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Architecture 170A |
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Jew’s House, Lincoln Synagogue, Worms Papal Palace, Avignon Aigues Mortes Daily Life Bruges Siena |
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The Medieval City I. From trade fairs to the development of commercial architecture: the reurbanization of Europe from the 11th century onward. Medieval cities outside the feudal city, internal governance by wealthy citizens. Integration of commercial, production, and domestic spaces within individual houses. These usually timberframed. early stone example Jew's House, Lincoln (England) 1170-1180. Religious minorities within the city: Synagogue, Worms (Germany), begun 1174: separate double-aisled, groin-vaulted halls for men and women, torah scrolls in niche facing Jerusalem, bima from which they are read. Urban religious authority could be secular as well as sacred: Papal Palace, Avignon (France), 1334-1352 for Popes Benedict XII and Clement VI, a semi-defensible residence organized around audience and banqueting halls. II. Ideal city planning: preference for rectangular planning as seen in Aigues-Mortes (France), 1272 -1300 by Louis IX, as a new town (bastide). Gridded port for embarkation upon Crusades. Church and marketplace as competing centers of urban life. Importance of city walls and gates in defining as well as defending the city. III. Successful cities in northern and southern Europe and the emergence of a secular, civic architecture to challenge religious and feudal authority. A. Bruges (Belgium), center of textile production and port for international textile trade. Paved streets and canal system with piped drinking water. Market halls and Belfry (1282-96). Other public buildings include Town Hall, lodge halls, and Hospital of St. John. B. Siena (Italy), center
of textile production and banking. Urban infrastructure of streets,
walls, and water. Religious focal point (Cathedral crowning a hilltop)
versus secular one: Piazza del Campo lined with private palaces and
the Palazzo Publico (1298-1348). public gathering place
fronted by towered town hall, whose large windows were a badge of political
stability. |
