Gothic Cathedral Floor Plan Labeled

November 01, 2022

Transcription

Over a hundred-year period, from around 1140 to 1240 CE, ten of the finest Gothic cathedrals in Europe were built in a small region of France: an area surrounding Paris called Île-de-France. The ground plan of Chartres Cathedral is in the shape of a Latin cross: the nave, the choir and the transepts meet in a central crossing. Like other Gothic cathedrals, Chartres used architectural innovations to create an edifice of a kind never seen before. Only the porch on the west facade of the old building survived the fire; it is lucky because it has preserved the superb 12th century column statues of the Portail Royal, a richly sculpted entrance. In Gothic cathedrals, three pairs of pointed arches are arranged to form a structure called a pointed vault. The solution to this problem was a feature that characterized the Gothic style and facilitated the scale of cathedrals like Chartres: the flying buttress. Since flying buttresses obviated the need for solid walls, large spaces could be filled with colored glass, bathing the interior in a light that medieval architects called "lux nova", Latin for new light. During the reconstruction of the cathedral in the 13th century, a maze in blue and white stone was laid on the floor inside the west facade. Visitors to France can see many beautiful Gothic cathedrals, but only Chartres has survived almost intact. Entering the cathedral still gives a vivid impression of the awe felt by medieval pilgrims as they discovered an interior lit by celestial light, filtered through the stained glass windows.

Architecture Of Gothic Medieval Cathedrals

The plan of most medieval Gothic churches is in the form of a Latin cross or "cruciform". This means that the body of the building consists of a long nave which extends on an east-west axis crossed by the transept, then by the choir, the choir or the presbytery, all called aspe, extended beyond . The transept, the crosspiece of the church, can either be the same width as the nave and aisles, or extend beyond the aisles on both sides, giving the building a more pronounced cross shape.

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