Of far more interest to the average visitor is the coming of the French Gothic style to all the land. This late medieval period, roughly from 1100 to 1500, still centered on the church, where artisans created stained glass, statues, choir screens, and elaborate, dramatic facades. Gothic figures were more realistic than Romanesque ones but still highly stylized, with exaggerated gestures and features.
The wide Gothic churches and cathedrals included a choir, a circular ambulatory, radiating chapels, pointed arches that carried more weight than rounded ones, clustered (rather than monolithic) columns, cross vaults, and ribbed ceilings. Wide, soaring windows are the most salient Gothic advance. In a Romanesque church the space would have been devoted to thick stone walls. The new Gothic design required the addition of exterior flying buttresses to support the weight of the very heavy roof and ceiling.
In this book, we preview some of the greatest achievements of the Gothic era, none more glorious than the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame in Paris with its flying buttresses, rose windows, and gargoyles. For stained glass, Saint-Chapelle, near Notre-Dame, is reason enough to fly over. Of course, the 150 glorious stained-glass windows of the Cathédrale of Chartres are another great blooming of this art form.
When the 14th-century papal schism encouraged many bishops of Europe to recognize Avignon instead of Rome as the legitimate seat of the papacy, this capital of Provence became a virtual building site. A fortress was required that would also be a palace, and the Gothic Palais des Papes fit the bill.
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