Different from other styles, the definition of Brick Gothic is based on the material (brick), and by a more strict definition, a geographical limitation (countries around the Baltic Sea). In addition, there are more remote regions with brick buildings bearing characteristics of this architectural style further south, east and west—these include Bavaria, and western Ukraine and Belarus, along with the southern tip of Norway.
Historical conditions
In the course of the medieval German eastward expansion, Slavic areas east of the Elbe were settled by traders and colonists from the overpopulated Northwest of Germany in the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1158, Henry the Lion founded Lübeck, in 1160 he conquered the Slavic principality of Schwerin. This partially violent colonisation was accompanied by the Christianisation of the Slavs and the foundation of dioceses at Ratzeburg, Schwerin, Cammin, Brandenburg and elsewhere.
The newly founded cities soon joined the Hanseatic League and formed the “Wendic Circle”, with its centre at Lübeck, and the “Gotland-Livland Circle”, with its main centre at Tallinn (Reval). The affluent trading cities of the Hansa were characterised especially by religious and profane representative architecture, such as council or parish churches, town halls, Bürgerhäuser, i.e. the private dwellings of rich traders, or city gates. In rural areas, the monastic architecture of monks’ orders had a major influence on the development of brick architecture, especially through the Cistercians and Premonstratensians. Between Prussia and Estonia, the Teutonic Knights secured their rule by erecting numerous Ordensburgen (castles), most of which were also brick-built.
Development
Brick architecture became prevalent in the 12th century, still within the Romanesque architecture period. Wooden architecture had long dominated in northern Germany but was inadequate for the construction of monumental structures. Throughout the area of Brick Gothic, half-timbered architecture remained typical for smaller buildings, especially in rural areas, well into modern times.
The techniques of building and decorating in bricks were imported from Lombardy. Also some decorative forms of Lombard architecture were adopted.
In the areas dominated by the Welfs, the use of brick to replace natural stone began with cathedrals and parish churches at Oldenburg (Holstein), Segeberg, Ratzeburg, and Lübeck. Henry the Lion laid the foundation stone of the Cathedral in 1173.
In the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the lack of natural stone and the distance to the Baltic Sea (which, like the rivers, could be used for transporting heavy loads) made the need for alternative materials more pressing. Brick architecture here started with the Cathedral of Brandenburg, begun in 1165 under Albert the Bear. Jerichow Monastery (then a part of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg), with construction started as early as 1148, plays a key role regarding Brick Gothic in Brandenburg.
Characteristics
Romanesque brick architecture remained closely connected with contemporary stone architecture and simply translated the latter’s style and repertoire into the new material. The afforded techniques as well as decoration elements that fit to the “new” material were imported form northern Italy, where they had been developed in Lombard Style (see above). Very important among these techniques was the usage of preformed brick to realize delicate ornaments. Brick Gothic also based on Romanesque building (in stone and in brick) of its region, but in its central regions, Romanesque stone buildings were rare and often humble.
In most regions of Brick Gothic, boulders were available and cheaper than brick. In some regions, cut stone was available as well. Therefore, besides all-brick buildings, there are buildings begun in stone and completed using brick, or built of boulders and decorated with brick, or built of brick and decorated with cut stone, for instance in Lesser Poland and Silesia.
Brick Gothic buildings were often bulky and of monumental size, but rather simple as regards their external appearance, lacking the delicacy of areas further south. Nevertheless, this was not exclusive.
Furthermore, none of these buildings nowadays is exactly the same as in Middle Ages. For instance, many of them have alterations in Baroque style in between and have been re-gothicized in the 19th century (or by reparations after World War II). Especially in the 19th century, some buildings were purified that way. In the city halls of Lübeck and Stralsund, medieval window framings of stone were replaced by new ones of brick.
While ordinary people lived very stationary, some groups that were important for the layout of builings were internationally mobile, bichops, abbots, hight aristocracy and long distance merchants, who decided to build, and the highly skilled specialists among the craftsmen. Therefore, also the Brique Gothic of the countries around the Baltic Sea was strongly influenced by the cathedrals of France and by the gothique tournaisien or Scheldt Gothic of the County of Flanders (where also some important Brick Gothic was erected).
One typical accentuation of the structure of walls, the contrast of prominent visible brick and plastering of recessed areas, had already been developed in Italy, but became prevalent in the Baltic region.
Brick as the basic material
Since the bricks used were made of clay, available in copious quantities in the Northern German Plain, they quickly became the normal replacement for building stone. The so-called monastic format became the standard for bricks used in representative buildings. Its bricks measure circa 28 x 15 x 9 cm to 30 x 14 x 10 cm, with interstices of about 1.5 cm. In contrast to hewn-stone Gothic, the bricks and shaped bricks were not produced locally by lodges (Bauhütten), but by specialised enterprises off-site.
Elements
The use of shaped bricks for tracery and friezes also can be found in some buildings of northwestern Gothic brick architecture. Virtuous use of these elements is shown in some Gothic buildings in northern Italy, where the highly sophisticated techniques originally had come from, developed in the Lombard Romanesque period. There, such brick decorations can even be found on buildings mainly erected in ashlar. Some Italian Gothic brick buildings have also friezes of terracotta.
While in inner northern Germany and in Greater Poland natural stone was hardly available, shipping cities easily could import it. Therefore, St. Mary’s Church in Lübeck, generally considered the principal example of Brick Gothic, has two portals made of sandstone, and the edges of its huge towers are built of ashlars, as normally typical for Gothic brick buildings in the Netherlands and the (German) Lower Rhine region. And the very slim pilars of its Briefkapelle (letters chapel) are of granite from Bornholm. In the Gothic brick towers of the churches of Wismar and of St. Nicholas’ Church in Stralsund, stone is not used for masonry, but for contrast of colours. At St. Mary’s of Gdańsk, all five lateral portals and some simple but long cornices are of ashlar.
Germany
Brick architecture is found primarily in areas that lack sufficient natural supplies of building stone. This is the case across the Northern European Lowlands. Since the German part of that region (the Northern German Plain, except Westphalia and the Rhineland) is largely concurrent with the area influenced by the Hanseatic League, Brick Gothic has become a symbol of that powerful alliance of cities. Along with the Low German Language, it forms a major defining element of the Northern German cultural area, especially in regard to late city foundations and the areas of colonisation north and east of the Elbe. In the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, that cultural area extended throughout the southern part of the Baltic region and had a major influence on Scandinavia. The southernmost Brick Gothic structure in Germany is the Bergkirche (mountain church) of Altenburg in Thuringia.
In the northwest, especially along Weser and Elbe, sandstone from the mountains of Central Germany could be transported with relative ease. This resulted in a synthesis of the styles from east of the Elbe with the architectural traditions of the Rhineland. Here, bricks were mainly used for wall areas, while sandstone was employed for plastic detail. Since the brick has no aesthetic function per se in this style, most of the northwest German structures are not part of Brick Gothic proper. The Gothic brick buildings near the Lower Rhine have more in common with the Dutch Gothic than with the northern German one.
Bavarian Brick Gothic
In Bavaria, there is a significant number of Gothic brick buildings, some in places without quarrys, like Munich, and some in places, where natural stone was available as well, such as Donauwörth. Several of these buildings have both decorations of shaped bricks and of ashlar, often tuff. Also the walls of some buildings are all brick, but in some buildings the base of the wall is of stone. Most of the churches share a common distinctive Bavarian Brick Gothic style. The Frauenkirche of Munich is the largest (gothic and totally) brick church north of the Alps. Examples include St. Martin’s and two other churches at Landshut and the Herzogsburg (Duke’s Castle) in Dingolfing.
Netherlands and Flanders
In fact, the northern brick Gothic extends much further west, across the Netherlands and Belgian Flanders to French Flanders. Of course, there are often natural stone in the tracery and partly also on the corners of the building, but for example the Belfry of Dunkirk bears ornamentation of brick, as it is known from the Baltic Sea area.
Gothic brick building in other areas
Bavaria
A considerable number of Gothic brick churches were built in Upper Bavaria and Lower Bavaria. One speaks also of Bavarian brick Gothic. An outstanding example is the Frauenkirche in Munich (incidentally, a hall church as well). Others are the Liebfrauenmünster in Donauwörth and Ingolstadt, the parish churches of St. Jakob in Straubing and St. Johannes in Dingolfing, as well as in Landshut St. Martin, St. Jodok and the Heiliggeistkirche,
In the Franconian north of the Free State some Gothic brick buildings have been preserved in Nuremberg. Most are located at the Nuremberg Castle. In addition, there are two partially built in brick gate towers older city wall rings.
Baden-Wuerttemberg
In Ulm, ie just beyond the Bavarian border, the Ulmer Münster was built mainly of brick. It is also visible, but is drowned in lush stone carvings of sandstone. Apart from the Valentine’s Chapel next to the cathedral there are two gate towers showing brickwork.
Switzerland
Even the Zähringer had left behind in the Swiss Mittelland Romanesque brick buildings. In Late Gothic, a small number of brick castles were added, suggesting examples in Italy or southern France.
South of France
→ See also lists in the French and English Wikipedia
Another group of gothic brick buildings can be found in and around Toulouse in southern France, most notably the Albi Cathedral. Stylistically, they belong to the Gothique Méridional, the special Southern French Gothic form. Significantly more numerous in this region are Romanesque brick buildings.
Central and Eastern France
There are two other areas in France with gothic brick buildings. Their style is with one exception rather to the “normal” French Gothic.
One of these two small groups is located in western central France southwest of Orléans, mainly in the flat and wooded Sologne. It includes the late Gothic wings of the world-famous Blois Castle, next to another castle and a few village churches.
The other group is located in Burgundy # Kingdom of Arelat. It includes the library of the Citeaux Monastery in the former Duchy as an exquisite single piece, as well as a handful of buildings in the Franche Comté, more precisely in the Bresse.
Italy
Plenty of clay is available in the Po Valley, where there were various regional styles such as the Venetian Gothic and the Lombard Gothic, whose buildings are built in large part or all of brick. Especially from northern Italy, the North German brick building took over in the Romanesque period, both the necessary techniques and some forms of jewelry. A center of Romanesque as the Gothic brick building outside the Lombardy was Bologna. Here stands the largest of all brick churches, the Basilica of San Petronio. But even that in the mountains of Tuscany located Sienahas significant Gothic brick buildings, especially the Palazzo Pubblico, so the city hall.
England
Gothic bricks also exist in England, but their historical and social background is very different from that of the Gothic brick building on the continent. Almost all of these buildings are country estates of the early capitalist landowner class created by the reforms of Henry VIII (Enclosures). They belong to the Tudor style, in which public buildings were built in stone. An important brick ensemble from the Tudor period is the western part of Hampton Court Palace west of London.
Poland
Brick Gothic in Poland is sometimes described as belonging to the Polish Gothic style. Though, the vast majority of Gothic buildings within the borders of modern Poland are brick-built, the term also encompasses non-brick Gothic structures, such as the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, which is mostly stone-built. The principle characteristic of the Polish Gothic style is its limited use of stone work to complement the main brick construction. Stone was primarily utilized for window and door frames, arched columns, ribbed vaults, foundations and ornamentation, while brick remained the core building material used to erect walls and cap ceilings. This limited use of stone, as a supplementary building material, was most prevalent in Lesser Poland and was made possible by an abundance of limestone in the region—further north in the regions of Greater Poland, Mazovia and Pomerania the use of stone was virtually nonexistent.
Brick Gothic in Pomerania
Much of the coast of the Baltic Sea in the period from the 12th century to 1637 belonged to the Duchy of Pomerania. Nowadays its territory is divided into two parts—middle and eastern in Poland and western-most in Germany. The most outstanding Gothic monuments in this area are Romanesque-Gothic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Kamień Pomorski, Cistercian abbey in Kołbacz, ruins of Jasienica Abbey in Police, ruins of Eldena Abbey in Greifswald, St. Mary’s Church in Usedom, Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes in Darłowo, remnants of Löcknitz Castle, St. Nikolai cathedral in Greifswald, St. Nicholas’ Church in Stralsund, St. Mary’s Church in Stralsund, St. Mary and St. Nicholas churches in Anklam, St. Mary’s Church in Stargard, St. Nicholas Church in Wolin, St. Peter’s Church in Wolgast, Cathedral Basilica of St. James the Apostle in Szczecin, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Koszalin, Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kołobrzeg and Church of Our Lady in Sławno and city halls in Stralsund, Szczecin (Old Town Hall) and Kamień Pomorski. The most important defense systems were located in Szczecin and Dąbie (present district of the city of Szczecin), Pyrzyce, Usedom, Greifswald, Anklam and Stargard with the water gate on Ina river called Stargard Mill Gate.
Gothic Revival – 19th century Neogothic
In the 19th century, the Gothic Revival—Neogothic style led to a revival of Brick Gothic designs. 19th-century Brick Gothic “Revival” churches can be found throughout Northern Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, Lithuania, Finland, the Netherlands, Russia, Britain and the United States.
Important architects of this style included Friedrich August Stüler in Berlin and Simon Loschen in Bremen. St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham (1841) is another early example, by Augustus Pugin. The 1897 Mikkeli Cathedral in Mikkeli is an example in Finland, and St. Joseph’s Church in Kraków, Poland is a late example of the revival style.
Reception and reinterpretation
In the 19th century, the reception of the brick Gothic by the Neo-Gothic (also: Neo-Gothic) experienced a new heyday after the 1860s. Important architects of this style were z. B. Friedrich August Stüler in Berlin and Simon Loschen in Bremen. An important example of neo-Gothic building in the style of brick Gothic is Schinkel Friedrichswerdersche Church in Berlin.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the so-called Homeland Security Architecture as a style of architecture in Northern Germany, especially in Schleswig-Holstein, rebuilt the building with brick free of neo-gothic decoration, but based on traditional models. Villas in this style characterize the family home to some extent today. In 1910 Adalbert Kelm built the Naval School Mürwik, in which he took up again the style of the North German brick Gothic. The architect Paul Ziegler, who was involved in the preliminary design, then got a job as a magistrate building officer in Flensburg and shortly thereafter, however, devoted himself to the new Homeland Security Architecture.
Source from Wikipedia