An illustrated Survey of Romanesque Architecture, 300 to 1300 AD.
To see and read all comments you have to download the entire post to your hard disk.

The objective of this Post is to present a survey of 'Romanesque' architecture which brings together over 250 churches and cathedrals from the earliest beginnings of Christian architecture to the Gothic. Each example is illustrated with the best images I could find.

This period of Art History is amply documented in innumerable treatises and table-top books, why add another illustrated review? The answer becomes immediately apparent when one downloads the entire Post and expands it in Google-Earth.

In contrast to the customary organization of architectural history by countries this post is arranged in chronological order. The geographical locations are given by the GE map. This allows one to compare the development of different architectural styles in time and space. It leads to the 'discovery' of, for instance, the seminal character of the architecture of Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Byzantium, the Goths in Spain, the 336 excommunicated heretic Ariani-Christians, and the Anglo-Saxons in England.

Two styles of early Christian architecture originated in the East in the 3rd-4th cent.: a Basilica and a centralized Cruciform Church. The Basilica derived from Roman provincial palaces in Syria and elsewhere, hence the designation of 'Romanesque Architecture'. Because of the need of the large western congrations the Basilica spread West.


Syria, the basilica of Kharrab Shams, (372).
Photo by Raki_Man, Panoramio

Several of the most beautiful early basilicas are found in Ariani-Christian Ravenna.


Interior of St. Apollinare in Classe (549).
Photo from vito buccellato, Panoramio

The centralized Cruciform design, distantly related to Roman baths and often erected over the tombs of Saints, is the basic shape of Byzantine architecture in the East. The greatest example is, of course, the Hagia Sofia (532) in Constantinople


Interior of the Aghia Sophia. (532)
Photo Wikipedia

An exceptionally pure, less-known example of an early Cruciform church is found in Georgia.


Djvari Mtskheta (Tbilisi), St. Nino's church, (6th cent.)
Photo RWFG.

Another intent of this collection is to show lesser known buildings together with the famous cathedrals. The small, remote churches often have retained their original shape, mosaics and frescoes - a special interest of mine - which were lost to progressive modifications in the great cathedrals. The churches of Ravenna are the most glorious examples of surviving mosaics.


Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (430). The window panes are thin alabaster slices!
Photo RWFG

Some of the rare examples of frescoes are found in the few surviving Spanish Visigoth churches.


Mozarab frescoes in the hermitage of San Baudelio de Berlanga (early 11th cent)
Photo by VICMAEL, Panoramio

and the frescoes in the tiny church in St. Jaques-des-Guerets in Northern France (1140)


Christ in Majesty. (1140)
Photo Wikipedia.

I have collected for the first time these lesser known buildings and many of the famous cathedrals on the GE map. In doing that I have tried to let the images speak, keeping long discussions to a minimum. Their selection is notabene incomplete and reflects my personal likes and interests. - Obviously, there are hundreds of other notable examples. I am open to qualified suggestions.

Permission to link to photographs on other websites - especially those of Panoramio - have been granted or are being requested. Please notify me of any actual or perceived violations of copyright agreements. I will unconditionally remove any images that are protected.

RWFG, August 2008.

Another wonderful architecture post from RWFG! Thanks for gathering the lovely photos. The first thing I thought when I saw the cruciform church in Tbilisi was, "Oh no! I hope it's all right!!!" Let's hope no Russian missles got to it.

Thank you for this excellent post, Rolf.

Diane

Hello RWFG,
Great post! However, I am unable to download the Google Earth version. I keep getting an error message "wrong parameter". Perhaps it is somehow my doing, but on the other hand the download counter shows no downloads at all for the Google Earth version and hundreds for the Google Maps version, which might point to some error on your part...
Keep up the good work,
little drummerboy (Brioude Basilique picture)

I sent you an e- mail with an attachment which may help you out of your problems. It was returned. I sent it again - please unblock your spam filter to pass a mail from rolf457"(at) gmail (dot) com.

Greetings
Rolf
RWFG

I promoted you to "contact", so that hotmail won't block you. I left out the quote mark that you put in your address, since hotmail frowned upon it. I emailed you a reply in hotmail, but it bounced as well.

However, in the meantime I think I figured out how to work these kmz files. At first, I tried to open it straightaway, which gave me the error message. Next, I merely downloaded it and opened it from the Windows folder. It worked fine then. When I tried to directly open a big posting from someone else, I had the same hiccup, which also evaporated upon file download.

Still, it would appear that downloads "view in Google Earth" - as opposed to "view in Google Maps" - are not visibly counted and that seems peculiar...

Handshake,
Jaap Verbeek,
Oud-Beijerland, Netherlands
jaapLOOSETHISverbeekAThotmailDOTcom

Jaap, the figure you see next to "View in Google Earth" and "View in Google Maps" is the total for both types of download. Files of this size will often not open correctly in Google Maps, and if they do you don't get the full effect. It should open in Google Earth, I'm not sure why you are having problems with it, but I'm happy you've found a way to open it. I hope you enjoy it

Thank you Noisette for helping clear this up and good to see you are back

Rolf