Lombard Architecture

Mode of building developed in n. Italy under the Lombards, who cro ed the Alps 586. The chief monuments of the style date 1000-1200. It is the earliest of the Romanesque styles, containing reminiscences of cla ical Roman, Basilican and Byzantine architecture. The Roman columns are retained, but with a complete disregard of cla ical proportions, the diameter of a pillar being determined by its mechanical function, and the capitals sometimes reproduced from the antique, but oftener of original design and of barbarous or grotesque character. The chief innovations are the introduction of decorative arcades upon blank walls, the profuse use of decorative sculpture, and the employment of towers as belfries or campaniles. These were usually detached from the churches, and were independent of them in design. The style was developed in the 12th century architecture of the Rhine to more extensive and imposing examples than are to be found in Italy, but the Italian examples are richest in decoration. Among the most noteworthy of them are the Cathedral of Pisa, with its baptistery and campanile (the Leaning Tower), and the Church of St. Michael at Lucca. These are works of the 11th and 12th centuries, which marked the culmination of the Italian Romanesque. In the 13th century it was superseded by borrowing the pointed form of n. Gothic. See LEANING TOWERS.