Eight Elements Of Gothic Architecture

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Congress Street in Portland, Maine exemplifies many aspects of the style of Gothic architecture. The style originated in France in the 12th century and continued into the 16th century. Gothic architecture was an evolution of Romanesque architecture and was replaced by Renaissance architecture. Gothic churches ended up being recognized as the peak of medieval architecture. The style of Gothic architecture was created by a man named Abbot Suger. His goal was to create a style of church that was different from the short, bulky, and dark romanesque churches. He called this style “Modern,” and in return his gainsayers, who were uncomfortable with the change in architecture, called it “Gothic.” Which …show more content…
The doors and windows are shaped as pointed arches, which is a main characteristic that made Gothic architecture possible. The pointed arches were much more able to distribute the pressure of a building, which allowed for more lenience when putting the building together. They allowed for thinner walls, taller buildings, and more windows. This was first seen in early Islamic architecture. The doors were decorated with thin rectangles on the lower portions, thin rectangular windows on the middle portion, with square and triangle windows on the top portion. The larger windows of the cathedral all had a very sharp arch, while some of the smaller windows had a much more dulled arch. Another noticeable aspect of this building are the spires and pinnacles. The larger spire of this cathedral is on the right side of the front of the building. A smaller one is on the left of it. There are a couple more in the back of the building. The tapered part, or pinnacle, of the spire makes up about half the height of the building. It is a blue to gray color, depending on lighting, and holds a white cross at the top. The spire has a small door at it’s base, with three sets of windows extending up the …show more content…
The ones that were used were taller and thinner than what had been previously. At the Church of Immaculate Conception the columns were white and somewhat cubed in shaped, though the cube was made up of multiple cylinders. At the point where the columns started to arch there were gold colored, pointed One of the main purposes of gothic architecture was to allow light to enter the buildings and to create a “heavenly” environment. Stained glass was used to tell the story of Jesus and Christianity. Most of the people who would have attended these churches would have been illiterate, having the windows helped to convey the word of God to as many people as possible. The visual story of Christianity was also portrayed by the sculptural reliefs around the inside of the building. Inside the Cathedral there was a small fountain that had a sculpture of a small church with Jesus carrying the cross on top of it. Although fountains were not a huge part of Gothic Architecture, they have played a large role in many different religions. In Christianity, water shows up multiple times as a representation of cleansing as you are accepting into the religion and when you are washed of