Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
The Cathedral of Girona and the Language of Equilibrium
Traditionally, the history of architecture in Europe has been divided into styles, with common characteristics applicable to different places. But even within the same style, architecture has sought different objectives and consequently has developed different languages. This is the case of Gothic architecture in south-east Europe, where a distinctive Gothic architectural language was developed in order to achieve different goals. While in central Europe vaults became geometrically more and more complex, efforts in the Mediterranean area concentrated on constructing large and sober spaces, leaving the sophisticated interlacing of ribs and mouldings to details (the tas-de-charge, the base of columns etc.). In this region, it appears that the challenge for builders was to construct very large structures with wide vaults. In fact the widest nave in a Gothic cathedral was built in Girona, with a span of 23 and a height of 35 m; the largest nave (19 m span, 44 m height) is that of Palma de Mallorca; and the largest Gothic vault covers the Sala dei Baroni in Napoli, with a span of 26 m. These dimensions compare well with the great Roman thermae (fig. 1). This similarity, togeth er with the austere decoration, led the Spanish architectural historian Torres Balbas to comment: «If from the Levantine temples the decoration and the ribs of the vaults are removed ( . ) they would look like great Roman rooms.
The Cathedral of Girona and the Language of Equilibrium
Traditionally, the history of architecture in Europe has been divided into styles, with common characteristics applicable to different places. But even within the same style, architecture has sought different objectives and consequently has developed different languages. This is the case of Gothic architecture in south-east Europe, where a distinctive Gothic architectural language was developed in order to achieve different goals. While in central Europe vaults became geometrically more and more complex, efforts in the Mediterranean area concentrated on constructing large and sober spaces, leaving the sophisticated interlacing of ribs and mouldings to details (the tas-de-charge, the base of columns etc.). In this region, it appears that the challenge for builders was to construct very large structures with wide vaults. In fact the widest nave in a Gothic cathedral was built in Girona, with a span of 23 and a height of 35 m; the largest nave (19 m span, 44 m height) is that of Palma de Mallorca; and the largest Gothic vault covers the Sala dei Baroni in Napoli, with a span of 26 m. These dimensions compare well with the great Roman thermae (fig. 1). This similarity, togeth er with the austere decoration, led the Spanish architectural historian Torres Balbas to comment: «If from the Levantine temples the decoration and the ribs of the vaults are removed ( . ) they would look like great Roman rooms.
The Cathedral of Girona and the Language of Equilibrium
Huerta Fernández, Santiago (Autor:in) / Fuentes González, Paula (Autor:in)
01.01.2020
The Cathedral of Girona and the Language of Equilibrium | En: Konstruktionsprachen. Überlegungen zur Periodisierung von Bautechnikgeschichte | pag. 183-202 | Birkhäuser | 2020
Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
DDC:
720
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