Historicism in Architecture: When the Nineteenth Century Borrowed Styles

Historicism is an architectural style from roughly 1830 to 1900 in which buildings are designed in older styles such as Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque or Romanesque. The style was chosen according to the building’s function and symbolic value: Gothic for churches and parliaments, Renaissance for museums and Baroque for opera houses.

Facts

Why borrow styles?

In the nineteenth century cities grew, industry created wealth, and the state, the church and the middle class needed new types of building: museums, parliaments, banks, theatres, stations and libraries. At the same time architects were unsure which style suited the age. The solution was to choose an older style that gave the building the right meaning. Historicism is therefore often called the century of styles.

The choice was meaningful. Gothic was associated with Christian faith and national history, the Renaissance with learning and trade, and the Baroque with power and theatre. The buildings thus carried stories. They were designed by trained architects who knew the styles from books and travel, and the styles became knowledge instead of tradition. Read about the opposite in the guide to Neoclassicism.

Gothic Revival: Westminster and St Pancras

When the old parliament building burned in 1834, the Palace of Westminster in London was rebuilt by Charles Barry with Augustus Pugin as decorator, in Gothic Revival. The clock tower with Big Ben was finished in 1859. The choice of Gothic was meant to show that English democracy had medieval roots. George Gilbert Scott built in the same style the St Pancras hotel (1873), a railway station with pointed arches and towers.

In Hungary the Parliament in Budapest was built in Gothic Revival style in 1885–1904, and in Bavaria King Ludwig II had the romantic castle Neuschwanstein built. In France Eugène Viollet-le-Duc restored medieval buildings such as Notre-Dame and Carcassonne, sometimes with liberties. The Gothic of the original is in the guide to recognising Gothic. Vienna’s Ringstrasse, laid out where the city wall had stood, became the most famous example of a whole district filled with historical styles: a Gothic Revival city hall, a Renaissance Revival opera house and a parliament in Greek style.

Renaissance Revival and Neo-Baroque

Museums and libraries often chose the Renaissance, which was associated with learning. Friedrich August Stüler designed Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum (1866) in Renaissance Revival after Italian palaces, and in Amsterdam Pierre Cuypers built the Rijksmuseum (1885) in a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance. In Copenhagen Martin Nyrop designed the City Hall (1905) after Italian towers.

The Baroque suited theatres and opera houses. Charles Garnier designed the Paris Opéra (1861–1875) with lavish staircases, mirrors and gilding. The opera shows the new middle class wanting the same splendour as the nobility. In Sweden the Nordic Museum by Isak Gustaf Clason (1907) is in a Renaissance Revival mixing Swedish medieval and sixteenth-century features.

Criticism, iron and the end

Historicism was criticised even in its own time for being a masquerade: behind the façade were modern steel frames and offices. The Crystal Palace in London (1851), of glass and iron, showed another way. William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement wanted to replace imitation with honest craft; see Arts and Crafts and the design section’s historicism.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century historicism was replaced by National Romanticism and Art Nouveau, which sought new forms; see National Romanticism and Art Nouveau in architecture. In Sweden Helgo Zettervall restored the cathedrals of Lund and Uppsala in a historicist spirit and designed the main building of Lund University. The Riksdag building (1905) is a later building that mixes styles. The period is described under historicism and industrialism.

How to recognise it

Exercise

Which style was often chosen for nineteenth-century parliament buildings, such as Westminster?