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>churches now looks more like Muslim Spanish Moors' Mezquita I've never seen any church that looks like that. The only Eastern architectural plan I can think o

by Bayart 5y ago

>churches now looks more like Muslim Spanish Moors' Mezquita I've never seen any church that looks like that. The only Eastern architectural plan I can think of as having been exported West is the round style of the Dome of the Rock after it became a Templar headquarter. >obviously they had learnt a lot from the Islamic architecture that they brought and implemented the concepts to Britain and other parts of Europe There's nothing obvious about it. I see very little, if anything, in 11th c. Romance architecture (including Norman) that isn't just a spin on previous Carolingian types. Islamic influence North of the Alps and Pyrenees seems restricted to decorative arts and fashion.

inglor_cz 5y ago
The elephant in the Mediterranean room is Rome, all the monumental architecture, including Islamic buildings, builds on Roman architectural knowledge a lot, adding its own decorations and elements. We tend to forget that the entire North Africa and huge regions of the Near East, including today's Syria and Jordan, were Roman provincies for long centuries. This cultural bedrock did not go away during later conquests, it only eroded away very slowly.
- Bayart 5y ago
  You should also credit Persian architecture, from which Islamic tradition drew equally (although, for obvious reasons, less around the Med than in Asia).
- dboreham 5y ago
  In many cases the first version of the churches were literally built from a preexisting Roman building, recycling the stone. E.g. York Minster.
FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
The main thing I can think of is the pointed arch. That appeared in Gothic cathedrals but not the earlier Romanesque ones, and is supposed to originate in Islamic architecture.
- Bayart 5y ago
  The way through which the pointed arch travelled to Western Europe is still up to debate. My understanding is that it was used decoratively in Islamic architecture, and that a load-bearing form existed in the Near-East but not fully realised. Single, isolated load-bearing pointed arches are still found in Turkey, Syria or Iraq in gates and bridges that predate Gothic architecture. In my opinion that basic design was picked up during the Crusades and expounded upon due to the specific constraints of Christian architecture, that is building up rather than wide. In the end I believe it makes far more sense that they saw something abroad used in large civil engineering and made use of out it, rather than picking a decorative feature of Islamic architecture for structural features.

by Bayart 5y ago

inglor_cz 5y ago

The elephant in the Mediterranean room is Rome, all the monumental architecture, including Islamic buildings, builds on Roman architectural knowledge a lot, adding its own decorations and elements. We tend to forget that the entire North Africa and huge regions of the Near East, including today's Syria and Jordan, were Roman provincies for long centuries. This cultural bedrock did not go away during later conquests, it only eroded away very slowly.

Bayart 5y ago
You should also credit Persian architecture, from which Islamic tradition drew equally (although, for obvious reasons, less around the Med than in Asia).
dboreham 5y ago
In many cases the first version of the churches were literally built from a preexisting Roman building, recycling the stone. E.g. York Minster.

FooBarBizBazz 5y ago

The main thing I can think of is the pointed arch. That appeared in Gothic cathedrals but not the earlier Romanesque ones, and is supposed to originate in Islamic architecture.

Bayart 5y ago
The way through which the pointed arch travelled to Western Europe is still up to debate. My understanding is that it was used decoratively in Islamic architecture, and that a load-bearing form existed in the Near-East but not fully realised. Single, isolated load-bearing pointed arches are still found in Turkey, Syria or Iraq in gates and bridges that predate Gothic architecture. In my opinion that basic design was picked up during the Crusades and expounded upon due to the specific constraints of Christian architecture, that is building up rather than wide. In the end I believe it makes far more sense that they saw something abroad used in large civil engineering and made use of out it, rather than picking a decorative feature of Islamic architecture for structural features.