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PHOTOGRAPH BY HUGO PASSARELLO LUNA, HANS LUCAS/REDUX
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By George Stone, TRAVEL Executive Editor
“The beauty of Gothic architecture is one of the best proofs of the existence of God.” That’s Jean-Louis Georgelin, speaking of Notre Dame and the ongoing restoration of the iconic Paris cathedral three years after a devastating fire. He should know: Georgelin is a five-star general now managing the cathedral’s reconstruction. You can read all about his work in National Geographic’s cover story.
But if Gothic architecture is one of the best proofs of the existence of God…exactly which divine tradition are we talking about? Turns out that hidden in the architecture of some of the world’s most famous buildings—the Palace of Westminster in London, the pointed arches of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice—is a cultural exchange between Europe and the Middle East. Even the design of the twin towers and rose windows of Notre Dame (pictured above) are copied from a fifth-century church in Syria.
The influence of Middle Eastern design complicates the assumption that Gothic is an intrinsically Northern European style, writes architectural historian and Gothic expert Roger Luckhurst. “By knowing this deeper history of some of Europe’s most iconic buildings, travelers can approach these well-known attractions with new eyes and can appreciate that the ‘East-West divide’ isn’t as deep as we are often led to think.”
“Gothic” was not originally a compliment, as Robert Kunzig notes in his cover story. “Notre Dame was the first grand masterpiece of a new French architecture—one in which pointed arches and flying buttresses allowed the walls to be soaring and thin, the windows to be enormous, and the light to flood in. Jealous Italians named it ‘Gothic,’ by which they meant ‘barbarian,’ but the French style conquered Europe. In the tall light, people felt the presence of God.”
With the Gothic Revival in England, this architecture emerged as a national, patriotic style—a mark of virile and restless tribes like the Goths, in the estimation of Victorian polymath John Ruskin. “Gothic Revival style was supposed to symbolize order, tradition, and continuity in a volatile modern world,” writes Luckhurst. “[But] it was clear to many that the Gothic had traveled from the East.”
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