Topic summary
Early Gothic
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Early Gothic architecture.
Early Gothic is the term for the first period of Gothic architecture which lasted from the 1130s until about 1200. The early Gothic builders used innovative technologies to resolve the problem of masonry ceilings which were too heavy for the traditional arched barrel vault. The solutions to the problem came in the form of the rib vault, where thin stone ribs passed the weight of the ceiling to rows of columns and outside the walls to another innovation, the flying buttress.