Romanesque

Thick walls, round arches and heavy towers – the first great stone churches of the Middle Ages.

Romanesque means roughly “in the manner of the Romans”. Around the year 1000 Europe began building on a large scale in stone again, taking round arches and vaults as its models. The walls had to carry everything, so windows were small and interiors dim. This gives the churches a fortress-like weight.

After the Migration Period and the Viking raids, Europe stabilised around the year 1000. Monasteries grew rich, pilgrimages increased and the Church needed large spaces. Master builders took the Roman arch and vault as their model but built without Roman concrete: walls had to be thick to bear the load. Regional variants emerged, from the brick of Lombardy to the austerity of Normandy and the striped marble of Tuscany.

The Romanesque style came to Sweden with Christianity. Lund Cathedral is the great work, and hundreds of 12th-century parish churches – in Skåne, Västergötland, Östergötland and on Gotland – retain their round arches and massive west towers.