Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [35]
Archaeological excavations in the crypt of the 12th-century Basilique de St-Denis have uncovered extensive tombs from both the Merovingian and Carolingian periods. The oldest of these dates from around AD 570.
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ROMANESQUE
A religious revival in the 11th century led to the construction of a large number of roman (Romanesque) churches, so-called because their architects adopted many architectural elements (eg vaulting) from Gallo-Roman buildings still standing at the time. Romanesque buildings typically have round arches, heavy walls, few windows that let in very little light, and a lack of ornamentation that borders on the austere.
No civic buildings or churches in Paris are entirely Romanesque in style, but a few have important representative elements. The Église St-Germain des Prés Click here, built in the 11th century on the site of the Merovingian ruler Childeric’s 6th-century abbey, has been altered many times over the centuries, but the Romanesque bell tower over the west entrance has changed little since 1000. There are also some decorated capitals (the upper part of the supporting columns) in the nave dating from this time. The choir, apse and truncated bell tower of the Église St-Nicholas des Champs (Map), just south of the Musée des Arts et Métiers, are Romanesque dating from about 1130. The Église St-Germain L’Auxerrois was built in a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles between the 13th and 16th centuries on a site used for Christian worship since about AD 500. But the square belfry that rises from next to the south transept arm is Romanesque in style.
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GOTHIC
The Gothic style originated in the mid-12th century in northern France, where great wealth attracted the finest architects, engineers and artisans. Gothic structures are characterised by ribbed vaults carved with great precision, pointed arches, slender verticals, chapels (often built or endowed by the wealthy or by guilds), galleries and arcades along the nave and chancel, refined decoration and large stained-glass windows. If you look closely at certain Gothic buildings, however, you’ll notice minor asymmetrical elements introduced to avoid monotony.
The world’s first Gothic building was the Basilique de St-Denis, which combined various late-Romanesque elements to create a new kind of structural support in which each arch counteracted and complemented the next. Begun in around 1135, the basilica served as a model for many other 12th-century French cathedrals, including Notre Dame de Paris and the cathedral at Chartres.
In the 14th century, the Rayonnant – or Radiant – Gothic style, which was named after the radiating tracery of the rose windows, developed, with interiors becoming even lighter thanks to broader windows and more-translucent stained glass. One of the most influential Rayonnant buildings was Ste-Chapelle, whose stained glass forms a curtain of glazing on the 1st floor. The two transept façades of the Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris and the vaulted Salle des Gens d’Armes (Cavalrymen’s Hall) in the Conciergerie, the largest surviving medieval hall in Europe, are other fine examples of the Rayonnant Gothic style.
By the 15th century, decorative extravagance led to what is now called Flamboyant Gothic, so named because the wavy stone carving made the towers appear to be blazing or flaming (flamboyant). Beautifully lacy examples of Flamboyant architecture include the Clocher Neuf (New Bell Tower) at Chartres’ Cathédrale Notre Dame, the Église St-Séverin (Map) and the Tour St-Jacques, a 52m tower which is all that remains of an early-16th-century church. Inside the Église St-Eustache, there’s some outstanding Flamboyant Gothic arch work holding up the ceiling of the chancel. Several hôtels particuliers (private mansions) were also built in this style, including the Hôtel de