Birth of Gothic architecture at Saint-Denis
- Date
- c. 1140–1144 (Saint-Denis choir)
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- France
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
Around 1140–1144 Abbot Suger rebuilt the choir of the royal abbey church of Saint-Denis, near Paris, in a new style that combined the pointed arch, the rib vault and the flying buttress to dissolve solid walls into screens of stained glass.
Suger conceived this luminous architecture as a 'lux nova' (new light) that would draw worshippers toward the divine. The choir of Saint-Denis, consecrated in 1144, is widely regarded as the first structure to unite all the defining elements of Gothic architecture. The style spread rapidly through France and beyond, inspiring the great cathedrals of Chartres, Reims, Amiens and Notre-Dame de Paris (begun 1163). Gothic building permitted taller, brighter interiors than the earlier Romanesque, and its cathedrals became vast collective undertakings that organised urban labour, civic pride and Church wealth over generations. The style dominated European religious and civic architecture for some 400 years and remains one of the most recognisable artistic legacies of the medieval West.
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Empires active in c. 1140–1144 (Saint-Denis choir)
- Song Dynasty960 CE – 1279 CE
- Jurchen Jin Dynasty1115 CE – 1234 CE
- Almoravid Empire1056 CE – 1147 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE – 1258 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Zhu Xi completes the Neo-Confucian synthesis and the Four Booksc. 1175-1190
- The Toledo School and the Latin translation of Greek-Arabic learning12th century (Gerard of Cremona d. 1187)
- Building of Angkor Wat by Suryavarman IIc. 1122–1150 CE
- Ibn Rushd writes his commentaries on Aristotle1170s–1190s CE
- Rise of the Kingdom of Ife, cradle of Yoruba civilisationc. 1170 CE
- Al-Ghazali completes The Incoherence of the Philosophersc. 1095 CE
Further reading
The wider story
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