Romanesque Architecture and Its Artistry in Central Europe, 900-1300

This book seeks to offer a detailed survey of the Romanesque Architectural style preserved in Central Europe. It traces developments of the style from earliest examples of the post-Carolingian period to the height of sophistication during the transition to Gothic. It begins with a survey of the remains and reconstructions of the palaces of the mighty. It then offers a selection of castles, both as ruins or restored facilities as they can be found in Germany, Austria and Alsace. Where possible the emphasis rests on seeking out the artistic ornamentation with which the builders enhanced the structures. The major part of the book deals with church architecture, where the structures are discussed as monumental statements of the faith with consideration given to their embellishments on towers and facades, friezes and apses, portals and colonnades, columns and capitals, screens, reliefs, fonts and statuary, wall painting and stained glass. Inescapable is the conclusion that these fortresses of God are sermons in stone in which the worshipper finds himself within the Imperium Christianum.