The classic work on Gothic religious architecture, now with added
illustrations and a new section by the author on rose windows
No other monument of a culture so radically different from our own is as
much a part of contemporary life as the Gothic cathedral. In this
illuminating book, esteemed art historian Otto Georg von Simson explores
how Gothic architecture is an expression of supernatural reality, and
shows how, to those who designed and worshipped in the great cathedrals
of France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this symbolic
function of sacred architecture overshadowed all others. The Gothic
Cathedral takes readers from the birth of the Gothic style with the
Basilica of St.-Denis to the consummation of the form in the majestic
Cathedral of Chartres, revealing how these incomparable architectural
masterpieces embodied the spiritual and intellectual order of the
medieval world.