Anglo-Norman architecture

The Anglo-Norman architecture is an epoch of English architectural history and corresponds to the European high and late Romanesque in the 11th and 12th centuries. After the conquest of England by William I in 1066, the Norman style found there in its Anglo-Norman form dissemination, replacing the architectural styles of pre – Romanesque Anglo – Saxon architecture .

It is followed by the first stage of Gothic architecture in England: the Early English style .

Term
By the term Anglo-Norman architecture which is now in the UK common form of Norman architecture called and thus from the original Norman architecture of Normandy distinguished and Norman architecture in southern Italy and Sicily. The architect and antiquarian Thomas Rickman had called in 1817 for the first time the Romanesque architecture of England as “Norman”. In his 1817 published work on Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation He characterized the medieval architectural styles of England according to stylistic and chronological aspects in Norman , Early English , Decorated and Perpendicular .

Historical Development
The Anglo-Norman architecture developed after the conquest of England by the Normans under William the Conqueror (1066-87) in 1066, which brought the Romanesque architecture of Normandy to England. Exemplary are the large Romanesque churches of Jumièges (1037-1067), the abbey church on the Mont-Saint-Michel (1024-84) and Sainte Trinité and Saint-Étienne in Caen (begun in 1062 and 1064), under William I. were created and show similar forms as they appeared a little later in conquered England. However, Norman influences can be recorded beforehand, for example in the “Saxon-Norman style of mixing” from about 1050-65 in the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey by Edward the Confessor , who had grown up in exile in Normandy and was so familiar with the Romanesque architecture.

With the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066 also the society, the church and thus also the architecture were normannized. The Norman claim to power was shown first at castles, including the keep ( keep ) and forts , later monastery or abbey and cathedral churches. Almost all important churches were rebuilt.

Types of construction
The existing Anglo-Saxon hall buildings had little in common with the mighty churches of Norman tradition. For the large new buildings, the additive arrangement of the room parts is significant. The parts are equally assigned to each other. A “space whole” is not sought.

In ornamentation, the Norman zigzag band has become legendary, as well as battlement, chain and roll patterns – in other words, geometric forms.

Of crucial importance for the vault construction was the Cathedral of Durham , which introduced around 1104 as the first large church a ribbed vault in the nave, so that acted on Caen and St-Etienne in Beauvais and this vaulted form enabled the triumphal procession through Europe.

The longhouses of the Norman churches are strikingly elongated: St. Albans has 10 yokes, Winchester 11, Ely 13 and Norwich 14. The transepts and the choirs are also elongated. In Normandy there were a maximum of two choral yokes, later in Gloucester , Chichester and Lincoln three, in St. Albans, Ely and Norwich four.

The Norman tradition initially included the relay choir (Westminster, Canterbury, Old Sarum, St Albans, Rochester, Ely, Durham, Christchurch, and Lincoln) and the Chaplet Chapel (Battle Abbey, Canterbury II, Winchester, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Chichester, and Norwich). After the turn of the century, the picture changed under the influence of the Reformed Order and the rectangular choir was preferred (Southwell, Old Sarum II, Hereford, Romsey). To this rich formation of the eastern parts belonged the development of large-scale indoor crypts (Canterbury, Winchester, Gloucester, Worcester, Rochester).

The traditional Norman system of support is being changed in the west and north of England and the round pillar becomes the norm (Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Worksop, Dunfermline ).

Wall elevation
Until the end of the 11th century, the clear structure of Norman tradition was maintained and only in the course of the 12th century were deviance tendencies and variety of forms noticeable.

St. Albans
At the beginning is the abbey church of St. Albans , as the elevations of the older Lanfranc church of Canterbury, William’s Battle Abbey and Old Sarum are no longer to be proved. Characteristic of St. Albans are the surface and massiveness of the wall, the simplicity in the structure and the restriction in the form. From the original nave six more yokes of the north wall are preserved. The support zone is characterized by the sequence of stepped, walled pillars and low-level archivolts . On the other hand, round arch openings with narrowing walls expand to the side roofs. In Obergaden are round arched windowswith wall passage. Flat, rectangular patterns mark the yoke sequence, and narrow, bent cornices mark the projectiles. In the transept and in the open crossing tower , double arcades have been preserved. All this makes the connection to Norman models at first difficult to recognize.

Winchester
As a derivation of mainland architecture, the transept of Winchester proves itself with its strict, clearly structured wall system. The horseshoe-shaped, provided with beaming Scheidbogen are about cross pillars with introduced and presented half-columns . Above are low-tiered, two-part galleries and in the Obergaden an alternating gallery passageway in front of the windows. The yokes are divided by semicircular services on rectangular templates.

Ely
In the transept of Ely (1081-1099) the column change is recorded for the first time. On the ground floor, round pillars of two cross pillars each with half-column templates are pulled together to form “double arcades”. This arrangement continues slightly varied in the gall area. The window passage is further broken up than in Winchester.

Durham
The replacement of the stanchion in 1093 in the abbey church of Durham is concisely formed in the alternation of massive, with templates surrounded cross piers and massive, profiled round columns. This creates a great, slow rhythm of double yokes limited by far-flung service groups. The heights of the mountains are in the tradition of Bernay , Jumièges and La Trinitè in Caen. At the same time, the galleries and the upper garbage zone are shrinking to a considerable extent.

On the services set up heavy, profiled Gurtrippen, which incorporate the seven-part ribbed vault . The center caps are stored in the nave on consoles, while in chorus put on column bundles. Rich decorations on plastic limbs facilitate wall thickness. The archways are covered with zigzag beads right down to the ribs, the cylindrical pillars are decorated with flutes, rhombus and zigzag patterns.

Vault
Traditionally, the English churches of the 11th century were laid flat or provided with an open roof. The apses, aisles (St. Albans, Blyth, Gloucester, Ely, Norwich etc.), crypts (Canterbury, Rochester, Winchester, Gloucester and Worcester), rarely the transept arms (Winchester and Ely) were cross-vaulted. With the construction of Durham the turnaround comes. 1096 are the choir sideships, 1104 the choir, 1110 the transept and until 1130 the nave with ribbed vaulting. The integration of the wall compartments with the vaulted fields creates a unity that makes it possible to apply the term yoke in its strict sense.

But the ribbed vault could not prevail in Anglo-Norman space and was used only occasionally in aisles, occasionally also in the transept (aisles of Southwell and Romsey, transept aisles in Winchester after 1107, choir staging ship of Peterborough around 1118).

Norwich
The column change also intervenes on the eastern parts of the nave of Norwich (1096-1119), in the fifth yoke west of the crossing with a decline to “normal” proportions. To the west it continues in a modified form (bundle pillars – actually cross pillars with 16 templates – alternate with segmental arches ).

In the back and juxtaposition of plastic elements can also read the tendency to stratification of the wall. This becomes clear in the long house of Ely (from 1106), which gains a fast rhythm due to the close position of the columns.

Peterborough
The choir and the transept of Peterborough (1118-1143) take the tendency to facilitate the wall with round and hexagonal pillars and the grating by horizontal and vertical limbs.

Romsey
This development tends to culminate in Romsey (1120-1140) in the intermeshing of the emerging pillars with the Emporenzone, while the first pair of pillars before the crossing is still round, show the remaining bundle pillars of the nave a strong vertical trend. This is divided twice, in freestanding arched profiles, the open arch field divided by a set pillar. The window channel divides the wall into three layers. This is then only visible in the narrow “bridges” between the pillars.

Special Development
A special development, possibly interacting with Durham, seems to have taken place in the west of the island, in the high circular pillars of the longhouses – up to 9.30 meters high – by Gloucester (first quarter of the 12th century) and Tewkesbury with their shrunken Central zones. In the north, the abbey church of Dunfermline (1128-1150) follows this principle. As variants of this height extension of the arcades can probably also Romsey, Jedburg, Oxford and Hereford are considered. The round buttress in moderate proportions is spread in Southwell, Carlisle, Malvern, Chester and Melbourne.

In summary, until the middle of the twelfth century, the tendency for the dissolution and bodily division of the wall, taken over from Normandy, is continued. The rhythmization by column changes and wall templates, the concealment of the wall thickness by half-columns, profiles and decoration beads, the depth stratification of the upper floors and the gradual deterioration of the wall are significant. Although these individual characteristics are a necessary precondition for the genesis of the Gothic, they are still entirely connected to the Romanesque in their massiveness and severity.

Exterior construction
The exterior of Anglo-Norman churches represents the consistent adoption of the structural principles of the interior. The southern chapel of Norwich with its zonigen structure and the rich Blendarkatur is an example of the eastern end, as he is handed down from Normandy (model is the choir apse of La Trinité in Caen). The transept front also takes over the Norman Risalitordnung with tower structures on the corner risalites . The gable is usually divided into dazzling arcades, niches and ornamental fields (Norwich, Winchester, Southwell and Lincoln). The longhouse wall is still easy in the early stages (St. Albans and Winchester), but then becomes increasingly with arcuate bands and cornicesdecorated. In Obergaden, the internal walkway is formally transferred to the exterior (Norwich, Ely, Peterborough). The “Norman Viertsturm “, still coarsely structured in the 11th century (St. Albans), is decorated in the 12th century with pilaster outlines , templates and panels. This leads at the turn of the century to the complete gridding of the walls in Norwich (in between are Southwell and Tewkesbury).

West facade
A key element of Anglo-Norman architecture is the two-towered west facade, which can be deduced from the Norman two-tower facade in St-Ètienne and Ste-Trinité in Caen and Jumièges . It is handed down in Durham Cathedral (around 1100) and Southwell Minster (around 1130). While the towers in Southwell are still in flight of the aisles, they go beyond that in Durham.

Another important element of the façade design is the niche motif , as can be seen for example in the massive West Block of Lincoln (around 1092): A triple stepped, eingenischte portal zone steps well beyond the Seitenschifffluchten and leads the niche motif on the southern narrow side. Iris rows decorate the upper zone. Behind it rise the mighty twin towers. These are five staggered niches with three portals cut deep into the wall. The setting up of the twin towers goes back to St-Étienne in Caen. The “niche façade” appears later in Tewkesbury (around 1140) in the form of a mid-nave, deeply staggered single tables.

Rochester abandons the western towers around the midcentury and occupies the main and side aisles with small flank towers. The blind mark is drawn decoratively over the entire facade.

Evident becomes the horizontal trend of Anglo-Norman western buildings in the last third of the 12th century. Around 1174 the wide sweeping west transept of Ely was built. With its powerful tower massif (square, massive central tower and four octagonal flank towers), the interlocking of the members (the structure of the facade accesses the towers) through horizontal taps and latticework to a unit, Ely stands on the threshold to the Gothic.

Ornamentation
The ornamentation used in the decoration can also be traced back to the Norman tradition. Geometric patterns such as triangle, zigzag, rhombuses, chessboard, scrolls and braids occur in ribbons and ridges. Decorated with them are the archivolts of the portals, windows, divider and arch wings, blind and pilaster arcades. Diamond, scale and checkerboard patterns fill the arches and remnants of the walls, such as in Peterborough (transept and choir), Hereford (nave), Christchurch (long house) and Ely (facade). Vegetable ornamentation adorns the portal walls(Ely, Rochester, Lincoln etc.). Figurative architectural sculpture appears on the facades (Lincoln) and Tympana (Ely, Rochester, Malmesbury). Characteristic is the bundled zigzag or chevron band (Durham, Gloucester, Ely, Peterborough etc.) and the twisted round arch aperture (Durham, Ely, Worcester, Castle Acre Castle etc.). Also unique is the relief decoration of the cylindrical pillars (Durham, Dunfermline, Norwich, Waltham ). The capitals are simple cubes – and richer fold capitals (Winchester, Norwich, Dunfermline etc.). Most of them are pressed or shrunk like a pillow.

Source From Wikipedia