Norman Architecture

Norman architecture is the English and French regional variant of Romanesque architecture associated with the Norman rulers who governed both Normandy and, after the conquest of 1066, England, marked by massive walls, round headed arches, and simple geometric ornament such as chevron zigzag patterns and cushion capitals. Durham Cathedral, begun in 1093 to house the shrine of Saint Cuthbert, is considered the supreme example of the style and is notable for its early use of ribbed vaulting, one of the first buildings in Europe to cover so large a nave with stone vaults rather than a timber roof, a structural innovation that anticipated later Gothic architecture. Norman builders applied the same heavy, fortress like vocabulary to military architecture, most famously in the White Tower at the center of the Tower of London, begun around 1078 under William the Conqueror as a stone keep to secure and overawe the newly conquered city. Norman architecture in England is generally dated from the 1066 conquest until the style gradually gave way to the pointed arches of Gothic building in the later twelfth century.