Gothic Cathedral Technological Advancement

The cathedral is of great technological advancement because of all the logistic and tools that were needed to make them possible, especially gothic cathedrals. The gothic cathedral revolutionized architecture of the time; church officials wanted their cathedral to be better than the surrounding cities so a competition of a kind started up. This competition helped to improve the structures and reach heights unheard of the time. One of the amazing thing about the new gothic churches is that as they grew higher the walls grew thinner and had more windows. “The architectural style that emerged grew out of need, inspiration, and the accumulation of technological resources. Foremost in importance of the last were three engineering devices: the pointed (ogival) arch, the rib
or cross-rib vault that derived from it and the flying buttress.” (Gies, 130). The new styles of arching and vaulting made it possible to build wider cathedrals with more windows in them. This helped with lighting and made stain glass window even more dominate. The cathedrals stain glass window helped to improve glass making out of demand for it.
They started to improve on the glass making process and started to make it into an art. Glass makers made color more vibrant and started to control the colors better. The amazing rose windows, huge circular window at the front of the church, often had multiple colors and took a lot of skill to make. Although the stain glass windows are astounding the height of the cathedrals is what makes them noteworthy. The height was obtained by the flying buttress. “Conventional buttress-extra thickness added to walls at weak points-had been employed since roman times but were unusable in a church with side aisles. The flying buttress proved not only an effective but an elegant solution.” (Gies, 134). The flying buttress started out as structural support but soon become a part of the beauty and signature of gothic cathedrals. Notre Dame of Paris is one of the more well-known gothic cathedral with beautiful flying buttress that is still standing today. Although not all the cathedrals that were built are still standing today. Some church officials and engineers got to bold with the height of the steeple and the churches
collapsed. There was some consequences of building such grand buildings. It took a huge amount of money and resources to build a cathedral. There was also a lot of risk with building that high and sometimes injuries or deaths happened from falling off scaffolding or the building. Once the cathedrals was built there was also a lot of maintenance required which cost money. Most of this was paid by the people in the community and the pilgrimages who came to see the great cathedrals and the relics inside. The cathedrals were well worth it because they were the center of the community and the defining building of every city that they were built in. The cathedrals were a huge indicator of the technological advancement during the middle ages.