Gothic style in France the stylistic features, technical innovations and the ideas
In France, every city had a Gothic cathedral. The term Gothic is derived from Goth to mean the East Germanic people form the Black Sea and Baltic regions. The French gothic architecture inspired many tube art of literature and French legends during the time of the famous gargoyles of Notre Dame. This was the only gothic cathedral in Paris which created a lasting impression in France tile to date. Moreover, it created a social imagery that the cathedral was a God’s dwelling place, in its architectural design, the cathedral exhibited a Romanesque designs of the middle ages of the twelfth century. It had high towers stretching to heaven and this represented the desire of getting closer to God. The theme of the gothic art and architecture was religion and so was dominated by the social and political contexts. At this time in history, the medieval architecture reached its highest evolutionary point. The Gothic style had a sense of verticality applied on every building since the more vertical it is, the more they get closer to God. There the use of Latin cross on every cathedral with the main axis defining the order of composition. However, the secondary axis was not very evident in some other examples. In this style, the gothic walls were not very conspicuous in some designs to allow for illuminated space in the interior. Another technical innovation was the pointed arch. It was used a decorative element in arcades, doors, and windows. The design had the pointed arches channeling weights of the columns in a steep angles putting the ceilings much higher. The vault ceilings were used as cross ribbed vaults together with the flying buttress.
The University of Paris surpassed all the other medieval institutions of higher learning since it was considered the queen of theology and had a rich historical development background of France in general. In the early Middle Ages the churches required every parish to maintain at least a school. It is from these schools that the priests would teach the scriptures, writing, reading, with sole purpose of education the boys for priesthood. Most of the cathedrals which had been earlier granted the opportunity to offer schooling to the boys, declined during the political and social chaos in the early middle ages. It was therefore a burden for these cathedrals to continue offering the early education. During the chaos, the city of Paris was well-surrounded by the walls to keep away invaders. As a result, the commercial activities then were not interrupted either. There was a conducive environment for the tutors from Paris to continue delivering to the priesthood learning since they were wealthy, resulting into educational surplus. From these aspects, the word school was derived from a Greek word “skole” which means leisure to study. Most of the boys in Paris had leisure to study due to the organized systems free from conflicts. Several cathedral schools had achieved prominence in the late 20th century. When the captains took over in 987 CE, Paris became the most significant city in France and consequently, the greatest intellectual center. The University of Paris then was the most preferred intellectual center since it is the mother of theology in France. It outwitted the other universities like the University of New Orleans, Leon and Liege to become the preeminent university in France and Middle Europe.