’ of the Carolingian Rhineland, and blind arcading.
BRADFORD. ON.
AVON CH:
WILTS
TRIANGULAR- headed openings

DEERHURST: GLO’STERSHIRE: WINDOW

Turned balusters, and mid- wall shafts.

EARLS BARTON TOWER WINDOW

Before the period of Heptarchy, architecture of
any pretension free from direct Roman influence
was in framed timber. But link in earlier stone-
built forms was expressed in some permanent
post- Carolingian building in Ireland where in
spite of remoteness from Rome, there were
strong early connections with the Coptic church
in Egypt.
The Olatory of Gallerus, near Dingle in Kerry is a
Monastic cell of the 6th or 7th century,
rectangular in plan, in the form of corbel vault,
smooth worked internally, and with a pointed
extrados.
ORATORY OF GALLERUS, DINGLE, COUNTRY KERR (6TH OR 7TH CENTURY)
The introduction of Carolingian fashions in
church building in England followed Benedictine
reforms and the monastic revival of the late 10th
century. The two main important characteristic
were the claustral plan, of which the archetype
was that of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and the
Basilican aisled hall for thee body of church,
which had been anticipated in England only in
the work of St. Wilfrid.
Aisled naves
were not
common in
lesser churches,
but they did
occasionally
occur in examples
such as
those at wing.
Buckinghamshire.

WING : BUCKS
Central and western oxial church towers
appeared commonly during the 10th century.

The slightly later Saxon

cathedral at North Elmham
had 2 oxial towers,
an eastern apse, and fully
developed transepts either
developed from pastaphories
or derived from
Carolingian Germany
from the ‘Bema’ of the early
church in Rome.

DEERHURST : GLOS
10th and 11th century towers were occasionally
terminated in a form of short hipped spire
springing from each apex of the four gables on
the tower faces. This is patently a device
imported from the High Romanesque Churches
of the Rhineland and an English example of this
‘Rhenish Spire’ or Saxon Helm’ is that of
sompting in Essex.
*helm roof - a roof having
4 faces, each of which is steeply
pitched so that they form a spire,
the 4 ridges rise to the point
of the spire from a base of
four gables.

SOMPTING TOWER
The most sophisticated of Anglo- Saxon masonry
building includes the decorative devices of
Carolingian Germany probably based on timber
forms inherited from Roman antiquity (pilaster
strips, triangular arcading and the ubiquitous
monolithic arch with impost blocks),
occasionally is associated with ashlar facing and
either in- and- out bands ‘ long and short works’
in quoins.
BOARHUNT CH: HANTS
One distinctive characteristic
Of stone moulding was
the use of a projecting
hood mould to
internal arcades,
as in Wing and in
St. Benet at Cambridge.

S. BENET: CAMBRIDGE: IMPOST

 c. Norman Period
During the last 3 decades of the 11th century
there was an enormous surge of military and
church building centered particularly upon the
great Benedictine abbeys. In greater church
architecture, the characteristic directly or
indirectly inherited from Cluny were the long
exemplified in Norwich (14 bays).
NORWICH
NORWICH CATHEDRAL
St. Albans (13 bays) and Winchester
(12 bays), and also double transepts
and (the ‘patriarchal’ plan) as seen in Conrad’s
work at Canterbury of about 1100.

CANTERBURY
CANTERBURY
Features imported
directly from
Normandy
are the typical
Benedictine plan
having three
eastern apses,
such as those
in Durham and
Peterborough.

DURHAM
DURHAM
It also occurred transept apses (‘absidoles’)
introduced by Archbishop Lanfranc at Canterbury in
1065. Groined aisle vaults were built in the nave at
Ely after 1087, but no high groin vault was even
attempted in Norman England. The earliest great
church designed initially and entirely with a
ribvaulting system is Durham cathedral, where work
was began in 1093; the choir aisle vaults, with
depressed segmental diagonal ribs, were finished in
1096, the high vault of the eastern arm in 1107 and
the nave about 1132.
The significant difference between these and
the quadripartite vaults of Durham is that the
English version combines the ribbed vault with
single nave bays, having alternating cylindrical
and compound piers from the shaft of which
spring heavy transverse pointed arches.
Mouldings are generally enriched by
comentional carving with increased vigour
through the late 11th and 12th century. Doorways
and windows have jambs in square recesses or
‘orders’ enclosing nook- shafts. These orders are
frequently carved with zigzag and back- head
ornament.
Windows are small and the internal jambs are deeply splayed.
Piers, short and massive ,
are cylindrical or polygonal

While at Durham Lozenge, chevron

and vertical channelings were
worked on a cylindrical piers.

Compound piers, with rectangular recesses containing shafts , were

often used alternately with cylindrical piers. The shape was
influenced by the vaulting shafts which they supported.

S. TRANSEPT LOOK ,
PETRBOROUGH CATHEDRAL
The small shafts in the
recessed ‘orders’ of doorways
and windows were
sometimes
richly carved.
Capitals are
usually cubic form or
cushion type,
sometimes
carved and scalloped,
but some, such as
the iconic capital in the
tower of London,
are reminiscent
of Roman architecture.

Arcading of intersecting
arches along aisle walls
is frequent, and is often
piled up in storeys
to ornament the whole
walls.

INTERNAL BAY: PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL

 2. Secular
Timber Buildings
roofs were
coloured, sometimes
Early Mediaeval minor domestic architecture in
with lozenge-generally
Scandinavia shaped conformed to the strong
panels, as of
tradition at Peterborough
timber construction, and a little
and the restored
original roof An example is at
works survive.
inTynnelso.
WalthamThe Abbey gives
lower storey is a cross- vaulted
anundercroft
idea of the originalused for storage and
probably
colour treatment.
occasional accommodation of livestock, with a
Hanging
hall andtapestries
chamber at first- floor level.
gave warmth and
interest to interiors.
 EXAMPLES
BRITAIN
1. Cathedral Churches
a. The old foundation
Served by secular clergy.
b. Monastic foundation
Originally served by regular clergy or monks, and were
reconstituted at the Dissolution of the monasteries as
chapters of secular canons.
c. New foundation
The cathedral of the new foundation are those to
which bishops have been more recently appointed.
EXTERIOR OF PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL
 PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL: TRANSVERSE SECTION THRO’ CHOIR

Peterborough Cathedral- fine Norman interior, original nave timber ceiling, choir apse
enclosed by late 15th century work.
Others- Bristol, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chichester, Durham, Exeter Rochester, oxford,
Worcester.
2. Monastic Buildings
A representative example of mature largely Romanesque monastic architecture is
Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.

FOUNTAINS ABBEY: YORKSHIRE PLAN

2. Secular Buildings
Early Mediaeval minor domestic architecture in
Scandinavia generally conformed to the strong
tradition of timber construction, and a little
original works survive. An example is at
Tynnelso. The lower storey is a cross- vaulted
undercroft probably used for storage and
occasional accommodation of livestock, with a
hall and chamber at first- floor level.
The gatehouse led into the outer court; south of
this were the guest house and infirmary of the
conversi, or lay brethren, and east of it was the
cellarium, no less than 90 m (300 ft.) long,
comprising storehouses and refectory of these
conversi on the lower floor, with their dormitory
above. Opposite the gatehouse is the comentual
church, of which the nave and transepts date
from about 1147. The transept known as the
chapel of the Nine Altars was built.
The towers, by Abbot Huby (1494-1526) is still the
dominating feature. The door in the south- east
angle of the naves leads into the cloister court,
round which were ranged the chapter house, the
monks refectory, the kitchen with 2 great
fireplaces, and along side was a washing lavatory.
Still farther east were the cell for refectory monks
and the abbot’s lodge, north of which a corridor led
to the infirmary hall, with adjacent chape, cellar
and kitchen. The chapter house was rectangular,
and against the walls were stone benches rising one
above another on which the monks sat.
*refectory-a hall in a convent, monastery or public
secular institution where meals are eaten.
3. Castles
a. Anglo- Saxon Period- there were no
castles, as the Forts or ‘burhs’ built at this time
were for community use; privately speaking
castles were privates strongholds for king and
lord, and were an outcome of the feudal system,
which did not apply in England after the
conquest.
 b. Norman Period- there were 1500 castles
in England and 1200 were founded in the 11th to
12th centuries. Only a few of the most important
had stone keeps from the outset, the majority
began as ‘Motte and Bailey’ earthworks. The
flat- topped crest sometimes was broad enough
to accommodate a timber dwelling. In other
cases it served solely as a citadel, carrying a
wooden defense tower, raised on angle posts.
*motte- a steep mound of earth surrounded by
a ditch and surmounted by a timber stockade
and tower; the main feature of a Norman castle.
*bailey- the open area within a mediaeval
fortification; the outer wall of a feudal castle.
The dwelling and ancillary buildings then were
sited in the bailey, this being a zone which
looped from the foot of the Motte, defined by
ditches and earthen ramparts. The fringe of the
Motte crest and the summit of the earth
ramparts were lined by palisades of close-set
timber baulks, or occasionally by rough
stonewalls.
*rampart- earthen or masonry defense wall
fortified site.

*palisade- a series of stout poles, pointed on top

and driven into the earth, use as a fence or
fortification.

*baulks- a squared timber used in building

construction or a low ridge of earth that marks a
boundary line.
WINDSOR CASTLE: AERIAL VIEW
The greatest castles of the period had stone
‘donjons’ (now a days known as keeps) rather
than mottes, and similarly had baileys related to
them. The earliest type was the rectangular
‘hall- keep’ in which the great hall and private
chamber were laid side by side, above the
storage at ground level. About 1125 the ‘tower-
keep’ became a frequent variant, the private
chamber then being above the hall; and by 1150
practice was turning in favour to the polygonal
or circular plan since the square- angled keep
was vulnerable to mining.
Tower of London-
a hall – keep assumed its form as a ‘concentric’ castle, with
successive lines of fortification. Here the rectangular keep of
three storeys- the upper was divided into two, later on- 28 m (92
ft) in height, stands in the center of an inner bailey, surrounded
by a wall with 13 towers which is, in its turn, enclosed by an
outer bailey and wall with 8 towers and an encircling moat.
 OTHER EXAMPLES

orford, Suffolk

Castle Hedingman, Essex Conisborough, Yorkshire

4. Manor Houses
One of the earliest types of dwelling in England was the
aisled hall, known well before Roman times. In Anglo-
Saxon times it could be on the one hand a palace or
mansion or on the other a husbandman’s steading,
accommodating corn and fodder in the ‘nave’, oxen and
horses in the ‘aisle’ and living quarters in the end
opposite the entrance.

*Manor House- the most important house in a country or village

neighborhood.
 Norman Period
Such few examples as remain are mostly at the south- east. In the majority, stone-
built, the domestic accommodation is raised on the first floor, over an ‘undercroft’ or
storage ‘cellar’.

*undercroft- a vaulted basement of a

church or secret passage, often wholly
or partly below ground level. Also a crypt.

*cellar- a storey having half or more

of its clear height below grade.

MEDIAEVAL MANOR HOUSES

BOOTHBY PASNELL (NORMAN)
On the first floor there might be a little more
than one room, the hall, or additionally a
smaller private chamber or ‘solar’ at the
opposite end to the entrance. Cooking was
probably done outdoors, and supplementary
accommodation provided in frail shelters
elsewhere in the enclosure.

*solar- a room or apparent on an upper floor, as

in an Early English dwelling house.
The second type, often wholly in timber, was a ‘nave- and- aisle’ single- storey structure
like a very simple church all ancillary needs being provided for separately, as before. Roofs
in general were of the ‘trussed rafter’ kind typical in the typical in the South- east, lacking
a ridge- piece, in the North- West, there normally were principals spaced down the length
of the building, carrying purlins and a heavy ridge.

----------------------------5’6”-----------------------------

THE SOLAR
 SCANDINAVIA
Truly Romanesque characteristic did not appear
in the architecture of Scandinavia until both
British and Continental European influences
upon church building in stone became effective
toward the middle of the 11th century.
The most highly developed form of stave church has an
inner timber colonnade which contributes to a basilican
section with a (blind) clear- storey, and a steep scissors-
trussed roof.

Mediaeval dwellings in Scandinavia show a continuous

tradition of timber building, particularly in Norway. The
customary technique was a form of ‘Lafting’ making
use of logs lapped at their ends.

*lapped- a joint form by placing one piece partly over

another and uniting the overlapped portions.
Masonry techniques in church building
readily revealed an early dependence
particularly upon English and Norman
models churches at Husaby.

And church at Sigtuna, have oxial towers

and eastern apses, with either continuous
or crossing vaults.

S. PETER, SIGTUNA: PLAN

A series of round churches on Bornholm represent an incident in Danish
progress towards a mature Romanesque Architecture. The Bornholm
examples are all of the 12th century, and have central vault piers, apsidal
projections and bold plan buttresses.

OSTERLAR CHURCH, BORNHOLM ISLAND DENMARK

12th century cathedral churches in Scandinavia
show a progressively wore mature Romanesque
character, incorporating the effects of Norman
and German development n masonry
techniques and structural design aimed at fully-
vaulted composition. Earlier precedents at
Roskildae in Denmark were based upon a simple
aisled nave with an aisle choir and a square west
end projecting between two towers. Lund
cathedral displays a marked Rhine- Lombardic
character.
 EXAMPLES
1. Religious Buildings
The Stave churches represent a most distinctive
indigenous architectural phenomenon of the
early middle ages in Scandinavia.
*stave church- a Scandinavian wooden church
with vertical planks forming the walls.

BORGUND CHURCH: PLAN

This church have an internal timber collonade and basilican

section.
Stone- built church architecture in Scandinavia,
was most profoundly influenced by Norman and
Anglo- Norman Benedictine fashion. Earlier
examples, such as Husaby church while
reflecting some of the Carolingian characteristic
of this tradition, such as the oxial western tower
and eastern apse, also adopted some of the
Anglo- Saxon features of the 9th and 10th
centuries, such as mid- wall shafts in window
openings.
Lund cathedral was built after 1103 to an
enlarged design by Donatus, probably a
Lombard architect. The plan is organized on a
double- bay system, possibly modelled upon
that of Speyer and incorporates a western
tribune and towers begun about 1150 but
completed in Lombardic style. Richly decorated
capitals, arches and Tympana reflect a
continuing Nordic tradition.
LUND CATHEDRAL, SWEDEN LUND CATHEDRAL, DOORWAY
DETAIL
Thank you!
 Norwich (14 bays)

Norwich (14 bays)

Winchester Cathedral
St. Albans Cathedral Bays