The Romanesque style arose at a turning point in Western political history,
when empires that Charlemagne and Otto the Great had forged were
gradually being replaced with an emerging sense of Europe as Europe.
Although the Roman Catholic Church remained powerful, another rising
force was feudalism, an economic system that allowed peasants to use land
owned by lords in exchange for service, often military. The lords owed
allegiance to the kings, but their own growing power gave them increasing
independence. The Romanesque style, with distinct local variations, is found
throughout Europe from about the middle of the 11th century until about the
last third of the 12th century. Although this style is derived from architectural
innovations of the period, the term also applies to sculpture, painting, and
other art forms.
St. Trophîme is located in Arles in southern France and was built in 1180.
Because the Romans were once prominent in this region, there were
many Roman ruins left for medieval architects and artists to emulate. St.
Trophîme’s façade contains obvious Roman elements, such as arches
and high-relief ¿ gure sculptures similar to those on Roman tombs. The
appearance of monumental stone sculpture, usually incorporated into
architecture, distinguishes Romanesque art. (There was no precedent for this
in Carolingian or Ottonian art.)
We see a Map of the Pilgrimage Roads that dates back to 1648 and shows
pilgrimage routes followed by Christians converging on holy places.
Pilgrimage routes were linked to the Crusades, wars waged by European
armies to capture the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Crusades inevitably
resulted in territorial conquests and affected trade and economics. Jerusalem
was retaken in the First Crusade (1099) and became a pilgrimage goal. To
reach Jerusalem, northern Europeans traveled to the Mediterranean, usually
by land routes, then sailed for the Near East. Rome was another pilgrimage
goal, to which pilgrims generally traveled by land, crossing the Alps.
The most important pilgrimage site in the 11th and 12th centuries was
Santiago da Campostela in the northwest corner of Spain. This spot was
dedicated to St. James the Greater (or Major), the apostle whose martyred
body, according to legend, came to Spain in a boat without sails, landing at
Campostela, where he was buried and where a cathedral was subsequently