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Merovingian Architecture

Medieval Architecture

Merovingian architecture is the building tradition of the Merovingian dynasty of Franks, who ruled in Gaul from the fifth to the eighth centuries across territory now spanning France, the Benelux countries and parts of Germany. It formed part of the wider Merovingian art of the period, a transitional style in early Western European art that blended Germanic barbarian animal-style decoration with Late Antique motifs and influences reaching as far as Syria and Ireland, and that historians see as a stage on the path from Late Antique art into the Carolingian and Romanesque periods. Surviving Merovingian work is concentrated in stone carving on sarcophagi, altars and church furnishings, alongside goldwork and manuscript illumination, so architecture from the period is understood mainly through these decorated remains and their integration into church buildings rather than through large secular structures.

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Source Merovingian art and architecture (Wikipedia)
Source Merovingian art and architecture (Wikipedia)
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Merovingian art and architecture (Wikipedia)
  • Associated With: Timber, Article text
    In the East, most structures were in timber, but stone was more common for significant buildings in the West and in the southern areas that later fell under Merovingian rule.
  • Associated With: Stone, Article text
    In the East, most structures were in timber, but stone was more common for significant buildings in the West and in the southern areas that later fell under Merovingian rule.
  • In Group: Medieval Styles of Europe, Lead paragraph
    Merovingian art is the art of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks, which lasted from the 5th century to the 8th century in present-day France, Benelux and a part of Germany.
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