Norman architecture


The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture. The Normans introduced large numbers of castles and fortifications including Norman keeps, and at the same time monasteries, abbeys, churches and cathedrals, in a style characterised by the usual Romanesque rounded arches and especially massive proportions compared to other regional variations of the style.

Origins

These Romanesque styles originated in Normandy and became widespread in northwestern Europe, particularly in England, which contributed considerable development and where the largest number of examples survived. At about the same time, a Norman dynasty that ruled in Sicily produced a distinctive variation–incorporating Byzantine and Saracen influences–also known as Norman architecture.
The term "Norman" may have originated with eighteenth-century antiquarians, but its usage in a sequence of styles has been attributed to Thomas Rickman in his 1817 work An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation. In this work he used the labels "Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular". The more inclusive term "Romanesque" was used of the Romance languages in English by 1715, and was applied to architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries from 1819.
Although Edward the Confessor built the original Westminster Abbey in Romanesque style, its construction pre-dates the Norman Conquest: it is still believed to have been the earliest major Romanesque building in England. No other significant remaining Romanesque architecture in Britain can clearly be shown to pre-date the Norman Conquest. However, historians believe that many surviving "Norman" elements in buildings–nearly all churches–may well be Anglo-Saxon elements.

Norman arch

The Norman arch is a defining point of Norman architecture. Grand archways are designed to evoke feelings of awe and are very commonly seen as the entrance to large religious buildings such as cathedrals. Norman arches are semicircular in form. Early examples have plain, square edges; later ones are often enriched with the zig-zag and roll mouldings. The arches are supported on massive columns, generally plain and cylindrical, sometimes with spiral decoration; occasionally, square-section piers are found. Main doorways have a succession of receding semicircular arches, often decorated with mouldings, typically of chevron or zig-zag design; sometimes there is a tympanum at the back of the head of the arch, which may feature sculpture representing a Biblical scene. Norman windows are mostly small and narrow, generally of a single round-headed light; but sometimes, especially in a bell tower, divided by a shaft into two lights.

Normandy

invaders arrived at the mouth of the river Seine in Normandy in 911, at a time when Franks were fighting on horseback and Frankish lords were building castles. Over the next century the population of the territory ceded to the Vikings adopted these customs as well as Christianity and the langue d'oïl. Norman barons built timber castles on earthen mounds, beginning the development of motte-and-bailey castles, and great stone churches in the Romanesque style of the Franks. By 950, they were building stone keeps. The Normans were among the most travelled peoples of Europe, exposing them to a wide variety of cultural influences which became incorporated in their art and architecture. They elaborated on the early Christian basilica plan. Their churches were originally longitudinal with side aisles and an apse. They then began to add towers, as at the Church of Saint-Étienne at Caen, in 1067. This would eventually form a model for the larger English cathedrals some 20 years later, after they had invaded and conquered England.

England

In England, Norman nobles and bishops had influence before the Norman Conquest of 1066, and Norman influences affected late Anglo-Saxon architecture. Edward the Confessor was brought up in Normandy and in 1042 brought masons to work on the first Romanesque building in England, Westminster Abbey. In 1051 he brought in Norman knights who built "motte" castles as a defence against the Welsh. Following the invasion, Normans rapidly constructed motte-and-bailey castles along with churches, abbeys, and more elaborate fortifications such as Norman stone keeps.
The buildings show massive proportions in simple geometries using small bands of sculpture. Paying attention to the concentrated spaces of capitals and round doorways as well as the tympanum under an arch. The "Norman arch" is the rounded, often with mouldings carved or incised onto it for decoration. chevron patterns, frequently termed "zig-zag mouldings", were a frequent signature of the Normans. The cruciform churches often had deep chancels and a square crossing tower which has remained a feature of English ecclesiastical architecture. Hundreds of parish churches were built and the great English cathedrals were founded from 1083.
After a fire damaged Canterbury Cathedral in 1174 Norman masons introduced the new Gothic architecture. Around 1191 Wells Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral brought in the English Gothic style, and Norman became increasingly a modest style of provincial building.

Ecclesiastical architecture

  • Oxford Castle 1074: church tower doubles as a place of refuge
  • St John's Chapel, Tower of London
  • Durham Cathedral was the first to employ a ribbed vault system with pointed arches
  • Winchester Cathedral
  • Ely Cathedral
  • Peterborough Cathedral
  • Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire
  • St Nicholas Church, Pyrford, Surrey
  • Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire
  • St Mary the Virgin, Iffley, Oxfordshire
  • St Swithun's in Nately Scures, Hampshire, an example of a Norman single-cell apsidal church.
  • Norwich Cathedral
  • St Edward's Church, Stow-on-the-Wold
  • St Botolph's Priory, Colchester
  • St John's Abbey, Colchester
  • Tewkesbury Abbey
  • St Germans Priory, Cornwall
  • Church of St Peter and St Paul, Trottiscliffe, Kent
  • St Peter's Church, Tickencote, Rutland – Norman chancel
  • Dunstable Priory, Bedfordshire
Bibliography
  • Sedding, Edmund H. Norman Architecture in Cornwall: a handbook to old ecclesiastical architecture. With over 160 plates. London: Ward & Co.

    Military architecture

  • White Tower
  • Rochester Castle
  • Norwich Castle
  • Colchester Castle, the largest Norman castle built and the first stone Keep in England
  • Hedingham Castle, Essex
  • Carrickfergus Castle, the best preserved Norman castle on the island of Ireland. Though it was heavily renovated, the keep, land walls and gatehouse are reasonably intact.

    Domestic architecture

  • Jew's House, Lincoln
  • Boothby Pagnell Manor, Lincolnshire
  • Oakham Castle, Rutland
  • Moyse's Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

    Scotland

also came under early Norman influence with Norman nobles at the court of King Macbeth around 1050. His successor Máel Coluim III overthrew him with English and Norman assistance, and his queen, Margaret, encouraged the church. The Benedictine order founded a monastery at Dunfermline. Her sixth and youngest son, who became King David, built St. Margaret's Chapel at the start of the 12th century.

Ecclesiastical architecture

  • Dunfermline Abbey, Dunfermline
  • St Andrew Cathedral
  • St. Margaret's Chapel, Edinburgh Castle
  • Dalmeny parish church
  • St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall
  • Jedburgh Abbey, Jedburgh
  • St Athernase Church, Leuchars
  • Kirkliston Parish Church, Edinburgh

    Ireland

The Normans first landed in Ireland in 1169. Within five years earthwork castles were springing up, and in a further five, work was beginning on some of the earliest of the great stone castles. For example, Hugh de Lacy built a Motte-and-bailey castle on the site of the present day Trim Castle, County Meath, which was attacked and burned in 1173 by the Irish king Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair. De Lacy, however, then constructed a stone castle in its place, which enclosed over three acres within its walls, and this could not be burned down by the Irish. The years between 1177 and 1310 saw the construction of some of the greatest of the Norman castles in Ireland. The Normans settled mostly in an area in the east of Ireland, later known as the Pale, and among other buildings they constructed were Swords Castle in Fingal, Dublin Castle and Carrickfergus Castle in County Antrim.

Italy

Mezzogiorno

The Normans began constructing castles, their trademark architectural piece, in Italy from an early date. William Iron Arm built one at an unidentified location in Calabria in 1045. After the death of Robert Guiscard in 1085, the Mezzogiorno experienced a series of civil wars and fell under the control of increasingly weaker princes. Revolts characterised the region until well into the twelfth century and minor lords sought to resist ducal or royal power from within their own castles. In the Molise, the Normans embarked on their most extensive castle-building programme and introduced the opus gallicum technique to Italy. Their clever use of the local stone artisans, together with the vast riches amassed from their enslaved population, made such tremendous feats possible, some as majestic as those of the ancient Roman structures they tried to emulate.
Besides the encastellation of the countryside, the Normans erected several religious buildings which still survive. They edified the shrine at Monte Sant'Angelo and built a mausoleum to the Hauteville family at Venosa. They also built many new Latin monasteries, including the famous foundation of Sant'Eufemia Lamezia. Other examples of great importance are the portal of the Shrine of Mary Queen of Anglona and the ambulatory and radiating chapels of the Aversa Cathedral.
Here is a list of Norman architecture in the Mezzogiorno :
  • Castle of Circello.
  • Castle Monforte.
  • Basilica of St. Peter Alli Marmi