Architectural development of the eastern end of cathedrals in England and France

The larger medieval churches of France and England, the cathedrals and abbeys, have much in common architecturally, an east–west orientation, an external emphasis on the west front and its doors, long arcaded interiors, high vaulted roofs and windows filled with stained glass. The eastern end of the building contains the Sanctuary and the Altar. The part of the cathedral that shows the greatest diversity and the greatest change is the eastern end. This Article deals with the way the eastern end changed in English and Western European cathedrals from the middle of the 11th century to the close of the 14th century.

Gloucester Cathedral (1089) also had three chapels, two of which, on the north and south sides of the aisle, still remain; the same is found in Canterbury Cathedral (1096–1107) and Norwich Cathedral (1089–1119), the stern chapel in all three cases having been taken down to make way for the Lady chapel in Gloucester and Norwich, and the Trinity chapel in Canterbury. The semicircular aisle is said to have existed in the Anglo Norman cathedral of Winchester, but the eastern end being square, two chapels were arranged filling the north and south ends, and an apsidal chapel projecting beyond the east wall. This semicircular processional aisle with chevet chapels was the favourite plan in the Anglo Norman cathedrals, and was followed until about the middle of the 12th century, when the English builders in some cases returned to the square east end instead of semicircular apsidal termination. The earliest example of this exists in Romsey Abbey (c, 1130), where the processional crosses behind the presbytery, there being eastern apsidal chapels in the axis of the presbytery aisle and a central rectangular chapel beyond. A similar arrangement is found in Hereford Cathedral, and exists in Winchester, Salisbury, Durham, Albans, Exeter, Ely, Wells and Peterborough Cathedral, except that in those cases (except Wells) the eastern chapels are square; in Wells Cathedral the most eastern chapel (the Lady Chapel) has a polygonal termination; in Durham Cathedral, the chapels are all in one line, constituting the chapel of the altars, which was probably borrowed from the eastern end of Fountains Abbey. In some of the above designs, original design has been transformed in rebuilding; thus in Albans, Durham, York and Exeter cathedrals, there was no ambulatory but three parallel apses, in some cases rectangular externally. In Southwell, Rochester and Ely, there was no processional path or ambulatory round the end; in Carlisle no eastern chapels; and in Oxford only one central apse.

Another departure from the usual plan is that found in Albi Cathedral (1350), in which there are no aisles, their place being taken by chapels between the buttresses which were required to resist the thrust of the nave vault, the widest in France. The cathedral is built in brick and externally has the appearance of a fortress. At the cathedrals in southwest France, where the naves are covered with a series of domes as at St. Barthélemy in Saint Étienne in Cahors, the cathedral of Angoulême and St. Front de Périgueux the immense piers required to carry them made it necessary to dispense with aisles. The cathedral of Angouléme consists of a nave covered with three domes, a transept of great length with lofty towers over the north and south ends, and an apsidal choir with four chevet chapels. In St. Front de Périgueux (1150), based on St. Mark's at Venice, the plan consists of nave, transept and choir, all of equal dimensions, each of them, as well as the crossing, vaulted over with a dome, while originally there was a simple apsidal choir.

The cathedrals in Spain follow the same lines as those in France. The cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is virtually a copy of St Sernin at Toulouse, consisting of nave and aisles, transepts and aisles, and a choir with five chapels; at Leon there is a chevet with five apsidal chapels, and at Toledo an east end with double aisles round the apse with originally seven small apsidal chapels, two of them rebuilt at a very late period. At Leon, Barcelona and Toledo the processional passage round the apse with apsidal chapels recalls the French disposition, there being a double aisle around the latter, but in Leon and Toledo cathedrals the east end is masked. At Avila and Salamanca (old cathedral) the triapsal arrangement is adopted.

The triapsal arrangement is also found in the German Gothic cathedrals, with one important exception, the gigantic cathedral of Cologne, Germany, der Koelner Dom, which was based on that of Amiens, the comparative height of the former, however, being so exaggerated that scale has been lost, and externally it has the appearance of an overgrown monster.

The immense development given to the eastern limb of the French cathedrals was some times obtained at the expense of the nave, so that, notwithstanding the much greater dimensions compared with English examples, in the latter the naves are much longer and consist of more bays than those in France. In one of the French cathedrals, Bourges, there is no transept; on the other hand there are many examples in which this part of the cathedral church is emphasized by aisles on each side, as at Laon, Soissons, Chartres, Reims, Amiens, Rouen and Clermont cathedrals. Transept aisles in England are found in Ely, York, Wells and Winchester cathedrals, in the last being carried round the south additional altars, exist in Durham, Salisbury, Lichfield, Peterborough and Ripon cathedrals; and on the north side only in Hereford cathedral

In the north of France, Amiens cathedral shows the disposition of a cathedral, with its nave arches, triforium, clerestory windows and vault, the flying buttresses which were required to carry the thrust of the vault to the outer buttresses which flanked the aisle walls, and the lofty pinnacles which surmounted them. In this case there was no triforium gallery, owing to the greater height given to the aisles. In Notre Dame at Paris the triforium was nearly as high as the aisles; in large towns this feature gave increased accommodation for the congregation, especially on the occasion of great fetes, and it is found in Noyon, Laon, Senlis and Soissons cathedrals, built in the latter part of the 12th century; later it was omitted, and a narrow passage in the thickness of the wall only represented the triforium; at a still later period the aisles were covered with a stone pavement of slight fall so as to allow of loftier clerestory windows.