History 1 SP: Romanesque

The Romanesque was a period of the arts. The learning became about art, literature and techniques. No longer was it the main concern to just get the building put together. Now the focus can be on beauty and creativity, which is something I highly enjoy about this era. This time period was also a big creator of the schools and monasteries. This was also because of the less basic needs, before they were mainly focused on creating shelters, but they are now slowly working up to having homes, and schools and better places of worship.

One of the most important things of the Romanesque period having to do with architecture is the use of vaulted ceilings. The three main types that were heavily used are the barrel vault, the groin vault, and the ribbed vault. Starting with the barrel vault, it is a semicircle arch that is stretched out to created a ceiling.(Below Images 1 and 2) It can be compared to half of a hollowed out rolling pin. This is the oldest style of vaulted ceiling and the Romanesque period pushed it to its limits. The groin vault is pretty much two of the barrel vaulted ceilings stuck together at a right angle.(Below Image 3) These hold their weight on pillars. As for the ribbed vault, they have more of little arch frames, and they spread the weight out even more through pillars than the groin vault. That is why these are popular, due to their excellent strength, they allowed for higher, wider and heavier structures to be placed on top of them. (Below Image 4)