PUBLIC BUILDINGS

Seen from the countryside, the medieval city displayed a severe barrier of moats, walls, towers and gatehouses marking a strict frontier between the urban area and the rural space. Behind this facade, one saw the roofs with chimneys, turrets, pinnacles, gables, echauguettes, pignons, church bell-towers and convent chapels as well as several huge religious and public buildings. Because the growing urban populations required larger churches, generally the most impressive of the buildings was an enormous and vertiginous cathedral.

Romanesque religious art dominated the period from 1050 to 1150. Its main characteristics were a Latin cross-shaped plan, a rectangular nave (preceded by a narthex and a portal), a transept, aisles continuing around the apse forming a choir with ambulatory, an underground crypt, a chevet with radiating apsidioles and chapels, thick walls, small windows and a round vaulted ceiling. The interior decoration included sculptures and polychrome frescos.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the ideology of the Church was fully developed, and the intense desire for salvation in the next world, coupled with an awful fear of damnation, gave rise to a preoccupation with life after death—probably the most intense preoccupation since the days of Ancient Egypt. All actions were colored by their imagined effects on chances of salvation, and Heaven and Hell were no longer figures of speech but very real places for which mankind was inevitably bound. Outside the body of the Church there were few intellectuals, and practically no one could read, so medieval builders symbolized their religious beliefs in stone, making churches and cathedrals into dramatized and educational representations of their ideals. Meanwhile, engineering skills greatly increased, stone cutting improved beyond all recognition, and builders came to a proper understanding of thrusts.

Gothic or ogival architecture, created about 1140 in Ile-de-France (the very heart of the French kingdom around Paris), fully deserves the name opus modernum or francigenum (modern or French work) given by contemporary commentators. Spreading on beyond northern France, the Gothic style became the art of the entire West until the Renaissance. The elegant, weightless and luminous Gothic art is closely linked with the primacy of French civilization and the authority of the French sovereigns, but its tremendous development is also explained by its intrinsic value: Its three basic features—ogave ribs, the broken arch, and the flying buttress—concentrate thrusts at a few critical points and thus eliminate the solid Romanesque walls. Gothic cathedrals reach out for universality; they reflect a harmonious balance and express the cultural upsurge of the golden age of the 13th century.

If the cathedral was the pride of the city, churches were a daily necessity everywhere. Each district of a town, called a parish, had its own place of worship, and even in towns, the parish church was often hemmed by a cemetery.

City growth, overpopulation and emancipation necessitated new public buildings, which were witnesses of the prosperous, proud and dynamic medieval urban civilization. The town hall was frequently built on the main square. This official functional building was intended as meeting place for the municipal council. It included a vast hall for deliberations, meetings, feasts and receptions; offices for civil servants; and a room for the city archives. The town hall was also the expression of the city’s wealth, authority and freedom, and for this reason it was richly decorated with high-pitched roofs, pinnacles, statues, sumptuous staircases, high windows, and carvings. The town hall was frequently crowned by a high tower used as an observatory to watch over the vicinity of the town. The tower was fitted with a bell to use as an alarm for fire. The town-hall tower was both a donjon with crenellation, machicolation, watch-tower and echauguettes and a cathedral bell-tower with rich Gothic architectural decorations.

Some towns had a semi-fortified building for the administration of justice, such as the Bargello in Florence, built about 1250. The guilds formed political and economic organizations with their own houses or halls. A guild hall was generally composed of a large room for meetings and feasts, administrative offices and a room for archives.

Cities were economic centers, places of production and consumption. The increasing importance of trade

Sainte-Chapelle, Paris (France). The Sainte-Chapelle was completed in 1248. It was built inside the royal palace in the He de la Cite by the king of France, Louis IX, to house the relic of Christ’s thorn-crown. The chapel is a jewel of Gothic art with a few buttresses, wide windows and alS m high clock-tower.

Town hall and tower in Brussels (Belgium). The town hall of Brussels was built between 1402 and 1454. The tower is 96 m high.

Ground-plan, Verrare (Italy). Ferrare, on the river Po in the province of Emilia-Romagna, was ruled by the family Este from 1208 to 1598. The medieval town was defended by walls and towers designed in the 13th century by master-builder Bertolino Ploti de No-vare. Ferrare was enlarged in 1451 by Borso d'Este and completed in 1492 by Ercole I with wide avenues, walls, towers and Italian-style bastions. The castle (Gastello Estense) situated in the middle of the town was built in 1385 by Bartolino Ploti de Novare. The castle was both the residence to the family Este and a powerful fortress with a high donjon (Torre dei Leoni). After 1598, Ferrare was taken and placed under the tutelage of the pope. The family Este then established itself in Modena. The fortifications of Ferrare are partly preserved.

Necessitated the creation of adapted commercial public spaces open to all. In great towns, markets were specialized according to the goods exchanged (fish market, hay market, flower market, horse market, herb market and so on). Spots of colorful activity, of shouting, hawking and movement, markets were installed in open squares, in covered spaces fitted with timber roofs (such as in Dives-sur-Mer in Normandy, for example), or in splendid Gothic-decorated houses such as the Lakenhalle (drapery market) in Ghent, Belgium. The existence of these specialized spaces of trade should not, however, blind us to a basic fact: The entire medieval city was a market, and most streets were places of production and business.

Each kingdom, duchy, and region~and many a town as well—had its own measure system and its own money. Changers, traders, bankers, financiers and merchants met in a special place that became a public house, called a

Modena (Italy). Modena, in Emilia-Romagna, was founded by the Etruscans and became the Roman town Mutina in 183 BC. From 1336 until 1796, Modena belonged to the family Este from Ferrare. After 1598, the family Este was driven off Ferrare by the pope, and the Estes established their capital in Modena. The ground-plan shows the bastioned castle-citadel (1), the Venetian-style fortifications and the main gates: the Castle gate (2), the Bologne gate (3), the Saint-Francis gate (4) and the Saint-Augustine gate (5).

Stock exchange or money market, for commercial transactions and banking operations.

Cities had sanitary problems: Growing populations, poor sanitation, impure water and vermin led to recurrent epidemics. Fleas, lice, mice and rats were an unwelcome but common sight. In the 14th century the problem of vermin-spread disease reached disastrous proportions, culminating in the Black Death in the years 1348-50. Traditionally it was the Church who provided accommodations for the sick, as well as for pilgrims and beggars. Beginning in the 13th century, municipal authorities took over part of this task, and many towns had their own orphanages, old people’s homes, hospices and hospitals. Financed by the municipality, the king or a charitable rich citizen, a hospital generally included latrines, a chapel, various service buildings, separate dormitories for men and women and several specialized wards for the sick, the newly delivered mothers, the dying and the recovering. Volunteer nurses organized in semi-religious orders took care of the sick and dying. Service was free, the costs covered by the income from gifts and legacies.

Because private commerce and public administration required a much greater supply of trained jurists, scholars, notaries and scribes, cities began to develop universities. At first students lived in public inns, where their lives were ruled more by drink, women, and songs

Ground-plan, Parma (Italy). Parma is situated on the river Parma in the province of Emilia-Romagna. An important crossroads between Piacenzia, Modena, Mantova and La Spezzia, the town was created by the Etruscans about 525 BC and became a Roman colony called Julia Augusta in 183 BC. The real development of Parma began with the Ostrogoth king Theodorik (489-526) and was continued during the Byzantine domination from 553 to 568. Conquered by the Lombards in 579, Parma became a free city in the 11th century. Prom 1341 until 1513, Parma was ruled by the family Visconti from Milan. It then became a part of the pope’s territory. In 1445, Pope Paul III Farnese made Parma a duchy for his son Pietro-Ludovico. The dukes of the Farnese family ruled until 1731. The ground-plan shows the situation in the 16th century, when Parma was defended by bastioned fortifications.

Than by study. Gradually, however, the college system produced order and discipline, which resulted in a high standard of learning. Usually situated on donated lands and financed by gifts, colleges offered education in Latin, along with board and lodging. Their architecture followed the pattern of the mendicant convents and the urban Gothic hospitals. The most highly reputed medieval university was the Sorbonne in Paris, attracting students and teachers from all parts of Europe.

Ground-plan, Lucca (Italy). Lucca is situated north of Pisa in Tuscany. It was founded by the Etruscans and became a Roman camp and a colony in the 2nd century BC. In the 12th century, Lucca was a free city, and during the Renaissance it was ruled by the con-dottiere Castruccio Castracani. Between 1554 and 1568, the engineer Francesco Paciotto built new fortifications in the Italian style, composed of 12 m high curtains, arrow-headed bastions and four gates. Reshaped and completed in 1645, the fortifications of Lucca are 4 km in perimeter, and are today perfectly preserved.

Ground-plan, fortifications of Rome (Italy). Fortifications around Rome date from the creation of the town: According to legend, the first wall (1) was built in April 753 BC by Remus and Romulus. After the disastrous Gallic raid in 387 BC, the Roman republic undertook the construction of a larger enceinte (2) enclosing the seven hills of the Urbs. Those fortifications, called Servius Tullius’s wall, were built about 390 BC. The walls were 10 m high and 4 m thick with a 9 m wide moat. Between 270 and 275 AD the emperor Aurelian had new enlarged fortifications built. The resulting wall, called Aurelian’s wall

(3), was 19 km in perimeter, 6 to 8 m high and 3 to 4 m thick; it included 380 towers and 12 gatehouses. The emperor Tiberius (42 BC-37 AD) built a castle-barracks for the imperial guard, the Praetorian camp (4). In the 5th century, because of the Barbarian invasions, the height of Aurelian’s wall was increased to 10 to 16 m.

The state of Vatican was the ancient papal territory in Rome. The first fortifications were constructed by Pope Leon IV from 847 to 855 after a devastating raid launched by Moorish pirates in 846. In 1527, Rome was looted by mercenaries in service of the German emperor Charles V, and Alexander Farnese, who became Pope Paul III, undertook new fortifications (5). These included bastions and moats built between 1537 and 1548, designed by engineers Antonio da San Gallo the Younger and Castriotto.

Hadrian’s mausoleum was built between 135 and 138 AD and used as an imperial cemetery. In the 13th century the mausoleum became a fortress for the popes. Between 1484 and 1493, it became the castle Sant’Angelo (6), defended by bastions designed by Antonio da San Gallo the Elder. The popes that followed continued the defensive works until 1569, enclosing the Saint-Peter church, completed in 1614. The last Vatican fortifications were bastions and walls (7) built on Mount Gianicolo during Urban VIII’s pontificate between 1623 and 1644.

Ground-plan, Civitavecchia (Italy). Civitavecchia is situated northwest of Rome on the coast of Latium. In ancient times called Centum Cellce, this harbor and the town were created by the Romans and became the advanced port of Rome during the reign of emperor Trajan. The castle dominating the harbor was constructed by Bramante in 1508 and completed by Michelangelo in 1557, whence its name. Forte Michelangelo. It was a massive rectangular fortress with four heavy artillery corner-towers. Civitavecchia was one of the first Italian cities to be defended with modern bastioned fortifications, designed and constructed by engineer Antonio da San Gallo the Younger in 1515. The ground-plan shows the medieval city (1), the castle Michelangelo (2) and the bastioned enceinte (3).

Ground-plan, Palma Nova (Italy). In the Renaissance, Italian urbanists and military engineers designed what they thought to be the ideal city. Combining urban life and defense, it was composed of streets regularly radiating out from a central square to circular bastioned fortifications. The ideal radio-concentric city was, however, a mixed blessing in practice. The living districts were too narrow at the center of the circle and too wide on its periphery, and the fortifications transformed the city into a militarized zone in which all public facilities were submitted to defensive purposes. The fortifications imprisoned the inhabitants in a strict frame, excluding any possibility of further urban development. Palma Nova, situated near Udine in the valley of the river Po, was an “ideal” city created ex nihilo by Venice. Intended to be a part of the Venetian defense network, Palma Nova was designed in 1593 by Vicenzo Scamozzi and Guilio Savorgnano. Perfectly preserved today, Palma Nova is one of the few realizations of the Italian theoretical ideal city. Divided in a radial organization, it includes nine bastions, a moat, a covered way and three gates.

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Kampen (Netherlands). Kampen in the province of Overyssel was a prosperous medieval city associated with the German Hansa. A first wall with wet ditch was constructed in 1325, but because of growth another wall with wet moat was constructed between 1465 and 1493. In 1580 these defenses were reinforced by an earth bulwark on which five bastions were erected in 1598. The fortifications of Kampen were demolished in 1809 and turned into public gardens in 1830.

Amsterdam (Netherlands). The capital of the Low Countries, Amsterdam—whose name means “dike on the Amstel”—appeared about 1200 as a modest fishermen’s village. In 1275, the village obtained its city-right from the count of Holland, but not until 1425 did the town have the financial means to construct real defenses. Composed of a stone wall with towers and wet moat, these defenses were completed by 1481. In the 16th century, the defenses were adapted to firearms by the dukes of Burgundy. Amsterdam had tremendous growth in the 17th century; the marshy lands around were dried and turned to polders, while bastions, walls and moats were built in 1612. This enceinte rapidly became too small, and another bastioned wall was constructed between 1658 and 1665. Amsterdam’s fortifications were demolished between 1839 and 1848, and only a few medieval towers are preserved (Montelbaan and Munttoren). All moats, however, have been turned into canals, giving the city its particular concentric appeal. The ground-plan displays the situation at the beginning of the 16th century.

Opposite: Ground-plan, Zwolle (Netherlands). Zwolle in the province of Overyssel obtained its city-right from the bishop of Utrecht in 1230. A stone wall was built between 1326 and 1329. The town became a rich merchant place associated with the German Hansa, resulting in growth and another wall, erected between 1396 and 1408. The defenses were adapted to firearms between 1488 and 1524, and reinforced by eleven bastions between 1629 and 1631.

Ground-plan, Berwick-upon-Tweed (Great Britain). Berwick-upon-Tweed is situated at the border between England and Scotland. From the time of its founding about 870, Berwick was disputed until its annexation by the English in 1482. The medieval walls were reshaped between 1522 and 1588 by the architects Richard Cavendish, John Rogers and Sir Richard Lee. Giovanni Portinari from Florence and Jacopo Aconcio from Milan completed the fortifications in 1564 by adding Italian-style arrow-headed bastions. The fortifications of Berwick-upon-Tweed, today well preserved, give a unique and excellent illustration of the influence of the Italian engineers in 16th century Britain.

Opposite: Chester (Britain). Situated in Cheshire south of Liverpool, Chester was a cas-trum created by the Romans in a bend of the river Dee. For about 200 years, Chester was garrisoned by Roman legion XX (Valeria Victrix). The Roman fortifications were reshaped in the beginning of the 10th century by Aethelflaed, King Alfred’s daughter. The ground-plan shows the fortifications—which today are well preserved—with (1) North-gate, (2) King Charles tower, (3) Kalevards gate, (4) Eastgate, (5) the castle and (6) Watergate.

Ground-plan, Caceres (Spain). Caceres is situated in the western province of Estremadura. The city has kept a remarkable center with the central market (Plaza Santa Maria), a palace (Palacio de Los Golfines de Abajo), churches, and unique houses dating from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, with walls and towers from the Moorish occupation.

Opposite: Ground-plan, Avila (Spain). Avila is situated on the 1,131 m high plateau of Meseta, dominating the Rto Adaja northwest of Madrid in Castilla. An ancient Celtic op-pidum, Roman castrum and Moorish stronghold, Avila has preserved all of its fortifications (las Murallas), built in 1090 by Raymond de Bourgogne during the Recon-quista. Designed by master-builders Cassendro and Florian de Ponthieu, the defenses of Avila form a rectangle 900 mx 450 m. The enceinte includes crenellated walls 12 m high and 3 m thick, flanked by 86 high half-cylindrical towers and eight main gatehouses.