Top left: Notre-Dame de Paris; top right: rose window, Notre-Dame de Paris; center left: interior of Chartres Cathedral; center right: Reims Cathedral; bottom: Sainte-Chapelle, Paris | |
Years active | 1140 to 16th century |
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Location | France |
French Gothic architecture is an architectural style which emerged in France in 1140, and was dominant until the mid-16th century. The most notable examples are the great Gothic cathedrals of France, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, and Amiens Cathedral. Its main characteristics are verticality, or height, and the use of the rib vault and flying buttresses and other architectural innovations to distribute the weight of the stone structures to supports on the outside, allowing unprecedented height and volume. The new techniques also permitted the addition of larger windows, including enormous stained glass windows, which fill the cathedrals with light.
French scholars divide the Gothic of their country into four phases:[1] British and American historians use similar periods.
French scholars divide the Gothic of their country into four phases:[5] British and American historians use similar periods.
The French style was widely copied in other parts of northern Europe, particularly Germany and England. It was gradually supplanted as the dominant French style in the mid-16th century by French Renaissance architecture.[6]