The gothic style was one of the most successful architectural styles in the middle ages. It can be found all over Europe from Great Britain, to France to Poland. The gothic style began in the 12^th century in France and lasted until the 16^th century. It was preceded by the Romanesque style, and followed by the revival of the classical style in the shape of the Renaissance. The gothic style is better known because of its great cathedrals and palaces. Some of the structural achievements of the great cathedrals still baffle architects nowadays. So let’s see, what the main charactheristics of gothic architecture are:

1.   Accentuation of the vertical axis: Gothic architecture is all about vertical lines. The structure is supposed to be pointy, to look towards the sky, to be slender and tall. As opposed to the Renaissance style where a lot of emphasis is put on the horizontality of the lines. Everything had to fit in rectangle and it shouldn’t be too elongated on the vertical axis. This is why most Renaissance palaces have a clear demarcation of all the floors thru a line that goes along the facade; this accentuates the flatness and the horizontal lines of the structure. On a symbolic level we can consider gothic as the architecture of a period when religion was a dominant force, and mysticism and magic were a regular thing, so the architecture reflected this mentality by soaring towards the havens with tall bell towers and pointed arches. Renaissance on the other hand was more about more down to earth, revival of the human spirit, and much more based on science and discoveries of the human brain. The architecture reflected the spirit of the time, in the sense that, everything was brought lower to the ground, the horizontal being emphasized. In a more practical approach we could say that since Gothic originated from northern France, a need for more slanted or pointy roofs was evident because of the colder climate, and snow. On the other hand, Renaissance originated in Italy, where the climate was much hotter, and thus, terraced roofs were adequate. The accentuation of the vertical axis is one of the defining characteristics of gothic architecture.

2.   Pointed arch: This is another characteristic of gothic architecture that is easy to spot by non-specialists.  As opposed to Romanesque, Renaissance or baroque arches, Gothic is the only style where arches have this distinctive characteristic of being pointy. These arches came as a result of the mechanics of the structure of gothic buildings. The pointed arches distribute the forces that build up from the roof in a very efficient way, in the sense that most of its lateral force. Without the need for incredibly bulky walls, ribbed vaults in the shape of pointed arches could be very slender and expressive. 

3.   Flying buttresses: These were a necessity because of the way the ribbed vaults in the shape of pointed arches discharged the forces, in a lateral direction. The flying buttresses distributed this loads to the foundations, so none of them would be taken on by the walls which couldn’t stand such lateral forces, and would have probably been wedged apart. The massive size of the flying buttresses shows just what kind of loads they were meant to take. But these buttresses contribute to the overall look of the gothic style being yet another way of emphasizing the vertical.

4.   Ribbed vaults: As opposed to almost all other styles, Gothic has ribs that run down the length of its vaults. They show the direction the distribution of the loads goes. They always discharge on a part of the wall that has a flying buttress on the other side, so the lateral forces can be supported with ease. The complexity of the ribbed vaults will advance along with the complexity of the style. In the later stages of Gothic such as the flamboyant period, the simple pointed arch shaped ribs will became so called stellar ribs. These stellar vaults have the shape of a honeycomb, with lines going in every direction. But as the name suggests, the ribs unite at the ends, where they discharge the loads giving them the characteristic star appearance. The ribbed vaults are another very important characteristic of gothic architecture.

In my opinion the gothic style still needs to be taken into consideration because it defines a great structural system. In the Renaissance, when the term gothic was first used, it had a pejorative sense, meaning barbaric. But the few characteristics if gothic architecture that I enumerated above show that it was a very well thought out form of construction, and of expression of the beliefs of the time.  The gothic style has served as inspiration for many famous architects from the Eclectic period, and even Art Nouveau, Gaudi being one of them.

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