Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Endre Abkarovits: Teaching the Englishness of English Gothic cathedral architecture

end to the period of English receptiveness to French Gothic ideas.' (Wilson: 85) Of course, we should not understand this as a complete exclusion of all French ideas in the coming centuries, but there was an ongoing aversion to some large-scale imitation of French designs, while individual ideas were often welcome. The typical semicircular termination of the apse with the ambulatory was retained only in 3 English cathedrals, in all the others, especially with the later addition of Lady Chapels, which were usually the extension of the Eastern arm, the flat ending was preferred. This made the construction of the huge windows on the square Eastern walls possible in the Decorated and Perpendicular periods. Although Cistercian churches also have square ending sometimes, especially in the initial period, in many other respects they have so little in common with English cathedrals, that it is not likely that they were built under Cistercian influence. Some authors suppose that the preference for rectangular east ends may have been an Anglo-Saxon feature, suppressed at the Conquest, but reemerging a century later. (Coldstream: 17) There are also views according to which we can see the survival of some pagan elements in the strict Eastern orientation of the cathedrals and the efforts to let in as much light through the Eastern window as possible. We should not forget that England was pagan for several centuries during the first milleneum, while many parts of Europe were continuously Christian. On the other hand, I find it interesting that from the point of view of designing the semicircular apse and the ambulatory around the sanctuary are the most difficult structural problems for the architect. (When Villard de Honnecourt copied the groundplans of the most important cathedrals of his time, he found only the Eastern arm important to draw, the design of the nave was shown only by one bay). (Cs. Tompos et al: 489). The English got rid of this problem by applying rectangular sections. This may also prove that they were not so much interested in the solution of structural problems, but in the ornamentation, and this will be more and more obvious during the evolution of English Gothic architecture. Another field where the two countries took a different approach was the number and position of towers. Though very often the original plans of a greater number of towers were abandoned, so we cannot know exactly what these buildings might have looked like if everything planned had been built, still, it is obvious that the French laid the emphasis on the Western towers, while the English insisted on building a huge central tower, even if this caused a lot of technical problems for them. The four corner points of the crossing had to carry the tremendous weight of the central tower and its stone spire. The result was often collapse or near-collapse. In some 51