FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. While in any extended discussion of the architecture of what is France to-day it would be necessary to divide the subject according to the various provinces which were later united under the French monarchy, it seems wiser in so brief an article as this must be to take a more com prehensive survey, referring to provincial dif ferences only when necessary to make clear the more general view. Leaving aside, as not strictly architectural, the rude stone monuments of prehistoric France, especially numerous in Brittany (Cantu, Lochmariaker, etc.), we may best follow the customary division of the sub ject into the six periods called the Gallo Roman, Carlovingian, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Modern periods, each marked by well-defined style characteristics.
I. With the conquest of Gaul by Caesar (51 s.c.) the Romans began extensive works of public utility. These were especially numerous in Languedoc and Provence, where a large population of Greek colonists had long maintained a high civilization. Here the Romans built roads and bridges (e.g., the Pont du Gard near Nimes and the bridge of Saint Chamas across the Touloubre), theatres and amphitheatres, city gates, baths, temples and triumphal arches, all of cut stone and admirably executed. Nimes is especially rich in Roman monuments, including two gates, an amphi theatre, baths and one of the loveliest and best-preserved of all Roman temples, the so called Maison Carrie (4 A.D.). Arles, with its amphitheatre ; Orange, with its superb theatre; Cavaillon and Carpentras, with their triumphal arches; testify to the splendor of this Greco Gallo-Roman civilization. Further north are other interesting Roman monuments: at Autun two well-preserved city gates, at Lillebonne, fine remains of a theatre; at Rheims, a splendid arch of triumph; at Paris, remains of the palace and baths of Julian (4th century) and of an amphitheatre (the arenes de Lutece). Tombs and memorial columns at Saint Remy, Cussy, Vienne, etc.; mosaic floors and foundations of villas, city walls, forts, gates, aqueducts and brides, are widely scattered through France.
II. From the chaos of the Merovingian era which intervened between the Roman and the Carlovingian dominations, al most nothing remains of architectural work. Possibly the crypt of Jouarre and the much restored baptistery of Saint Jean near Poitiers belong to this period. It was Charlemagne who began the restoration of civilization and art in France during the early part of the 9th century. Little, however, survives of this period in France: the oldest parts of the church of Saint Generoux in Poitou is of this time, but Charlemagne's greatest works were in the Rhine Valley. The octagonal church at Aix la-Chapelle is his most important monument; built by Byzantine artificers in imitation of San Vitale at Ravenna, it has been much altered and restored in later centuries. Whatever else has
survived is in fragments incorporated into later structures, as in the crypt of Saint Denis, the church of Saint Martin at Angers, in two churches at Vienne and the lower part of the tower of Saint Germain-des-Pres, Paris. The Norman invasions destroyed much of what was standing before 1000 A.D.
III. Romanesque, With the establishment of the Normans in possession of western France (911 A.D.), and the accession of the Capetian dynasty to the French throne (987), there began a new era for France. Out of the social and political chaos were emerging the feudal system, an established monarchy, and the monastic orders (q.v.). It was these ders that revived architecture, for during the 10th and 1 1th centuries they were the chief refuge of the arts and the chief builders of churches, about which they grouped also many other buildings—cloisters, dormitories, refec tories, hospitals, etc., in and upon which they developed the arts of carving, sculpture and painting. Lacking marble and antique columns, but retaining the traditional elements of the basilican church-plan, they were forced to build at first rudely, later with greater elegance, out of coarse stone vaulted churches with mas sive piers, heavy round arches, small windows and thick walls, in which decoration was re duced at first to its lowest terms. This general style, called the Romanesque, varied greatly in detail in different provinces. Thus in south ern France the Roman remains strongly in fluenced the detail and execution of churches usually of moderate size but fine workmanship (Arles, Aix, Cavaillon, Thor, Vaison, etc.) • in parts of south central France domicai churches were built, showing Byzantine influ ence as at Perigueux, Fontevrault. Solignac, Cahors; in Normandy, where development was early and rapid, at first timber roofs, later scientific cross-vaulting appeared, and central towers or lanterns at the crossings (Vignory, Caen, Mont-Saint Michel); while in Burgundy and under Cluniac influence another develop ment of vaulted architecture took place as at Vezelay; and in the Royal Domain and in Auvergne other variations of the general type. Lack of space forbids specifying these provin cial variations; what is common in varying degree to all these is their solid, mas sive construction, controlled by a clear scientific logic, the absence of applied ornament, the rich ness of the deep portals with their shafted jambs and carving, the increasing use of sym bolic sculpture and grotesques, the use of stepped arches, and in the later 1 lth and the 12th centuries, the great size of churches like Saint Sernin at Toulouse, \thelay, the churches at Caen, etc., and their increasing loftiness, with ribbed cross-vaults and elementary buttresses.