DOI Heft:
Nr. 1
DOI Artikel:Goss, Vladimir Peter: The "Croatian Westwork" revisited
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31178#0019
P. (PPM, GyPri
yfwyřc^ /kř vwtA
Pkc/c.* IP P. Guv.
The art and architecture of the Carolingians
is explicitly an art of the "RgwomAh Roz^m
(C^Tráh/?/)". Carolingian architecture revives the idea
of the monumental rotunda, a form with somewhat
limited future; by building it seeks to
go back to the Constantinian models of basilican
arrangement, but its key idea, the double choirs,
would háve little réception outside the core of the
Imperial lands where it merges with another vision
of bi-polar building, the church with a western and
eastern tower; and, thirdly, it créâtes a new basilican
form with a powerful western massif, in some cases
balanced by a similar grouping at the eastern end
of the building. This westwork and eastwork would
prove crucial for the future of European architec-
ture. The ultimate triumph of such buildings as St.
Riquier at Centula lies in the monumentalization of
the two key portions of the building: its entrance
façade, literally, its face, culminating in the Gothic
two tower façades, and its heart, the sanctuary where
^ LOBBEDAY) U.: Die Beitrag von Corvey zur Geschichte
der Westbauten und Westwerke. In:
8, 2002, pp. 83-98. Lobbeday, as we will see in a moment,
makes a usefui distinction between westwork ("Westwerk")
and western annex ("Westbau"), and eloquendy shows how
difhcult it is to dehne what exactly a westwork is. Need-
an often multistory eastwork with a crypt would also
culminate in the High Gothic sanctuary which, with
its semicircular ambulatory and contiguous radiating
chapels, constitutes in fact a semi-rotunda, shimmer-
ing with light in front of a pilgrim's eyes as he travels
through the lofty, longitudinal naveT So it would
seem that "the southeastern border of Carolingian
architecture" is, I must admit, a sort of misnomer.
It is certainly a document of the presence of forms
of the Carolingian time, but those in fact are not
from the circle; they belong to the innova-
tive, bold new trend within the architecture of the
Carolingian times, and, as far as one could conclude
from the material at hand, they demonstrate, albeit
on a modest scale, a higher degree of boldness than
the center itself. This trend is future-oriented, Pre-
Romanesque in the best sense of the word when
meaning "leading toward the Romanesque".
The architectural New Jerusalem of reawakened
Europe was not one of the humble. It boldly an-
less to say, there is a good numbet of western annexes in
Croatian Pre-Romanesque (and later) which are difhcult to
classify, or which should be classihed as "Westbau". See also
ERLANDE-BRANDENBURG, A.: Autel des reliques et la
sanctuarisation du chevet. In: PP^y 11,
2005, p. 183-188.
13
yfwyřc^ /kř vwtA
Pkc/c.* IP P. Guv.
The art and architecture of the Carolingians
is explicitly an art of the "RgwomAh Roz^m
(C^Tráh/?/)". Carolingian architecture revives the idea
of the monumental rotunda, a form with somewhat
limited future; by building it seeks to
go back to the Constantinian models of basilican
arrangement, but its key idea, the double choirs,
would háve little réception outside the core of the
Imperial lands where it merges with another vision
of bi-polar building, the church with a western and
eastern tower; and, thirdly, it créâtes a new basilican
form with a powerful western massif, in some cases
balanced by a similar grouping at the eastern end
of the building. This westwork and eastwork would
prove crucial for the future of European architec-
ture. The ultimate triumph of such buildings as St.
Riquier at Centula lies in the monumentalization of
the two key portions of the building: its entrance
façade, literally, its face, culminating in the Gothic
two tower façades, and its heart, the sanctuary where
^ LOBBEDAY) U.: Die Beitrag von Corvey zur Geschichte
der Westbauten und Westwerke. In:
8, 2002, pp. 83-98. Lobbeday, as we will see in a moment,
makes a usefui distinction between westwork ("Westwerk")
and western annex ("Westbau"), and eloquendy shows how
difhcult it is to dehne what exactly a westwork is. Need-
an often multistory eastwork with a crypt would also
culminate in the High Gothic sanctuary which, with
its semicircular ambulatory and contiguous radiating
chapels, constitutes in fact a semi-rotunda, shimmer-
ing with light in front of a pilgrim's eyes as he travels
through the lofty, longitudinal naveT So it would
seem that "the southeastern border of Carolingian
architecture" is, I must admit, a sort of misnomer.
It is certainly a document of the presence of forms
of the Carolingian time, but those in fact are not
from the circle; they belong to the innova-
tive, bold new trend within the architecture of the
Carolingian times, and, as far as one could conclude
from the material at hand, they demonstrate, albeit
on a modest scale, a higher degree of boldness than
the center itself. This trend is future-oriented, Pre-
Romanesque in the best sense of the word when
meaning "leading toward the Romanesque".
The architectural New Jerusalem of reawakened
Europe was not one of the humble. It boldly an-
less to say, there is a good numbet of western annexes in
Croatian Pre-Romanesque (and later) which are difhcult to
classify, or which should be classihed as "Westbau". See also
ERLANDE-BRANDENBURG, A.: Autel des reliques et la
sanctuarisation du chevet. In: PP^y 11,
2005, p. 183-188.
13