Fatimid architecture

In the 10th to 12th centuries, an area including present-day Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily, Egypt and Syria came under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty who, through their dedication to building and design, triggered a renaissance in the decorative arts and the emergence of a common architectural vocabulary. Cairo (founded 969 CE), the ‘City of a Thousand Minarets’, became the cultural centre of the Islamic world.

Cairo’s first big mosque was Al-Azhar, ‘the splendid’ (969–73, opposite). It features a hypostyle prayer hall with five aisles, a central courtyard and a stucco exterior showing influences from Abbasid, Coptic and Byzantine architecture. The huge mosque of Al-Hakim (c.996–1013) consists of an open courtyard surrounded by four halls. The mosques of Al-Aqmar (1125) and Al-Salih Tala’i (c.1160) are among the first examples of monumental small mosques, built to serve local needs but still with ornate detail. The Fatimids also developed elaborate tombs, such as those of the Mamluk sultans outside the walls of Cairo.

Romanesque

While Byzantine and Islamic architecture were flourishing, areas of western Europe that had once been part of the Roman Empire were in decline. It was not until Charlemagne (c.742–814 CE) was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 that a significant new architectural style spread across Europe.

Charlemagne, determined to unite his empire and validate his reign, began building churches modelled after those of early Christian Rome. The resultant style was a fusion of Roman, Carolingian and Ottonian, Byzantine and Germanic traditions, with a generally massive and heavy quality. Romanesque churches were built on cruciform (cross-shaped) plans, with side aisles, galleries and a large tower over the nave and transept (central crossing point). Stone barrel or groin vaults supported the roofs, walls were thick, arches were usually semicircular and windows were both few and small. As the Romanesque spread across Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavia and England, it diversified into many local styles.

Church of Saint Nectaire, France, c.1150

Italian Romanesque churches

Despite its Roman Italian origin, the Romanesque style south of the Alps followed its own unique path – in part because of the political autonomy of the Italian regions. Romanesque churches in Italy generally followed the plan of traditional basilicas (see here) but, in Lombardy in particular, they developed a more ambitious appearance. Colourful Tuscan marble, used widely in Pisa and Florence, created strikingly variegated exteriors, in contrast to Romanesque churches elsewhere. For instance, San Miniato al Monte (pictured), built in the 12th century in Florence, follows a classical and elegant style, with blind arcades and a patterned marble façade. The Baptistery of St Giovanni, built in Florence in 1059–1128, is octagonal and embellished with white and green marble. The classically influenced buildings in Pisa’s Piazza del Duomo, begun in 1153, include the Baptistery, with its transitional Romanesque-Gothic style; the Duomo, or cathedral, sheathed in white banded marble and delicate arcades; and the famously leaning Campanile, or bell tower, also ringed with arcades.

Carolingian

The artistic revival inspired by the emperor Charlemagne later became known as the Carolingian Renaissance. While its architecture was a conscious attempt to emulate Roman achievements, it also borrowed heavily from early Christian and Byzantine styles and introduced new ideas of its own. Carolingian churches are generally basilican in shape, like the early Christian churches of Rome, and commonly incorporated the innovation of a westwork: a monumental west-facing entrance. The Palatine Chapel at Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle (792–805 CE, opposite) is a fine example: inspired by the sixth-century octagonal Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna, it also features a colossal westwork. Charlemagne commissioned the chapel along with his palace (which no longer stands), and drafted in builders from Italy. Based on an octagonal ring of arches, flanked by a circular gallery, the Palatine Chapel’s east end had a square apse, and was originally flanked by two basilica structures. Its designer, Odo of Metz (742–814 CE), is the earliest-known architect born north of the Alps.

Ottonian

The Ottonian style of architecture evolved during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great (936–75 CE). Following on from Carolingian, it developed in Germany and lasted from the mid-10th until the mid-11th century. Like Carolingian, Ottonian contributed to the wider Romanesque style. Among other traits, it adopted the Carolingian double-ended variation on the Roman basilica, with apses at both ends of the nave rather than just one. Ottonian builders retained the huge Carolingian westworks and outer crypts, but the architecture was generally simpler, more systematic and monumental.

Saint Michael’s in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony (founded c.1001) embodies the style, with two crypts, two apses and two transepts – each with a square crossing tower – in a geometric arrangement. The Ottonians also developed heavy columns and piers, wall arcades and blind arches around windows. Proportions were nevertheless simple and balanced, with careful attention paid to mathematical harmony.

Church of St Cyriakus, Frose, Germany, c.960

Vaults

Arched roofs of stone, or vaults, have been a fundamental element of architecture since early times. To create large open spaces, roofs had to span great distances, and for many early builders vaults were the only solution. In its simplest form a vault is an arch, and the simplest of all is the barrel vault (also called the waggon or tunnel vault), which is semicircular in section, like a cylinder cut in half lengthwise. Early examples of barrel vaulting go all the way back to the Sumerians, ancient Egyptians and, especially, the Romans. The Romans also used groin vaults, in which two barrel vaults cross at right angles, as at the transept of a church. (The groins are the arcs traced by the intersecting planes.) Romanesque developments enabled the joining of vaults of different spans and heights; but the great advance was the Gothic rib vault, in which the arcs evolved into raised ribs and load-bearing arches. Some rib vaulting became decorative and highly complex – such as sexpartite (six-panelled) vaults and fan vaulting – in the great Gothic churches and cathedrals built across medieval Europe.

Cluniac

During the 250 years after its foundation in 910 CE, the monastic house of Cluny (pictured) grew to be the most important in Europe. Thousands of monasteries and churches were built in its Romanesque style, spreading from Germany to France and often sited along popular 12th-century pilgrimages.

Among the most important of these was St Sernin in Toulouse (c.1080–1120), the largest church along the route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Built in a soft orange brick, on a crucifix plan, St Sernin has a long, barrel-vaulted nave with transverse arches and a 65-metre (213-ft) octagonal bell tower. The basilica is 115 metres (377 ft) long and 21 metres (69 ft) high, creating a vast, calm interior space. Nine chapels leading off the transepts and apse enabled pilgrims to pay their respects to relics, which in previous eras were usually hidden away from view in crypts. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela itself mirrors St Sernin: built in 1075–1122, mostly from granite, it too has nine radiating chapels and a wide ambulatory (processional walkway).

Castles

Medieval castles were built primarily as residences for the wealthy and powerful and their immediate communities, but they were also fortified strongholds and centres of administration. Defences included thick, high walls, secure entry gates, rock foundations and a moat, cylindrical towers, arrow loops and crenellations. To withstand sieges, an integral fresh water supply was vital.

After the fall of the Carolingian empire in the ninth and tenth centuries CE, castles spread across Europe and the Middle East. One of the world’s finest surviving medieval castles is the 11th-century Krak des Chevaliers in Syria (opposite). Following William, Duke of Normandy’s conquest of England in 1066, he used castles to assert control over the Anglo-Saxon people, who outnumbered the Norman aristocracy. Many were originally built from earth and timber, and were later rebuilt in stone. Between 1066 and 1087, William established 36 castles, including Dover Castle, the Tower of London and Windsor Castle.

Moorish Spain

The conquest of a large part of the Iberian peninsula by Islamic Moors from 711 CE brought a new concept of art and architecture into an area more familiar with Christian traditions. For the next eight centuries, mosques, castles and residences were built in a blend of Islamic and Christian styles, though this mixed tradition lasted longer in some places than others. For instance, the Christian recapture of Barcelona in 801 left little time for Moorish influence to establish itself, while the longer-lasting settlement of Aragón and eastern Castile left an extensive legacy including the 12th-century Aljafería Palace in Zaragoza. In Andalusia, where the Muslim presence extended over 800 years, Moorish buildings are even more prevalent. Under the rule of the Syrian prince Abd ar-Rahman (756–88 CE), Córdoba was transformed into a prosperous city. At its centre rose the Great Mosque (built from 785 and extended by subsequent rulers). Its giant, double-storey horseshoe arches of red and white stone (opposite) stand on 856 columns of jasper, onyx, marble and granite, forming 19 naves.

The Alhambra

The Red Fortress of Granada (Qal’ at al Hamra in Arabic) was a mosque, palace and fortified complex, built in stone and timber for the last Muslim emirs in Spain and the Nasrid dynasty. Most of the surviving building was built between c.1333 and 1391 during the time of Muhammad V. Moorish poets described it as ‘a pearl set in emeralds’, alluding to the colour of its buildings and wooded environs. Built on a mountainous site, it did not follow a strict plan. Surrounded by horseshoe arches, the Court of Lions contains a fountain in an alabaster basin ringed by 12 white marble lions. Water flows from these to the four cardinal compass points. Evoking lightness and grace, the design expresses balance and symmetry, while decorations include geometric shapes, flowers and calligraphy. The Court of the Myrtles, with its long pool and finely columned arcades, leads to the Hall of the Ambassadors, or throne room, containing a vaulted wooden ceiling inlaid with seven tiers of interlacing star-shaped patterns – alluding to the seven heavens mentioned in the Qur’an.