What is Romano-Gothic?

Romano-Gothic is the building style that bridges Romanesque and Gothic, roughly between 1250 and 1375. Despite the name it is not a shapeless in-between phase: in the Dutch province of Groningen and neighbouring East Frisia a recognisable, richly ornamented brick architecture developed that is treated as a style in its own right.

Characteristics

• Round arches alongside depressed and rising pointed arches — the Gothic pointed arch arrives, but the round arch does not disappear. That mixture is what identifies the style.
• Richly ornamented brick façades — by now builders had mastered brick and used moulded and profiled units as ornament.
• Many blind panels with blind niches and decorative bonding, articulating large wall surfaces without weakening them.
• Domical vaults, often melon vaults with decorative — sometimes purely ornamental — ribs.
• Painted decoration on walls and vaults; restoration work sometimes reveals it under later limewash.
• Single-nave cruciform churches with a free-standing bell tower — a typically northern pattern.
• Buttresses, needed because walls grow taller through the thirteenth century.

How the style develops

The sequence can be read off the façades. Early on, Romanesque mass and small windows still dominate. Through the thirteenth century walls grow taller and pointed arches stress the vertical; in the late phase tall windows dominate and the style approaches Gothic.

Examples are the churches of Loppersum, Zuidbroek, Garmerwolde and Stedum.

Application

For owners and custodians of such churches the style is mainly a conservation task. Three points recur:

• Repair with lime mortar, not cement. Medieval brick is softer and more porous than modern brick; a hard joint forces moisture out through the brick, which then spalls.
• Record decorative brickwork before removing anything. The patterns in blind panels and friezes are local and not interchangeable; without a survey they cannot be reinstated.
• Protect wall paintings. Hacking off internal plaster or limewash can destroy medieval painting. Have it assessed before a chisel touches the wall.

Related terms

• Romanesque
• Gothic
• Melon vault
• Blind niche
• Cruciform church

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