The appearance of the great cathedrals in the 12th century was a response to the dramatic increase of population and wealth in some parts of Europe and the need for larger and more imposing buildings.

Technical advances, such as innovative uses of the pointed arch, rib vault and flying buttress, allowed the churches and cathedral to become much taller and stronger with larger windows and more light.

However, in the mid-19th century, in large part due to the novel Notre Dame de Paris, better known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, by Victor Hugo, there was a new wave of interest in the Gothic cathedral.

Kuriakon comes from another word kuriakos which means "of, or belonging to, a lord, master,"[6] At its time, Gothic architecture was called the opus Francigenum ('French work').

The old Basilica was the traditional burial place of Saint Denis, and of the Kings of France, and was also a very popular pilgrimage destination, so much so that pilgrims were sometimes crushed by the crowds.

This allowed him to remove the walls between the chapels, and opened the space for seventy stained glass windows in the choir, filling the church with light.

The choir and west front of the Abbey of Saint-Denis both became the prototypes for other buildings in the royal domain of northern France and in the Duchy of Normandy.

Through the rule of the Angevin dynasty, the new style was introduced to England and spread throughout France, the Low Countries, Germany, Spain, northern Italy and Sicily.

The combination of innovations made Saint-Denis the first important example of Gothic architecture; The church was heavily modified over the following centuries, but the ambulatory and some other original elements remain.

The spread of the style was not limited to cathedrals; it also soon appeared in Abbey churches, at St. Leu d'Esserent in Braine, and, in the province of Champagne, at St. Remy in Rheims and Notre-Dame in Chalons-sur-Marne.

They also made extensive use of Purbeck Marble for columns, floors and wall panels, which added colour and reflection to the interiors.

The order, founded in 1098 by an English monk, Saint Stephen Harding, at the monastery of Citeaux, was based humility and discipline.

The early church architecture was based on the Romanesque model, with a long, high nave and side aisles, and an apse to the east.

[21] In France, the last part of the long reign of King Philippe Auguste (1179–1223) marked the classic period of the Gothic Cathedral.

The great monuments of the style included Amiens Cathedral, the modified Notre Dame de Paris, and especially the royal chapel of Louis IX of France, Sainte-Chapelle (consecrated 1248).

[24] At the beginning of the 13th century, Normandy was nominally under English rule, independent of France, and the Romanesque Norman architecture was distinct from the French style.

One of these was the Norman chevet, a small apse or chapel attached to the choir at the east end of the church, which typically had a half-dome.

[13] Henry III of England (1207–72) was an important patron of this new style, both with additions to Westminster Abbey (after 1245) and in the east end of Saint Paul's Cathedral (1258).

Italian architects did adapt some aspects of the northern style, including the rib vault and columns attached to the walls.

[40] Some builders modified some aspects of northern Gothic; Florence Cathedral (1294) used very large arcades to create greater interior space.

It led to copying Greek and Roman sculpture, and then classical architectural models, such as the column, round arch and the dome.

The French writer Prosper Mérimée was designed by King Louis Philippe I to classify and, where possible, restore Gothic cathedrals and churches.

Abbot Suger, who considered that light was a manifestation of the divine, installed colorful windows in the ambulatory of Basilica of Saint Denis, and they were featured in all the major cathedrals in France, England and the rest of Europe.

The glass was melted with the colors, blown, shaped into cylinders, rolled flat, and then cut into sheets of about 10–12 inches (25–30 centimetres).

The Abbey of Saint Denis had a small rose window on the west façade, above the three deep bays of the portals, an arrangement followed by subsequent cathedrals in France.

[50] By long Christian tradition, the altar of cathedrals was at the east end, facing the sunrise, while the main entrance was on the west.

Following the Romanesque tradition, the west façade of the Basilica of Saint Denis, built 1137–40, set the style for French Gothic cathedrals; three bays and three doors, each with.

[51] The three portals of Notre Dame de Paris, altogether forty meters wide, are among the finest examples of High Gothic The sculptural decoration of the central door is devoted to the Last Judgement, on the left to Virgin Mary, for whom the cathedral is named, and on the right to Saint Anne.

Realistic sculpture also appeared in the 13th century on the west front of Strasbourg, begun in 1272, and in the German states, such as at Naumburg Cathedral (now a Protestant church) (1250).

Besides the daily services, funerals and other and special events, they traditionally were rung to announce the executions, a practice which continued until the death penalty was abolished in England 1965.