What is Pre-Romanesque?

The Holy Roman Empire was home to a multitude of towering cathedrals, sprawling imperial abbeys, and thousands of castles built in the Romanesque style. But where did the Romanesque come from?

Before we embark on a discussion of the origins of the Romanesque architectural style, it is prudent to first explain how these conclusions are even reached in the first place. In a previous article, we briefly explored the science of architectural history and construction research, focusing upon the process of determining a building’s age.

How to Identify Architectural Periods

Today, we will begin a journey into identifying the specific elements associated with the architectural styles that developed into the Romanesque to assist you in your own investigations.

Romanesque architecture was the most widely implemented architectural style in Western Europe during the period that effectively began in the early-11th century and ended around the mid-13th century. There are, of course, considerable buffers on either side of that timespan, because the use of certain architectural elements is rarely limited to particular periods of time.

For example, the arch is one of the oldest architectural elements—first created by the Sumerians in the 4th millennium BC—but developed over time in nearly all areas of the world. The complexities of the arch grew over time resulting in vaults that effectively combine arches in different ways.

Due to its many manifestations, the vault has become one of the main indicators in differentiating architectural styles, yet remains an essential element particularly throughout Western architecture.

Columns are another such element that vary widely, yet their different forms are some of the best indicators of an architectural style. In fact, identifying the form of column plinths located in medieval churches is the easiest way to interpret the age of the building. This method has become somewhat of a science itself, allowing researchers to specify the decade of construction, not just the century.

By studying these elements—such as arches, vaults, and columns—we can identify specific building phases that correlate to specific periods of time based upon their forms.

The Origins of Romanesque

As with all architectural styles, the Romanesque resulted from an organic development of other styles, but none of them had as great an influence as the architecture of the Lombard Kingdom (568 – 774 AD). As discussed in an another article, the Lombards conquered the Po Valley of Northern Italy, which contains the island of Comacina on Lake Como—the residence of the Roman architectural guilds.

These guilds, known as the magistri comacini (comacine masters), preserved the Roman building tradition and continued to build for whomever employed them in that region. Whether it was the unified Roman Empire, the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, or the Lombards, these architects were valued for their expertise.

However, the period of time in which they worked for the Lombards was unique in that the Lombards had not been patrons of a particular architectural style prior to their entrance into Italy. At most, the builders among their ranks augmented existing edifices in the various Roman towns they inhabited with Germanic patterns such as weaves or zoomorphic forms.

Following the highly practical nature of Lombard politics, King Rotharis legally defined the comacines as a guild in 643 AD and entrusted them with the construction of the new palaces and churches throughout the Lombard Kingdom. Furthermore, they were allowed to practice their craft in other regions beyond the Lombard territories as decreed by King Luitprand in 713 AD.

The tomb of King Luitprand (left) in the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro (right) in Pavia, Italy.

The legal formation of their guild also included an alleviation from local taxes—those of Roman descent were the main taxpayers after all—as well as standardizations in the price of constructing specific architectural elements and building types.