Gothic Revival architecture
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Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century, mostly in England. Increasingly serious and learned admirers sought to revive medieval
Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...
, intending to complement or even supersede the neoclassical styles prevalent at the time. Gothic Revival draws upon features of medieval examples, including decorative patterns,
finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...
s,
lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...
s, and hood moulds. By the middle of the 19th century, Gothic Revival had become the pre-eminent architectural style in the
Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...
, only to begin to fall out of fashion in the 1880s and early 1890s. For some in England, the Gothic Revival movement had roots that were intertwined with philosophical movements associated with
Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and a re-awakening of
high church A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
or
Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...
belief concerned by the growth of religious nonconformism. The "Anglo-Catholic" tradition of religious belief and style became known for its intrinsic appeal in the third quarter of the 19th century. Gothic Revival architecture varied considerably in its faithfulness to both the ornamental styles and construction principles of its medieval ideal, sometimes amounting to little more than pointed window frames and touches of neo-Gothic decoration on buildings otherwise created on wholly 19th-century plans, using contemporary materials and construction methods; most notably, this involved the use of iron and, after the 1880s, steel in ways never seen in medieval exemplars. In parallel with the ascendancy of neo-Gothic styles in 19th century England, interest spread to the rest of Europe, Australia, Asia and the Americas; the 19th and early 20th centuries saw the construction of very large numbers of Gothic Revival structures worldwide. The influence of Revivalism had nevertheless peaked by the 1870s. New architectural movements, sometimes related, as in the
Arts and Crafts movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...
, and sometimes in outright opposition, such as
Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
, gained ground, and by the 1930s the architecture of the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
was generally condemned or ignored. The later 20th century saw a revival of interest, manifested in the United Kingdom by the establishment of the
Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK charity and amenity society that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. As a statutory consultee, by l ...
in 1958.


Roots

The rise of
evangelicalism Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw in England a reaction in the
high church A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
movement which sought to emphasise the continuity between the established church and the pre-
Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
Catholic church. Architecture, in the form of the Gothic Revival, became one of the main weapons in the high church's armoury. The Gothic Revival was also paralleled and supported by " medievalism", which had its roots in
antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...
concerns with survivals and curiosities. As "
industrialisation Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...
" progressed, a reaction against machine production and the appearance of factories also grew. Proponents of the picturesque such as
Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...
and
Augustus Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 1812 – 14 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival architecture ...
took a critical view of industrial society and portrayed pre-industrial medieval society as a golden age. To Pugin, Gothic architecture was infused with the Christian values that had been supplanted by
classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...
and were being destroyed by
industrialisation Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...
. Gothic Revival also took on political connotations, with the "rational" and "radical" Neoclassical style being seen as associated with
republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology that encompasses a range of ideas from civic virtue, political participation, harms of corruption, positives of mixed constitution, rule of law, and others. Historically, it emphasizes the idea of self ...
and
liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
(as evidenced by its use in the United States and to a lesser extent in Republican France). In contrast, the more spiritual and traditional Gothic Revival became associated with
monarchism Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...
and
conservatism Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, Convention (norm), customs, and Value (ethics and social science ...
, which was reflected by the choice of styles for the rebuilt government centres of the British Parliament's
Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...
in London, the Canadian Parliament Buildings in
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
and the
Hungarian Parliament Building The Hungarian Parliament Building ( , ), also known as the Parliament of Budapest after its location, is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, a notable landmark of Hungary, and a popular tourist destination in Budapest. It is situated o ...
in Budapest. In English literature, the architectural Gothic Revival and classical
Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
gave rise to the
Gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean ...
genre, beginning with ''
The Castle of Otranto ''The Castle of Otranto'' is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – ''A Gothic Story''. Se ...
'' (1764) by
Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
, and inspired a 19th-century genre of medieval poetry that stems from the pseudo- bardic poetry of " Ossian". Poems such as " Idylls of the King" by
Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...
recast specifically modern themes in medieval settings of
Arthurian According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a leader of the post-Ro ...
romance. In
German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...
, the Gothic Revival also had a grounding in literary fashions.


Survival and revival

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...
began at the Basilica of Saint Denis near Paris, and the Cathedral of Sens in 1140 and ended with a last flourish in the early 16th century with buildings like Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster. However, Gothic architecture did not die out completely in the 16th century but instead lingered in on-going cathedral-building projects; at
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
and
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
Universities, and in the construction of churches in increasingly isolated rural districts of England, France, Germany, the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
and in Spain.


Britain and Ireland

St Columb's Cathedral, in
Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
, may be considered 'Gothic Survival', as it was completed in 1633 in a
Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...
style. Similarly, Gothic architecture survived in some urban settings during the later 17th century, as shown in
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
and
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, where some additions and repairs to Gothic buildings were considered to be more in keeping with the style of the original structures than contemporary
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
. In contrast,
Dromore Cathedral Dromore Cathedral, formally The Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer, Dromore, is one of two cathedral churches (the other is Down Cathedral) in the Diocese of Down and Dromore of the Church of Ireland (Anglican / Episcopal). It is situated ...
, built in 1660/1661, immediately after the end of
the Protectorate The Protectorate, officially the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, was the English form of government lasting from 16 December 1653 to 25 May 1659, under which the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotl ...
, revived Early English forms, demonstrating the restitution of the monarchy and claiming Ireland for the English crown. At the same time, the Great Hall of
Lambeth Palace Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament of the United King ...
, that had been despoiled by the
Puritans The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
, was rebuilt in a mixture of Baroque and older Gothic forms, demonstrating the restitution of the Anglican Church. These two buildings can be said to herald the onset of Gothic Revival architecture, several decades before it became mainstream. Sir Christopher Wren's Tom Tower for Christ Church,
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, consciously set out to imitate Cardinal Wolsey's architectural style. Writing to Dean Fell in 1681, he noted; "I resolved it ought to be Gothic to agree with the Founder's work", adding that to do otherwise would lead to "an unhandsome medley". Pevsner suggests that he succeeded "to the extent that innocent visitors never notice the difference". It was followed in 1697–1704 by the rebuilding of
Collegiate Church of St Mary The Collegiate Church of St Mary is a Church of England parish church in Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It is in the centre of the town just east of the market place. It is Grade I listed, and a member of the Major Churches Network. The church ...
in
Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...
as a stone-vaulted
hall church A hall church is a Church (building), church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height. In England, Flanders and the Netherlands, it is covered by parallel roofs, typically, one for each vessel, whereas in Germany there is often one s ...
, whereas the burnt church had been a
basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...
with timbered roofs. Also in
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...
, in 1729/30, the nave and aisles of the church of St Nicholas at
Alcester Alcester ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch. The town dates back to the times of Roman ...
were rebuilt by Edward and Thomas Woodward, the exterior in Gothic forms but with a Neoclassical interior. At the same time, 1722–1746,
Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor ( – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principal architects ...
added the west towers to
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
, which made him a pioneer of Gothic Revival completions of medieval buildings, which from the late 19th century were increasingly disapproved of, although work in this style continued into the 20th century. Back in Oxford, the redecoration of the dining hall at
University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...
between 1766 and 1768 has been described as "the first major example of the Gothic Revival style in Oxford".


Continental Europe

Throughout France in the 16th and 17th centuries, churches continued to be built following Gothic principles (structure of the buildings, application of tracery) such as St-Eustache (1532–1640, façade 1754) in Paris and Orléans Cathedral (1601–1829). This newer construction incorporated some little changes like the use of round arches instead of pointed arches and the application of some Classical details, until largely being replaced in new construction with the arrival of Baroque architecture. In
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, in 1646, the
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
architect
Carlo Rainaldi Carlo Rainaldi (4 May 1611 – 8 February 1691) was an Italian architect of the Baroque period. Biography Born in Rome, Rainaldi was one of the leading architects of 17th-century Rome, known for a certain grandeur in his designs. He worked at f ...
constructed Gothic vaults (completed 1658) for the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, which had been under construction since 1390; there, the Gothic context of the structure overrode considerations of the current architectural mode. Similarly, in St. Salvator's Cathedral of
Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...
, the timbered medieval vaults of nave and choir were replaced by "Gothic" stone vaults in 1635 resp. 1738/39.
Guarino Guarini Camillo Guarino Guarini (17 January 16246 March 1683) was an Italian architect of the Piedmontese Baroque architecture, Baroque, active in Turin as well as Sicily, Kingdom of France, France and Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal. He was a Theatines, ...
, a 17th-century Theatine monk active primarily in
Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
, recognized the "Gothic order" as one of the primary systems of architecture and made use of it in his practice. Even in
Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...
of the late 17th and 18th centuries, where Baroque dominated, some architects continued to use elements of the Gothic style. The most important example is Johann Santini Aichel, whose Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk in
Žďár nad Sázavou Žďár nad Sázavou (; ) is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. The town is an industrial and tourist centre. It is known for the Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk, which is a UNESCO Wor ...
, Czech Republic, represents a peculiar and creative synthesis of Baroque and Gothic. An example of another and less striking use of the Gothic style in the time is the Basilica of Our Lady of Hungary in Márianosztra, Hungary, whose choir (adjacent to a Baroque nave) was long considered authentically Gothic, because the 18th-century architect used medieval shapes to emphasize the continuity of the monastic community with its 14th-century founders.


Romantic challenges

During the mid-18th century rise of
Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
, an increased interest and awareness of the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
among influential connoisseurs created a more appreciative approach to selected
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
arts, beginning with church architecture, the tomb monuments of royal and noble personages, stained glass, and late Gothic illuminated manuscripts. Other Gothic arts, such as tapestries and metalwork, continued to be disregarded as barbaric and crude, however sentimental and nationalist associations with historical figures were as strong in this early revival as purely aesthetic concerns. German Romanticists (including philosopher and writer
Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
and architect
Karl Friedrich Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, urban planning, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed b ...
), began to appreciate the
picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...
character of ruins—"picturesque" becoming a new aesthetic quality—and those mellowing effects of time that the Japanese call '' wabi-sabi'' and that
Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
independently admired, mildly tongue-in-cheek, as "the true rust of the Barons' wars". The "Gothick" details of Walpole's Twickenham villa,
Strawberry Hill House Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is a Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "#Strawb ...
begun in 1749, appealed to the
rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
tastes of the time, and were fairly quickly followed by James Talbot at
Lacock Abbey Lacock Abbey in the village of Lacock, Wiltshire, England, was founded in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian order. The abbey remained a nunnery until the Dissolution of the monasteries in ...
, Wiltshire. By the 1770s, thoroughly neoclassical architects such as
Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...
and
James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the Neoclassicism, neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to ...
were prepared to provide Gothic details in drawing-rooms, libraries and chapels and, for William Beckford at Fonthill in Wiltshire, a complete romantic vision of a Gothic abbey. Some of the earliest architectural examples of the revived are found in Scotland.
Inveraray Castle Inveraray Castle (pronounced or ; Scottish Gaelic ''Caisteal Inbhir Aora'' ) is a country house near Inveraray in the county of Argyll, in western Scotland, on the shore of Loch Fyne, Scotland's longest sea loch. It is one of the earliest ex ...
, constructed from 1746 for the Duke of Argyll, with design input from William Adam, displays the incorporation of turrets. The architectural historian John Gifford writes that the castellations were the "symbolic assertion of the still quasi-feudal power he dukeexercised over the inhabitants within his heritable jurisdictions". Most buildings were still largely in the established
Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
style, but some houses incorporated external features of the Scots baronial style. Robert Adam's houses in this style include
Mellerstain Mellerstain House is a Scottish country house around north of Kelso in the Borders, Scotland. It is currently the home of George Baillie-Hamilton, 14th Earl of Haddington, and is designated as a historical monument. History The older house ...
and Wedderburn in Berwickshire and Seton Castle in East Lothian, but it is most clearly seen at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, remodelled by Adam from 1777. The eccentric landscape designer
Batty Langley Batty Langley (''baptised'' 14 September 1696 – 3 March 1751) was an English garden designer, and prolific writer who produced a number of engraved designs for " Gothick" structures, summerhouses and garden seats in the years before the mid-1 ...
even attempted to "improve" Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions. A younger generation, taking Gothic architecture more seriously, provided the readership for John Britton's series ''Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain'', which began appearing in 1807. In 1817, Thomas Rickman wrote an ''Attempt...'' to name and define the sequence of Gothic styles in English ecclesiastical architecture, "a text-book for the architectural student". Its long antique title is descriptive: ''Attempt to discriminate the styles of English architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation; preceded by a sketch of the Grecian and Roman orders, with notices of nearly five hundred English buildings''. The categories he used were Norman, Early English, Decorated, and
Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...
. It went through numerous editions, was still being republished by 1881, and has been reissued in the 21st century. The most common use for Gothic Revival architecture was in the building of churches. Major examples of Gothic cathedrals in the U.S. include the cathedrals of St. John the Divine and St. Patrick in New York City and the
Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Episcopal Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Wa ...
on Mount St. Alban in northwest
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
One of the biggest churches in Gothic Revival style in Canada is the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph, Guelph, Ontario. Gothic Revival architecture remained one of the most popular and long-lived of the many Revivalism (architecture), revival styles of architecture. Although it began to lose force and popularity after the third quarter of the 19th century in commercial, residential and industrial fields, some buildings such as churches, schools, colleges and universities were still constructed in the Gothic style, often known as "Collegiate Gothic", which remained popular in England, Canada and in the United States until well into the early to mid-20th century. Only when new materials, like steel and glass along with concern for function in everyday working life and saving space in the cities, meaning the need to build up instead of out, began to take hold did the Gothic Revival start to disappear from popular building requests.


Gothic Revival in the other decorative arts

The revived Gothic style was not limited to architecture. Classical Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th Centuries were a source of inspiration to 19th-century designers in numerous fields of work. Architectural elements such as pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs and fancy carvings like lace and lattice work were applied to a wide range of Gothic Revival objects. Some examples of Gothic Revival influence can be found in heraldic motifs in coats of arms, furniture with elaborate painted scenes like the whimsical Gothic detailing in English furniture is traceable as far back as Henrietta Louisa Fermor, Lady Pomfret's house in Arlington Street, London (1740s), and Gothic fretwork in chairbacks and glazing patterns of bookcases is a familiar feature of Thomas Chippendale, Chippendale's ''Director'' (1754, 1762), where, for example, the three-part bookcase employs Gothic details with Rococo profusion, on a symmetrical form. Abbotsford, Scottish Borders, Abbotsford in the Scottish Borders, rebuilt from 1816 by Walter Scott, Sir Walter Scott and paid for by the profits from his hugely successful, historical novels, exemplifies the "Regency Gothic" style. Gothic Revival also includes the reintroduction of medieval clothes and dances in historical re-enactments staged especially in the second part of the 19th century, although one of the first, the Eglinton Tournament of 1839, remains the most famous. During the Bourbon Restoration in France (1814–1830) and the Louis-Philippe period (1830–1848), Gothic Revival motifs start to appear, together with revivals of the Renaissance and of Rococo. During these two periods, the vogue for medieval things led craftsmen to adopt Gothic decorative motifs in their work, such as bell Turret (architecture), turrets, lancet arches, trefoils, Gothic tracery and rose windows. This style was also known as "Cathedral style" ("À la catédrale"). By the mid-19th century, Gothic traceries and niches could be inexpensively re-created in wallpaper, and Gothic blind arcading could decorate a ceramic pitcher. Writing in 1857, John Gregory Crace (designer), J. G. Crace, an influential decorator from a family of influential interior designers, expressed his preference for the Gothic style: "In my opinion there is no quality of lightness, elegance, richness or beauty possessed by any other style... [or] in which the principles of sound construction can be so well carried out". The illustrated catalogue for the Great Exhibition of 1851 is replete with Gothic detail, from lacemaking and carpet designs to heavy machinery. Nikolaus Pevsner, Nikolaus Pevsner's volume on the exhibits at the Great Exhibition, ''High Victorian Design'' published in 1951, was an important contribution to the academic study of Victorian era, Victorian taste and an early indicator of the later 20th century rehabilitation of Victorian architecture and the objects with which they decorated their buildings. In 1847, eight thousand British Crown (British coin), crown coins were minted in Proof coinage, proof condition with the design using an ornate reverse in keeping with the revived style. Considered by collectors to be particularly beautiful, they are known as 'Gothic crowns'. The design was repeated in 1853, again in proof. A similar two shilling coin, the 'Gothic Two shillings (British coin), florin' was minted for circulation from 1851 to 1887.


Romanticism and nationalism

French neo-Gothic had its roots in the French Gothic architecture, medieval Gothic architecture, where it was created in the 12th century. Gothic architecture was sometimes known during the medieval period as the "Opus Francigenum", (the "French Art"). French scholar Alexandre de Laborde wrote in 1816 that "Gothic architecture has beauties of its own", which marked the beginning of the Gothic Revival in France. Starting in 1828, Alexandre Brogniart, the director of the Sèvres porcelain, Sèvres porcelain manufactory, produced fired enamel paintings on large panes of plate glass, for Louis-Philippe of France, King Louis-Philippe's Chapelle royale de Dreux, an important early French commission in Gothic taste, preceded mainly by some Gothic features in a few ''jardin paysager, jardins paysagers''. The French Gothic Revival was set on more sound intellectual footings by a pioneer, Arcisse de Caumont, who founded the Societé des Antiquaires de Normandie at a time when ''antiquaire'' still meant a connoisseur of antiquities, and who published his great work on architecture in French Normandy in 1830. The following year Victor Hugo's historical romance novel ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' appeared, in which the great Notre-Dame de Paris, Gothic cathedral of Paris was at once a setting and a protagonist in a hugely popular work of fiction. Hugo intended his book to awaken a concern for the surviving Gothic architecture left in Europe, however, rather than to initiate a craze for neo-Gothic in contemporary life. In the same year that ''Notre-Dame de Paris'' appeared, the new restored Bourbon Restoration in France, Bourbon monarchy established an office in the Royal French Government of Inspector-General of Ancient Monuments, a post which was filled in 1833 by Prosper Mérimée, who became the secretary of a new Commission des Monuments Historiques in 1837. This was the Commission that instructed Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to report on the condition of the Abbey of Vézelay in 1840. Following this, Viollet le Duc set out to restore most of the symbolic buildings in France including Notre Dame de Paris, Vézelay, Cité de Carcassonne, Carcassonne, Roquetaillade castle, Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey on its peaked coastal island, Château de Pierrefonds, Pierrefonds, and the Palais des Papes in Avignon. When France's first prominent neo-Gothic church was built, the Saint Clotilde Basilica, Basilica of Saint-Clotilde, Paris, begun in 1846 and consecrated in 1857, the architect chosen was of German extraction, Franz Christian Gau, (1790–1853); the design was significantly modified by Gau's assistant, Théodore Ballu, in the later stages, to produce the pair of ''flèches'' that crown the west end. In Germany, there was a renewal of interest in the completion of Cologne Cathedral. Begun in 1248, it was still unfinished at the time of the revival. The 1820s "Romantic" movement brought a new appreciation of the building, and construction work began once more in 1842, marking a German return for Gothic architecture. St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, begun in 1344, was also completed in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. The importance of the Cologne completion project in German-speaking lands has been explored by Michael J. Lewis, ''"The Politics of the German Gothic Revival: August Reichensperger"''. Reichensperger was himself in no doubt as to the cathedral's central position in Germanic culture; "Cologne Cathedral is German to the core, it is a national monument in the fullest sense of the word, and probably the most splendid monument to be handed down to us from the past". Because of Romantic nationalism in the early 19th century, the Germans, French and English all claimed the original Gothic architecture of the 12th century era as originating in their own country. The English boldly coined the term "Early English" for "Gothic", a term that implied Gothic architecture was an English creation. In his 1832 edition of ''Notre Dame de Paris'', author Victor Hugo said "Let us inspire in the nation, if it is possible, love for the national architecture", implying that "Gothic" is France's national heritage. In Germany, with the completion of Cologne Cathedral in the 1880s, at the time its summit was the world's tallest building, the cathedral was seen as the height of Gothic architecture. Other major completions of Gothic cathedrals were of Regensburger Dom (with twin spires completed from 1869 to 1872), Ulm Münster (with a 161-meter tower from 1890) and St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague (1844–1929). In Belgium, a 15th-century church in Ostend burned down in 1896. King Leopold II of Belgium, Leopold II funded its replacement, the Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk, Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's Church, a cathedral-scale design which drew inspiration from the neo-Gothic Votive Church, Vienna, Votive Church in Vienna and Cologne Cathedral. In Mechelen, the largely unfinished building drawn in 1526 as the seat of the Great Council of Mechelen, Great Council of The Netherlands, was not actually built until the early 20th century, although it closely followed Rombout II Keldermans's Brabantine Gothic design, and became the 'new' north wing of the City Hall. In Florence, the Florence Cathedral, Duomo's temporary façade erected for the Medici-House of Lorraine nuptials in 1588–1589, was dismantled, and the west end of the cathedral stood bare again until 1864, when a competition was held to design a new façade suitable to Arnolfo di Cambio's original structure and the fine campanile next to it. This competition was won by Emilio De Fabris, and so work on his polychrome design and panels of mosaic was begun in 1876 and completed by 1887, creating the Neo-Gothic western façade. Eastern Europe also saw much Revival construction; in addition to the
Hungarian Parliament Building The Hungarian Parliament Building ( , ), also known as the Parliament of Budapest after its location, is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, a notable landmark of Hungary, and a popular tourist destination in Budapest. It is situated o ...
in Budapest, the Bulgarian National Revival saw the introduction of Gothic Revival elements into its vernacular ecclesiastical and residential architecture. The largest project of the Slavine School is the Lopushna Monastery cathedral (1850–1853), though later churches such as Saint George's Church, Gavril Genovo display more prominent vernacular Gothic Revival features. In Scotland, while a similar Gothic style to that used further south in England was adopted by figures including Frederick Thomas Pilkington (1832–1898) in secular architecture it was marked by the re-adoption of the Scots baronial style. Important for the adoption of the style in the early 19th century was Abbotsford, which became a model for the modern revival of the baronial style. Common features borrowed from 16th- and 17th-century houses included battlements, battlemented gateways, crow-stepped gables, pointed Turret (architecture), turrets and machicolations. The style was popular across Scotland and was applied to many relatively modest dwellings by architects such as William Burn (1789–1870), David Bryce (1803–1876), Edward Blore (1787–1879), Edward Calvert (architect), Edward Calvert () and Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864–1929) and in urban contexts, including the building of Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, Cockburn Street in Edinburgh (from the 1850s) as well as the National Wallace Monument at Stirling (1859–1869). The reconstruction of Balmoral Castle as a baronial palace and its adoption as a royal retreat from 1855 to 1858 confirmed the popularity of the style. In the United States, the first "Gothic stile" church (as opposed to churches with Gothic elements) was Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, Connecticut. It was designed by Ithiel Town between 1812 and 1814, while he was building his Federal architecture, Federalist-style Center Church, New Haven next to this radical new "Gothic-style" church. Its cornerstone was laid in 1814, and it was consecrated in 1816. It predates St Luke's Church, Chelsea, often said to be the first Gothic-revival church in London. Though built of trap rock stone with arched windows and doors, parts of its tower and its battlements were wood. Gothic buildings were subsequently erected by Episcopal congregations in Connecticut at St John's in Salisbury (1823), St John's in Kent (1823–1826) and St Andrew's in Marble Dale (1821–1823). These were followed by Town's design for Christ Church Cathedral (Hartford, Connecticut) (1827), which incorporated Gothic elements such as buttresses into the fabric of the church. St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Troy, New York), St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Troy, New York, was constructed in 1827–1828 as an exact copy of Town's design for Trinity Church, New Haven, but using local stone; due to changes in the original, St. Paul's is closer to Town's original design than Trinity itself. In the 1830s, architects began to copy specific English Gothic and Gothic Revival Churches, and these "'mature Gothic Revival' buildings made the domestic Gothic style architecture which preceded it seem primitive and old-fashioned". There are many examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Canada. The first major structure was Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal), Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, which was designed in 1824. The capital, Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, was predominantly a 19th-century creation in the Gothic Revival style. The Parliament Hill buildings were the preeminent example, of which the original library survives today (after the rest was destroyed by fire in 1916). Their example was followed elsewhere in the city and outlying areas, showing how popular the Gothic Revival movement had become. Other examples of Canadian Gothic Revival architecture in Ottawa are the Victoria Memorial Museum, (1905–1908), the Royal Canadian Mint, (1905–1908), and the Connaught Building, (1913–1916), all by David Ewart.


Gothic as a moral force


Pugin and "truth" in architecture

In the late 1820s, Augustus Pugin, A. W. N. Pugin, still a teenager, was working for two highly visible employers, providing Gothic detailing for luxury goods. For the Royal furniture makers Morel and Seddon he provided designs for redecorations for the elderly George IV of the United Kingdom, George IV at Windsor Castle in a Gothic taste suited to the setting. For the royal silversmiths Rundell and Bridge, Rundell Bridge and Co., Pugin provided designs for silver from 1828, using the 14th-century Anglo-French Gothic vocabulary that he would continue to favour later in designs for the new Palace of Westminster. Between 1821 and 1838 Pugin and his father published a series of volumes of architectural drawings, the first two entitled, ''Specimens of Gothic Architecture'', and the following three, ''Examples of Gothic Architecture'', that were to remain both in print and the standard references for Gothic Revivalists for at least the next century. In ''Contrasts: or, a Parallel between the Noble Edifices of the Middle Ages, and similar Buildings of the Present Day'' (1836), Pugin expressed his admiration not only for medieval art but for the whole medieval ethos, suggesting that Gothic architecture was the product of a purer society. In ''The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture'' (1841), he set out his "two great rules of design: 1st, that there should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience, construction or propriety; 2nd, that all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building". Urging modern craftsmen to seek to emulate the style of medieval workmanship as well as reproduce its methods, Pugin sought to reinstate Gothic as the true Christian architectural style. Pugin's most notable project was the Palace of Westminster, Houses of Parliament in London, after its predecessor was largely destroyed in a fire in 1834. His part in the design consisted of two campaigns, 1836–1837 and again in 1844 and 1852, with the classicist Charles Barry as his nominal superior. Pugin provided the external decoration and the interiors, while Barry designed the symmetrical layout of the building, causing Pugin to remark, "All Grecian, Sir; Tudor details on a classic body".


Ruskin and Venetian Gothic

John Ruskin supplemented Pugin's ideas in his two influential theoretical works, ''The Seven Lamps of Architecture'' (1849) and The Stones of Venice (book), ''The Stones of Venice'' (1853). Finding his architectural ideal in Venice, Ruskin proposed that Gothic buildings excelled above all other architecture because of the "sacrifice" of the stone-carvers in intricately decorating every stone. In this, he drew a contrast between the physical and spiritual satisfaction which a medieval craftsman derived from his work, and the lack of these satisfactions afforded to modern, Industrial Revolution, industrialised labour. By declaring the Doge's Palace, Venice, Doge's Palace to be "the central building of the world", Ruskin argued the case for Gothic government buildings as Pugin had done for churches, though mostly only in theory. When his ideas were put into practice, Ruskin often disliked the result, although he supported many architects, such as Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward, and was reputed to have designed some of the corbel decorations for that pair's Oxford University Museum of Natural History. A major clash between the Gothic and Classical styles in relation to governmental offices occurred less than a decade after the publication of ''The Stones of Venice''. A public competition for the construction of a new Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Foreign Office in Whitehall saw the decision to award first place to a Gothic design by George Gilbert Scott overturned by the Prime Minister, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Lord Palmerston, who successfully demanded a building in the Italianate architecture, Italianate style.


Ecclesiology and funerary style

In England, the Anglicanism, Church of England was undergoing a revival of
Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...
and Ritualism, ritualist ideology in the form of the Oxford Movement, and it became desirable to build large numbers of new churches to cater for the growing population, and cemeteries for their hygienic burials. This found ready exponents in the universities, where the ecclesiological movement was forming. Its proponents believed that Gothic was the ''only'' style appropriate for a parish church, and favoured a particular era of Gothic architecture – the "Decorated Period, decorated". The Cambridge Camden Society, through its journal ''The Ecclesiologist'', was so savagely critical of new church buildings that were below its exacting standards and its pronouncements were followed so avidly that it became the epicentre of the flood of Victorian restoration that affected most of the Anglican cathedrals and parish churches in England and Wales. St Luke's Church, Chelsea, was a new-built Commissioner's Church of 1820–1824, partly built using a grant of £8,333 towards its construction with money voted by Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament as a result of the Church Building Act 1818. It is often said to be the first Gothic Revival church in London, and, as Charles Locke Eastlake put it: "probably the only church of its time in which the main roof was groined throughout in stone". Nonetheless, the parish was firmly low church, and the original arrangement, modified in the 1860s, was as a "preaching church" dominated by the pulpit, with a small altar and wooden galleries over the nave aisle. The development of the private Magnificent Seven, London, major metropolitan cemeteries was occurring at the same time as the movement; William Tite, Sir William Tite pioneered the first cemetery in the Gothic style at West Norwood Cemetery, West Norwood in 1837, with chapels, gates, and decorative features in the Gothic manner, attracting the interest of contemporary architects such as George Edmund Street, Barry, and William Burges. The style was immediately hailed a success and universally replaced the previous preference for classical design. Not every architect or client was swept away by this tide. Although Gothic Revival succeeded in becoming an increasingly familiar style of architecture, the attempt to associate it with the notion of high church superiority, as advocated by Pugin and the ecclesiological movement, was anathema to those with ecumenical or nonconformist principles. Alexander Thomson, Alexander "Greek" Thomson launched a famous attack; "We are told we should adopt [Gothic] because it is the Christian style, and this most impudent assertion has been accepted as sound doctrine even by earnest and intelligent Protestants; whereas it ought only to have force with those who believe that Christian truth attained its purest and most spiritual development at the period when this style of architecture constituted its corporeal form". Those rejecting the link between Gothic and Catholicism looked to adopt it solely for its aesthetic romantic qualities, to combine it with other styles, or look to northern European Brick Gothic for a more plain appearance; or in some instances all three of these, as at the non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery in east London, designed by William Hosking, William Hosking FSA in 1840.


Viollet-le-Duc and Iron Gothic

France had lagged slightly in entering the neo-Gothic scene, but produced a major figure in the revival in Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. As well as a powerful and influential theorist, Viollet-le-Duc was a leading architect whose genius lay in restoration. He believed in restoring buildings to a state of completion that they would not have known even when they were first built, theories he applied to his restorations of the walled city of Carcassonne, and to Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre-Dame and Sainte Chapelle in Paris. In this respect he differed from his English counterpart Ruskin, as he often replaced the work of mediaeval stonemasons. His rational approach to Gothic stood in stark contrast to the revival's romanticist origins. Throughout his career he remained in a quandary as to whether iron and masonry should be combined in a building. Iron, in the form of iron anchors, had been used in the most ambitious buildings of medieval Gothic, especially but not only for tracery. It had in fact been used in "Gothic" buildings since the earliest days of the revival. In some cases, cast iron enabled something like a perfection of medieval design. It was only with Ruskin and the archaeological Gothic's demand for historical truth that iron, whether it was visible or not, was deemed improper for a Gothic building. Ultimately, the utility of iron won out: "substituting a cast iron shaft for a granite, marble or stone column is not bad, but one must agree that it cannot be considered as an innovation, as the introduction of a new principle. Replacing a stone or wooden lintel by an iron Bressummer, breastsummer is very good". He strongly opposed illusion, however: reacting against the casing of a cast iron pillar in stone, he wrote; "il faut que la pierre paraisse bien être de la pierre; le fer, du fer; le bois, du bois" (stone must appear to be stone; iron, iron; wood, wood). The arguments against modern construction materials began to collapse in the mid-19th century as great prefabricated structures such as the glass and iron The Crystal Palace, Crystal Palace and the glazed courtyard of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History were erected, which appeared to embody Gothic principles. Between 1863 and 1872 Viollet-le-Duc published his ''Entretiens sur l'architecture'', a set of daring designs for buildings that combined iron and masonry. Though these projects were never realised, they influenced several generations of designers and architects, notably Antoni Gaudí in Spain and, in England, Benjamin Bucknall, Viollet's foremost English follower and translator, whose masterpiece was Woodchester Mansion. The flexibility and strength of cast-iron freed neo-Gothic designers to create new structural Gothic forms impossible in stone, as in Calvert Vaux's cast-iron Gothic bridge in Central Park, New York dating from the 1860. Vaux enlisted openwork forms derived from Gothic blind-arcading and window tracery to express the spring and support of the arching bridge, in flexing forms that presage Art Nouveau.


Collegiate Gothic

In the United States, Collegiate Gothic was a late and literal resurgence of the English Gothic Revival, adapted for American college and university campuses. The term "Collegiate Gothic" originated from American architect Alexander Jackson Davis's handwritten description of his own "English Collegiate Gothic Mansion" of 1853 for the Harrals of Bridgeport. By the 1890s, the movement was known as "Collegiate Gothic". The firm of Cope & Stewardson was an early and important exponent, transforming the campuses of Bryn Mawr College, Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania in the 1890s. In 1872, Abner Jackson, the President of Trinity College (Connecticut), Trinity College, Connecticut, visited Britain, seeking models and an architect for a planned new campus for the college. William Burges was chosen and he drew up a four-quadrangled masterplan, in his French Gothic#Early Gothic, Early French style. Lavish illustrations were produced by Axel Haig. However, the estimated cost, at just under one million dollars, together with the sheer scale of the plans, thoroughly alarmed the College Trustees and only one-sixth of the plan was executed, the present Trinity College Long Walk, Long Walk, with Francis H. Kimball acting as local, supervising, architect, and Frederick Law Olmsted laying out the grounds. Hitchcock considers the result, "perhaps the most satisfactory of all of [Burges's] works and the best example anywhere of Victorian Gothic collegiate architecture". The movement continued into the 20th century, with Cope & Stewardson's campus for Washington University in St. Louis (1900–1909), Charles Donagh Maginnis's buildings at Boston College (1910s) (including Gasson Hall), Ralph Adams Cram's design for the Princeton University Graduate College (1913), and James Gamble Rogers' reconstruction of the campus of Yale University (1920s). Charles Klauder's Gothic Revival skyscraper on the University of Pittsburgh's campus, the Cathedral of Learning (1926) exhibited Gothic stylings both inside and out, while using modern technologies to make the building taller.


Vernacular adaptations and the revival in Oceania

Carpenter Gothic houses and small churches became common in North America and other places in the late 19th century. These structures adapted Gothic elements such as pointed arches, steep gables, and towers to traditional American light-frame construction. The invention of the scroll saw and mass-produced wood moldings allowed a few of these structures to mimic the florid Window, fenestration of the High Gothic. But, in most cases, Carpenter Gothic buildings were relatively unadorned, retaining only the basic elements of pointed-arch windows and steep gables. A well-known example of Carpenter Gothic is a house in Eldon, Iowa, that Grant Wood used for the background of his painting American Gothic.


Australia

Australia, in particular in Melbourne and Sydney, saw the construction of large numbers of Gothic Revival buildings. William Wardell (1823–1899) was among the country's most prolific architects; born and trained in England, after emigrating his most notable Australian designs include St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne and St John's College, University of Sydney, St John's College and St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. In common with many other 19th century architects, Wardell could deploy different styles at the command of his clients; Government House, Melbourne is Italianate architecture, Italianate. His banking house for the English, Scottish and Australian Bank in Melbourne has been described as "the Australian masterpiece of neo-Gothic". This claim has also been made for Edmund Blacket's Great Hall of the University of Sydney, MacLaurin Hall at the University of Sydney, which sits in the University of Sydney Quadrangle, quadrangle complex described as "arguably the most important group of Gothic and Tudor Revival style architecture in Australia".


New Zealand

Benjamin Mountfort, born in Britain, trained in Birmingham, and subsequently resident in Canterbury, New Zealand imported the Gothic Revival style to his adopted country and designed Gothic Revival churches in both wood and stone, notably in the city of Christchurch. Frederick Thatcher designed wooden churches in the Gothic Revival style, for example Old St. Paul's, Wellington, contributing to what has been described as New Zealand's "one memorable contribution to world architecture". St Mary of the Angels, Wellington by Frederick de Jersey Clere is in the French Gothic style, and was the first Gothic design church built in ferro-concrete. Other examples in Wellington include John Sydney Swan's now-demolished Erskine College, Wellington, Erskine College. The style also found favour in the southern New Zealand city of Dunedin, where the wealth brought in by the Otago gold rush of the 1860s allowed for substantial stone edifices to be constructed, using hard, dark breccia stone and a local white limestone, Oamaru stone. Among them were Maxwell Bury's University of Otago Registry Building and the Dunedin Law Courts by John Campbell (architect), John Campbell. Welsh-born William Henry Skinner, William Skinner designed the third and current building for St Paul's Church, Auckland, St Paul's in Auckland in the Gothic Revival style. Known as the Mother church, 'Mother Church', due to its foundation within a year of the city’s establishment in 1841, the dark Rangitoto Island, Rangitoto basalt and light Oamaru limestone church was consecrated in 1895. Skinner also designed the Agathis, kauri timber St James' Union Church in Thames, New Zealand, Thames in the Gothic style.


Pacific islands

Several examples of Gothic Revival architecture can be found among the buildings of the Pacific islands. Notable among these is Sacred Heart Church, Levuka, Sacred Heart Church in Levuka, Fiji, built by Father Louyot in 1858. This unusual structure consists of a church and presbytery in a local version of Carpenter Gothic alongside a stone church tower.


Global Gothic

Henry-Russell Hitchcock, the architectural historian, noted the spread of the Gothic Revival in the 19th and early 20th centuries, "wherever English culture extended – as far as the West Coast of the United States and to the remotest Antipodes". The British Empire, almost at its geographic peak at the height of the Gothic Revival, assisted or compelled this spread. The English-speaking dominions, Canada, Australia particularly the state of Victoria and New Zealand generally adopted British styles in toto (see above); other parts of the empire saw regional adaptations. India saw the construction of many such buildings, in styles termed Indo-Saracenic architecture, Indo-Saracenic or Hindu-Gothic. Notable examples include Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, both in Mumbai. At the hill station of Shimla, the summer capital of British Raj, British India, an attempt was made to recreate the Home counties in the foothills of the Himalayas. Although Gothic Revival was the predominant architectural style, alternatives were also deployed; Rashtrapati Niwas, the former Viceregal Lodge, has been variously described as Scottish baronial architecture#Scottish Baronial Revival, Scottish Baronial Revival, Tudor Revival architecture, Tudor Revival and Jacobethan. Other examples in the east include the late 19th century Church of the Saviour, Beijing, constructed on the orders of the Guangxu Emperor and designed by the Catholic missionary and architect Alphonse Favier; and the Wat Niwet Thammaprawat in the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace in Bangkok, by the Italian Joachim Grassi. In Indonesia, (the former colony of the Dutch East Indies), the Jakarta Cathedral was begun in 1891 and completed in 1901 by Dutch architect Antonius Dijkmans; while further north in the islands of the Philippines, the San Sebastian Church (Manila), San Sebastian Church, designed by architects Genaro Palacios and Gustave Eiffel, was consecrated in 1891 in the still Spanish colony. Church building in South Africa was extensive, with little or no effort to adopt vernacular forms. Robert Gray (bishop of Cape Town), Robert Gray, the first Anglican Diocese of Cape Town, bishop of Cape Town, wrote; "I am sure we do not overestimate the importance of real Churches built after the fashion of our English churches". He oversaw the construction of some fifty such buildings between 1848 and his death in 1872. South America saw a later flourishing of the Revival, particularly in church architecture, for example the São Paulo Cathedral, Metropolitan Cathedral of São Paulo in Brazil by the German Maximilian Emil Hehl, the Basílica del Voto Nacional, Basilica of the National Vow in Ecuador, the Sanctuary of Las Lajas in Colombia, the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro in Chile, the Virgen del Carmen y Santa Teresita, Montevideo, Church of the Virgin of Mount Carmel and St. Thérèse of Lisieux in Uruguay, or the Cathedral of La Plata in Argentina.


20th and 21st centuries

The Gothic style dictated the use of structural members in Compression member, compression, leading to tall, buttressed buildings with interior columns of Load-bearing wall, load-bearing masonry and tall, narrow windows. But, by the start of the 20th century, technological developments such as the steel frame, the incandescent light bulb and the elevator made this approach obsolete. Steel framing supplanted the non-ornamental functions of rib vaults and flying buttresses, providing wider open interiors with fewer columns interrupting the view. Some architects persisted in using Neo-Gothic tracery as applied ornamentation to an iron skeleton underneath, for example in Cass Gilbert's 1913 Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York and Raymond Hood's 1922 Tribune Tower in Chicago. The Tower Life Building in San Antonio, completed in 1929, is noted for the arrays of decorative gargoyles on its upper floors. But, over the first half of the century, Neo-Gothic was supplanted by Modernism, although some modernist architects saw the Gothic tradition of architectural form entirely in terms of the "honest expression" of the technology of the day, and saw themselves as heirs to that tradition, with their use of rectangular frames and exposed iron girders. In spite of this, the Gothic Revival continued to exert its influence, simply because many of its more massive projects were still being built well into the second half of the 20th century, such as Giles Gilbert Scott's Liverpool Cathedral and the
Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Episcopal Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Wa ...
(1907–1990). Ralph Adams Cram became a leading force in American Gothic, with his most ambitious project the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York (claimed to be the largest cathedral in the world), as well as Collegiate Gothic buildings at Princeton University. Cram said "the style hewn out and perfected by our ancestors [has] become ours by uncontested inheritance". Though the number of new Gothic Revival buildings declined sharply after the 1930s, they continue to be built. St Edmundsbury Cathedral, the cathedral of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, was expanded and reconstructed in a neo-Gothic style between the late 1950s and 2005, and a commanding stone central tower was added. A new church in the Gothic style is planned for St. John Vianney Parish in Fishers, Indiana. The Whittle Building at Peterhouse, Cambridge, Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, opened in 2016, matches the neo-Gothic style of the rest of the courtyard in which it is situated.


Appreciation

By 1872, the Gothic Revival was mature enough in the United Kingdom that Charles Locke Eastlake, an influential professor of design, could produce ''A History of the Gothic Revival''. Kenneth Clark, Kenneth Clark's, ''The Gothic Revival. An Essay'', followed in 1928, in which he described the Revival as "the most widespread and influential artistic movement which England has ever produced." The architect and writer Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel covered the subject of the Revival in an appreciative way in his Slade Professor of Fine Art, Slade Lectures in 1934. But the conventional early 20th century view of the architecture of the Gothic Revival was strongly dismissive, critics writing of "the nineteenth century architectural tragedy", ridiculing "the uncompromising ugliness" of the era's buildings and attacking the "sadistic hatred of beauty" of its architects. The 1950s saw further signs of a recovery in the reputation of Revival architecture. John Steegman's study, ''Consort of Taste'' (re-issued in 1970 as ''Victorian Taste'', with a foreword by Nikolaus Pevsner), was published in 1950 and began a slow turn in the tide of opinion "towards a more serious and sympathetic assessment." In 1958, Henry-Russell Hitchcock published his ''Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'', as part of the Penguin Books, Pelican History of Art series edited by Nikolaus Pevsner. Hitchcock devoted substantial chapters to the Gothic Revival, noting that, while "there is no more typical nineteenth-century product than a Victorian Gothic church", the success of the Victorian Gothic saw its practitioners design mansions, castles, colleges, and parliaments. The same year saw the foundation of the
Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK charity and amenity society that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. As a statutory consultee, by l ...
in England and, in 1963, the publication of ''Victorian Architecture'', an influential collection of essays edited by Peter Ferriday. By 2008, the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Victorian Society, the architecture of the Gothic Revival was more fully appreciated with some of its leading architects receiving scholarly attention and some of its best buildings, such as George Gilbert Scott's St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, St Pancras Station Hotel, being magnificently restored. The Society's 50th anniversary publication, ''Saving A Century'', surveyed a half-century of losses and successes, reflected on the changing perceptions toward Victorian architecture and concluded with a chapter entitled "The Victorians Victorious".


Gallery


Europe

File:Parliament of Hungary November 2017.jpg,
Hungarian Parliament Building The Hungarian Parliament Building ( , ), also known as the Parliament of Budapest after its location, is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, a notable landmark of Hungary, and a popular tourist destination in Budapest. It is situated o ...
, Budapest, Hungary: 1885–1904 File:Manchester Town Hall from Lloyd St.jpg, Manchester Town Hall, England: 1868–1877 File:Neues Rathaus München 2018.jpg, New Town Hall (Munich), New Town Hall, Munich, Germany: 1867–1874 File:Konkatedrala sv. Petra i Pavla Osijek.jpg, Osijek Co-cathedral, Co-cathedral, Osijek, Croatia: 1898 File:St Pancras Railway Station 2012-06-23.jpg, St Pancras railway station, London, England: 1863–1868 File:EstacaoRossioLisboa.JPG, Rossio railway station, Rossio Station, Lisbon, Portugal: 1886–1887 File:Aerial image of Schwerin Castle (view from the east).jpg, Schwerin Castle, Germany: 1845–1857 File:Castelul Sturdza din Miclăușeni.jpg, Sturdza Palace, Iași County, Romania: 1880–1904 File:Wien Rathaus hochauflösend.jpg, Vienna City Hall, Austria: 1872–1883 File:De Haar castlle.jpg, De Haar Castle, Utrecht, The Netherlands: 1892–1907


North America

File:Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate.jpg, Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate, Guelph, Ontario, Canada: 1876–1888 File:Centre Block - Parliament Hill.jpg, Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament Buildings,
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
, Canada: 1916–1920 File:Santa Ana Catedral Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana 2.jpg, Cathedral of Santa Ana (El Salvador), Cathedral of Santa Ana, El Salvador: 1906–1913 File:Princeton (6035183309).jpg, Rockefeller College, Princeton University, Princeton, USA: 1877 File:Fachada del Templo Expiatorio del Santísimo Sacramento, Guadalajara 13.JPG, Templo Expiatorio del Santísimo Sacramento, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico: 1897–1972 File:Saks Fifth Avenue and St Patrick's aerial (cropped1).jpg, St. Patrick's Cathedral (Manhattan), St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, USA: 1858–1879


South America

File:Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Lujan.jpg, Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina: 1890–1935 File:Fachada Basílica del Salvador.JPG, Basilica del Salvador, Santiago, Chile: 1913–1954 File:Capilla cristo-pobre.jpg, Capilla Cristo Pobre, Jauja, Peru: 1884–1925 File:Catedral de Petrópolis.jpg, Cathedral of Petrópolis, Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcântara, Petrópolis, Brazil: 1884–1925 File:IlhaFiscal 03.jpg, Ilha Fiscal, Castle of Fiscal Island, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 1881–1889 File:Santuario de Las Lajas, Ipiales, Colombia, 2015-07-21, DD 21-23 HDR.jpg, Las Lajas Sanctuary, Ipiales, Colombia: 1916–1949 File:Catedral de Pedra Canela 001.jpeg, Church of Our Lady of Lourdes (Canela), Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Canela, Rio Grande do Sul, Canela, Brazil: 1953–1987 File:Iglesia de las Carmelitas - Parroquia del Prado - Montevideo Uruguay.jpg, Virgen del Carmen y Santa Teresita, Montevideo, Church of the Virgin of Mount Carmel and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Montevideo, Uruguay: 1929–1954 File:Casa Quinta de Soneira, Montevideo 20.jpg, Soneira Castle, Montevideo, Uruguay: 1860–1871


Australia and New Zealand

File:SydneyUniversity_MainBuilding_Panorama.jpg, University of Sydney Quadrangle, Sydney, Australia: 1854–1862 File:St_Patrick's_Cathedral_-_Gothic_Revival_Style.jpg, St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia: 1858–1939 File:Christ ChurchCathedral1 gobeirne.jpg, ChristChurch Cathedral, New Zealand: 1864–1904 File:Auckland High Court Building - 4523179010.jpg, Auckland High Court, New Zealand: 1865–1867 File:StMarysSydneyCathedral1.jpg, St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, Australia: 1868–1928 File:St. Paul's Cathedral Tower.jpg, St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia: 1880–1891 File:Otago Boys High School.jpg, Otago Boys' High School, New Zealand: 1882–1885 File:Bendigo Cathedral.jpg, Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo, Australia: 1895–1901 File:Blossom at University of Otago 2.jpg, University of Otago Registry Building, New Zealand: 1878–1879


Asia

File:Church of Saviour in Baku.jpg, Church of the Saviour, Baku, Church of the Saviour, Baku, Azerbaijan: 1896–1899 File:Puducherry Sacred Heart Cathedral 2.JPG, Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pondicherry, Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Puducherry (city), Pondicherry, India: 1902–1907 File:Katedral Jakarta 2016 Bennylin 01.jpg, Jakarta Cathedral, Indonesia: 1891–1901 File:Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, Philippines - panoramio.jpg, San Sebastian Church (Manila), Basílica Menor de San Sebastián, Manila, Philippines: 1888–1891 File:Guangzhou Shishi Shengxin Dajiaotang 2012.11.15 11-17-52.jpg, Sacred Heart Cathedral (Guangzhou), Sacred Heart Cathedral, Guangzhou, China: 1861–1888 File:Government College University, Lahore - Clock tower and main building.jpg, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan: 1877


Decorative arts

File:Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory - Cup and Saucer - 1998.412 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif, Cup and saucer, produced by the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, Sèvres porcelain factory and decorated by Pierre Huard, 1827, porcelain, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, US File:Clock, French, circa 1835-1840, gilt and patinated bronze, inherited from Maurice Quentin Bauchart, 1911, inv. 17741, Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris.jpg, Clock, unknown French maker, , gilt and patinated bronze, Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris File:Vase (vase gothique Fragonard) (one of a pair) MET DP169251.jpg, Pair of vases, by Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard and the Sèvres porcelain factory, manufactured in 1832, decorated in 1844, hard-paste porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City File:Desk MET DT257587.jpg, Desk, by Kimbel and Cabus, , oak, nickel-plated brass and iron hardware, Metropolitan Museum of Art


See also


Sub-varieties of the Gothic Revival style


Locale


Footnotes


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* The first French monograph on French Gothic Revival. * ''"Le Gothique retrouvé" avant Viollet-le-Duc''. Exhibition, 1979. The first French exhibition concerned with French Neo-Gothic. * * Thomas Graham Jackson, Jackson, Sir Thomas G., ''Modern Gothic Architecture'' (1873), ''Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture'' (1913), and the three-volume ''Gothic Architecture in France, England and Italy'' (1901). * *


External links


Basilique Sainte-Clotilde, Paris
(archived copy)
Canada by Design: Parliament Hill, Ottawa
at Library and Archives Canada (archived copy)

(archived copy)
Proyecto Documenta's entries for neo-Gothic elements at the Valparaíso's churches
(archived copy) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gothic Revival Architecture Gothic Revival architecture, American architectural styles Architectural styles British architectural styles Revival architectural styles Victorian architectural styles