List of regional characteristics of Romanesque churches

Romanesque is the architecture of Europe which emerged in the late 10th century and evolved into Gothic architecture during the 12th century. The Romanesque style in England is more traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.

The style can be identified across Europe with certain significant architectural features occurring everywhere. There are other characteristic which differ greatly from region to region.

Most of the buildings that are still standing are churches, some of which are very large abbey churches and cathedrals. The majority of these are still in use, some of them having been substantially altered over the centuries.

This list presents a comparison of Romanesque churches, abbeys and cathedrals of different countries. The second section describes the architectural features that can be identified within pictures of major architectural elements.

Romanesque architecture, regional characteristics

Features of Romanesque architecture that is seen in different areas around Europe.

* Small churches are generally without aisles, with a projecting apse.
* Large churches are basilical with a nave flanked by aisles and divided by an arcade.
* Abbey churches and cathedrals often had transepts.
* Round arches in arcades, windows, doors and vaults.
* Massive walls.
* Towers.
* Piers.
* Stout columns.
* Buttresses of shallow projection.
* Groin vaulting.
* Portals with sculpture and mouldings.
* Decorative arcades as an external feature, and frequently internal also.
* Cushion capitals.
* Murals.

Features which are regionally diversified

These features often have strong local and regional traditions. However, the movement of senior clergy, stonemasons and other craftsmen meant that these traditional features are sometimes found at distant locations.

* Ground plan.
* Facade.
* Position and number of towers.
* Shape of towers.
* Presence and shape of spires.
* Shape of the east end.
* Shape of columns.
* Shape of piers.
* Building material.
* Local diversity in decorative details that was dependent on local craftsmen.

Romanesque churches in Italy

File:Atrium of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio.jpg, Atrium of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, in Milan
File:San michele maggiore.JPG, Facade of the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore, in Pavia
File:Catedral de Pisa, Toscana, Itàlia.JPG, Pisa Cathedral showing polychrome, galleries, dome (completed later), and free-standing campanile
File:Verona Zeno.jpg, San Zeno, Verona, showing defined facade, porch and wheel window
File:Trani Cathedral BW 2016-10-14 15-44-23.jpg, West front of Trani Cathedral, with bell tower
File:Bari BW 2016-10-19 13-35-11 stitch.jpg, Front of Basilica di San Nicola, in Bari

Influences

* Pre-Romanesque is demonstrated in Italy by the construction of churches with thick walls of undressed stone, very small windows and massive fortresslike character.
* Early Christian and Italian Byzantine architecture formed a stylistic link with the architecture of Ancient Rome, through which the basilica plan and the Classical form of column were transmitted.
* The architecture of Northern Italy has features in common with French and German Romanesque.
* The architecture of Southern Italy and Sicily was influenced by both Norman and Islamic architecture.
* Building stone was available in mountainous regions, while brick was employed for most building in river valleys and plains. The availability of marble had a profound effect on the decoration of buildings.
* The existence and continuance of local rather than unified rule meant the construction and continued existence of many Romanesque civic buildings, and a large number of cathedrals.
* A great many religious buildings of this period remain, many of them little altered. Other buildings include fortifications, castles, civic buildings, and innumerable domestic buildings that are often much altered.

File:Modena01 adj.JPG, Modena Cathedral showing tri-apsidal eastern end, shallow transepts and square campanile
File:Battistero di firenze, interno 02 adj.JPG, Interior of the Baptistery of St John, Florence, showing polychrome marble veneer and gold mosaics


File:Bari duomo inside.jpg, Bari Cathedral, showing shallow apse, domed crossing, Corinthianesque columns and maetreum gallery
File:Milano bazylika Sant Ambrogio 2.jpg, The Church of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, has domical ribbed vaults and a contrasting red brick and stone.

Characteristics

* Large churches often have basilical form, with a projecting apse.
* Some large churches have projecting transepts as at Pisa Cathedral.
* Towers are freestanding and may be circular as at Pisa.
* Windows are small.
* The façade takes two forms, that which coincides with the basilical section of nave and aisles, as at Pisa Cathedral and that which screens the form, such as San Michele, Pavia.
* Dwarf galleries are the prevalent form of decoration on the façade as at Pisa Cathedral.
* A number of churches have facades and interiors that are faced with polychrome marble, as at San Miniato al Monte. The rest of a brick exterior was generally left undecorated with some notable exceptions including Pisa Cathedral.
* Portals were rarely large and were square rather than round, as at San Miniato al Monte. Decorative tympanums, where they exist, are mosaic, fresco or shallow relief, as at San Zeno, Verona.
* Shallow relief carving in marble was a feature of some facades, as at San Zeno and Modena Cathedral
* Ocular and Wheel windows are commonly found in facades, as at San Zeno and Modena Cathedral.
* Portals are sometimes covered by an open porch supported on two columns standing on the backs of lions at San Zeno, Verona.
* Internally, large churches generally have arcades resting on columns of Classical form.
* There is little emphasis on vertical mouldings.
* The wall surface above the arcade was covered with decorative marble, mosaic or fresco. Galleries such as that at Pisa were uncommon, but occur in convent churches as nuns' galleries.
* Open timber roofs prevailed.
* Ribbed vaults, when used, are large, square and domical, spanning two bays as at San Michele, Pavia, and Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio.
* The crossing is often covered by a dome, as at Bari Cathedral and Pisa Cathedral (where the dome is oval and of a later date).
* The choir may be above a vaulted crypt, accessible from the nave or aisles, as at San Zeno, Verona.
* Freestanding polygonal baptisteries were common, as at Parma Cathedral and the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence.
* Cloisters often have an array of elaborately twisted columns, and fanciful decoration in mosaic tiles as at the Romanesque cloister of the Ancient Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls, Rome.
* The large churches and cathedrals of Southern Italy and Sicily were influenced by Norman architecture, as at Trani Cathedral and Bari Cathedral in Apulia.
* Churches in Sicily were influenced by Islamic architecture, in the employment of the pointed arch as at Monreale Cathedral and Palermo Cathedral.

Notable buildings

* Pisa Cathedral and complex, Pisa, Tuscany
* San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno, Pisa, Tuscany
* San Michele in Borgo, Pisa, Tuscany
* Baptistery of Florence, Florence, Tuscany
* Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Tuscany
* San Salvatore al Vescovo, Florence, Tuscany
* Santi Apostoli, Florence, Tuscany
* Santa Maria della Pieve, Arezzo, Tuscany
* Basilica of San Frediano, Lucca, Tuscany
* Church of Sant'Alessandro, Lucca,
* San Michele in Foro, Lucca, Tuscany
* Santa Maria Forisportam, Lucca, Tuscany
* Lucca Cathedral, Lucca, Tuscany
* San Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoia, Tuscany
* Prato Cathedral, Prato, Tuscany
* Volterra Cathedral, Volterra, Tuscany
* Massa Marittima Cathedral, Massa Marittima, Tuscany
* Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta a Chianni, Gambassi Terme, Tuscany
* Sant'Andrea Collegiate, Empoli, Tuscany
* Pieve di San Giovanni Evangelista di Monterappoli, Empoli, Tuscany
* Badia Fiesolana, Fiesole, Tuscany
* Abbey of Sant'Antimo, Castelnuovo dell'Abate

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