The Medieval Period

A detailed Summary of The Medieval Period

The medieval period encompasses a long span of years when castles, churches and many other great buildings were built. The way the people of the time built tells us a lot about the lifestyle of the people, particularly the wealthy and each country reflects their own style of architecture.

The Roman Empire had crumbled and Christianity was rising in strength. The world was in unrest and the architecture of the time reflects that. Furnishings had to be easy to move from place to place. Main rooms were relocated to the first floor, while the ground floor was used for storage or to keep the animals. There were not a lot of windows and the ones that were there were small. Sometimes they were decorated with stained glass that could be removed for safekeeping.

During this time brick was used as a principle construction material and they also dressed their buildings in costly marbles. There was still a central hall that had numerous uses. Again the furniture was often being moved to accommodate these different purposes. A hammer beam roof was needed to span the huge space. Some places had stone vaulting that might be painted a deep blue with stars. This room had a large fireplace that might be decorat

Religion, politics and power shaped the architecture of the times, then as it does now.

ed with carvings. It also had a tall hood on brackets. The walls were whitewashed over plaster that was applied to stonework. They also might have painted wooden wainscoting on the walls. Most of the wood was painted at this time. On the upper part of the wall you might have seen a frieze of figures or other decorations. The lower areas were kept for cloth hangings and the wealthy used tapestry. They even used them for bed covers and bed hangings. The floors were flagged with stone. They used wood on the upper floors. Green, black, brown and yellow coloured ceramic tiles were also used for decoration. The lighting was rush lights and tallow candles. Fortification lessened when peace settled in (15th century). As time passed more rooms were added. The bed and chest would have been of high quality and would have been the most valuable pieces. Windows might have had a glaze on the upper parts and heavy brightly painted wooden shutters.

After a period this there was a resurgence of Christianity and basilica's came back (Carolingian renaissance). A west end was added to the buildings. There were more altars so they needed more apses and corridors. This is also when crypts were added under the church and there was a network of passages and chambers. Relics were stored here. They used square and rectangular piers because the shafts they needed were hard to get. This all occurred under Charlemagne who t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Roman Empire, Christian Churches, Moslems Africa, Palace Constantinople, Medieval Period, Zisa Palermo, silver gold coloured, gold coloured, church design, medieval period, painted wooden, silver gold,

Approximate Word count = 1021
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History