Rayonnant Gothic Architecture

Rayonnant was a Gothic architectural style that developed in France from around 1231 through the mid-fourteenth century, during and after the reign of Louis IX, when France was Europe's wealthiest and most powerful kingdom. Rather than continuing to push cathedrals toward greater size and height, its architects turned their attention to bringing more light into cathedral interiors and adding more extensive decoration, thinning the vertical columns and supports, combining the triforium gallery and clerestory into a single glazed space, and making extensive use of pinnacles and mouldings. Its name comes from the radiating, spoke-like tracery of the enormous rose windows that became prominent in transepts and facades during the period, made possible by advances in bar tracery. Often regarded as the high point of French Gothic architecture, Rayonnant influenced later developments elsewhere in Europe, including English Decorated Gothic.