Romanesque Vaults

The vault is a very important feature of the Romanesque building style. The first churches and buildings overall had a simple vault formed by beams. Then a semicircular vault enclosing the apse appears. This vault is called "concha" and is the first type of Romanesque vault. Later, probably from Byzantium, a semicircular and barrel vault appeared - mainly above the narrow spaces. The most complex Romanesque vault is the cross vault, also known as the groin vault. The vaults and their small span forced builders to create more semicircular spaces and divide the increasing pressure on more columns.



The Romanesque style prevailed in construction and fine arts in the countries of Western, Southern and Central Europe in 11-13. century. In architecture, it was a gradually developed, within Europe and the given epoch, a more or less uniform tradition of building construction and the use of materials. The term "Romanesque" includes an attempt to express the relationship of this building style to the building style of ancient Rome, which was its main inspiration and shared with it some building elements.

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romanesque architecture history cross vault ribs