Romanesque architecture appeared in France at the end of the 10th century, with the development of feudal society and the rise and spread of monastic orders, particularly the Benedictines, which built many important abbeys and monasteries in the style.

Churches commonly had a cupola over the transept, supported by four adjoining arches; one or more large square towers, and a semi-circular apse with radiating small chapels.

Late in the 12th century, the rib vault began to appear, particularly in churches in Normandy and Paris, introducing the transition to the Gothic style.

[1] At the beginning of the eleventh century, inspired by the appearance of the style in northern Italy, Romanesque architecture spread west across southern France as far as Catalonia and Spain, and then north up the valley of the Rhône river.

These new churches were designed to accommodate large numbers of visitors, and included an ambulatory, or walkway, leading to several small chapels radiating in a semicircle from the apse.

These vaults allowed ceilings that were lighter and stronger, and carried the weight outwards to columns and buttresses, so the supporting walls could be higher and thinner, with larger windows.

This problem was not resolved until the Gothic period, when the introduction of the rib vault transferred the weight of the roof to the flying buttresses outside the walls.

It was designed as the Porta Coeli or "Doorway to heaven", a depiction of biblical stories and images in stone, which in earlier churches had been shown on the sculpture of the altar.

[7] While the portals of cathedrals traditionally faced west, on Romanesque churches they often were oriented toward the main street or square of the town.

The curving triangular surfaces of these vaults, which joined the six or eight sides of the cupola to the four pillars, were called squinches', or pendentives, and were often decorated with the faces of the Four Evangelists, who were considered the symbolic link between the heavens and earth, or with angels or other Biblical figures.

[10] Around the year 1000, The architects of the abbeys in Burgundy began experimenting with different forms of vaulted ceilings, at first largely to avoid the danger of fires on the wooden roofs.

The reorganization of the Catholic Church under Louis the Pious (813–840), and the foundation of the first monastery under the rules of Saint Benedict (817), brought about important changes in religious practices and architecture.

It contained a double transept, an avant-nave on the west, and on the east a chevet with a deambulatoire passage which gave access to five radiating chapels.

[citation needed] The Cistercian monastic order was created by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1098; its first monastery was Cîteaux Abbey.

Its principal doctrines were defined by Saint Benedict as separation from society, working for the necessities of life, and the refusal of anything unneeded for the first two.

Romanesque churches in Normandy often featured narrow tribunes and wide bays, which gave greater space to the interior.

[citation needed] The most notable Norman romanesque monuments are the two former abbey churches in Caen, both of which were remarkable for the height of their ceilings and their towers.

It was replaced in about 1120 by a rib vault, among the earliest in France, which allowed a lighter and stronger roof, and which permitted larger windows at the high level.

The earliest sculptural decorations on altars and the interior surfaces of churches, on lintels, over doorways and particularly on the capitals of columns, which were commonly adorned with images of biblical figures and real or mythical animals.

Sculptors also depicted a large number of animals, both real and imaginary, including chimeras, sirens, lions, and a wide range of monsters.

Notable examples are the facade of the west portal of the Church of St. Trophime, Arles, from the end of the 12th century, decorated with stately figures of the apostles, and the capitals of the double columns in the cloister, each one different, illustrating parsonages from the Bible.

The left side of the west portal of the Church of St. Trophime, Arles (late 12th century), depicts the Apocalypse according to Saint John.

[18] Another famous tympani is that of the Abbey Church of Saint Foy, in Conques, in which some one hundred characters are depicted in vivid scenes from the Last Judgement.

[19] The interiors of French Romanesque churches were filled with color, including paintings on the walls and ceiling, mosaics on the floor, and, late in the period, early stained glass windows.

Sometimes the topics were of local interest; the paintings at Saint-Martin-de-Vic illustrate how the monks of Tours stole relics from the Monastery of Poitiers.

It was founded in the 9th century over the tombs of the Christian martyrs Sabinus of Spoleto and Saint Cyprian, and in the Middle Ages became a major pilgrimage church.

The architecture of the church,including the placement of the arches and vaults, was designed to make the paintings, the main attraction, more easily visible.

The earliest known stained glass window in France is a head of Christ from the 11th century, which was originally in Weissenburg Abbey, Alsace.

[26] The largest and most powerful castle of the period was the original Louvre in Paris, begun in about 1200 by King Philip II of France, and completed in the 13th century.

Three arches of the original bridge survive, along with the Romanesque chapel of Saint-Bénézet, with a polygonal abside and a nave with barrel vaults [27]