Like most churches in this age, both the Romanesque and the Gothic churches were enormous in size. They were huge in a couple of different aspects, including total area, appearance, and height. The Gothic church especially emphasized the height characteristic of their churches. Gothic churches had impressively tall towers atop of their already tall towers. Both churches are large in the area to accommodate large masses of people. In the Romanesque cathedrals, the large numbers of people were from the arrival of all of the Pilgrims. The extra side aisles allowed passer-byers to walk through with out disturbing the monks.
Both the Romanesque churches and the Gothic cathedrals were symmetrically aligned. The Romanesque churches’ design was inspired by the Latin-cross. And the cross of course is symmetrical in itself. The Gothic cathedrals on the other hand were not formally symmetrical; if you looked at them from the front, one could not confirm that the church was exactly symmetrical. They are instead, structurally symmetrical. One tower could be precisely opposite another tower, but not be the same dimensions.
Although the Gothic cathedrals have more elaborate examples of light throughout their cathedrals, both time periods incorporated “lightness” into their architecture.
Light has always been related to Christ. The architects in the Gothic cathedrals applied this idea liberally. Everything they designed had something to do with making the building lighter. They had ribbed vaults, in contrast with Romanesque barrel vaults. These piers, holding the vaults up led the viewers’ eyes up towards the source of light. Buttressing was elaborated to flying buttresses. Unlike the Romanesque buttresses that limited the amount of light in the church, the flying buttresses were half arches, emitting light through the middle.
Unlike the Romanesque churches, Gothic cathedrals had stained- glass windows. Inspired by Byzantine mosaics, the popular Gothic architect,...