An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but structural load-bearing arches became popular only after their adoption by the Ancient Romans in the 4th century BC.
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Romanesque is characterized by semicircular arches, while the Gothic is marked by the pointed arches. The Romanesque emerged nearly simultaneously in multiple countries ; its examples can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture. Similarly to Gothic, the name of the style was transferred onto the contemporary Romanesque art.
Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. It originated in the Île-de-France and Picardy regions of northern France. The style at the time was sometimes known as opus Francigenum ; the term Gothic was first applied contemptuously during the later Renaissance, by those ambitious to revive the architecture of classical antiquity.
The flying buttress is a specific form of buttress composed of a ramping arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey to the ground the lateral forces that push a wall outwards, which are forces that arise from vaulted ceilings of stone and from wind-loading on roofs.
A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly used in Gothic architecture.
A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic architecture, Romanesque architecture, and especially Gothic architecture. Thin stone panels fill the space between the ribs. This greatly reduced the weight and thus the outward thrust of the vault. The ribs transmit the load downward and outward to specific points, usually rows of columns or piers. This feature allowed architects of Gothic cathedrals to make higher and thinner walls and much larger windows.
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design. The barrel vault is the simplest form of a vault: effectively a series of arches placed side by side. It is a form of barrel roof.
The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Amiens, or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Catholic cathedral. The cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Amiens. It is situated on a slight ridge overlooking the River Somme in Amiens, the administrative capital of the Picardy region of France, some 120 kilometres north of Paris.
A voussoir is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.
In architecture, a vault is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while rings of voussoirs are constructed and the rings placed in position. Until the topmost voussoir, the keystone, is positioned, the vault is not self-supporting. Where timber is easily obtained, this temporary support is provided by centering consisting of a framed truss with a semicircular or segmental head, which supports the voussoirs until the ring of the whole arch is completed.
English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed arches, rib vaults, buttresses, and extensive use of stained glass. Combined, these features allowed the creation of buildings of unprecedented height and grandeur, filled with light from large stained glass windows. Important examples include Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral. The Gothic style endured in England much longer than in Continental Europe.
French Gothic architecture is an architectural style which emerged in France in 1140, and was dominant until the mid-16th century. The most notable examples are the great Gothic cathedrals of France, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, and Amiens Cathedral. Its main characteristics are verticality, or height, and the use of the rib vault and flying buttresses and other architectural innovations to distribute the weight of the stone structures to supports on the outside, allowing unprecedented height and volume. The new techniques also permitted the addition of larger windows, including enormous stained glass windows, which fill the cathedrals with light.
Historically, the term counter-arch was used in architecture to describe multiple types of arches that provide opposing action:
Romano-Gothic is a term, rarely used in writing in English, for an architectural style, part of Early Gothic architecture, which evolved in Europe in the 12th century from the Romanesque style, and was an early style in Gothic architecture. In England "Early English Gothic" remains the usual term. The style is characterized by rounded and pointed arches on a vertical plane. Flying buttresses were used, but are mainly undecorated. Romanesque buttresses were also used. Romano-Gothic began to use the decorative elements of Gothic architecture, but not the constructional principles of more fully Gothic buildings. However, the walls did start to become thinner by using some pointed arches and ribbed vaults to distribute weight more evenly.
Early Gothic is the term for the first period of Gothic architecture which lasted from about 1120 until about 1200. The early Gothic builders used innovative technologies to resolve the problem of masonry ceilings which were too heavy for the traditional arched barrel vault. The solutions to the problem came in the form of the rib vault, where thin stone ribs passed the weight of the ceiling to rows of columns and outside the walls to another innovation, the flying buttress.
A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown meet at an angle at the top of the arch. Also known as a two-centred arch, its form is derived from the intersection of two circles. This architectural element was particularly important in Gothic architecture. The earliest use of a pointed arch dates back to bronze-age Nippur. As a structural feature, it was first used in eastern Christian architecture, Byzantine architecture and Sasanian architecture, but in the 12th century it came into use in France and England as an important structural element, in combination with other elements, such as the rib vault and later the flying buttress. These allowed the construction of cathedrals, palaces and other buildings with dramatically greater height and larger windows which filled them with light.
In architecture, a semicircular arch is an arch with an intrados shaped like a semicircle. This type of arch was adopted and very widely used by the Romans, thus becoming permanently associated with Roman architecture.
A strainer arch is an internal structural arch built to relieve the inward pressure off the spanned vertical supports, usually as an afterthought to prevent the supports from imploding due to miscalculation. In the past they were frequently adorned with decoration, with one of the best examples provided by Wells Cathedral. Strainer arches can be "inverted" (upside-down) while remaining structural.
In architecture, a transverse arch is an arch in a vaulted building that goes across the barrel vault. A series of transverse arches sitting on tops of the columns on the sides of the nave was typical in the churches of Romanesque architecture. By analogy, the term is also used to describe the transverse ribs of a groined vault and for any crosswise arch in modern buildings. An arc that goes in transverse direction, but carries an exposed wall on top, dividing the vault into compartments, is called a diaphragm arch.
In architecture, a triangular arch typically defines an arch where the intrados consists of two straight segments formed by two stone slabs leaning against each other. In this roof-like arrangement, mitre joint is usually used at the crown, thus the arch was in the past also called a mitre arch. Brick builders would call triangular any arch with straight inclined sides. Mayan corbel arches are also sometimes called triangular due to their shape.
![Ramping arches at Palau Dalmases [ca] in Barcelona Palau Dalmases.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Palau_Dalmases.jpg/220px-Palau_Dalmases.jpg)
