rather than in front of its main portal. Reserved for the monks alone,
the cloister, a kind of earthly paradise removed from the world at
large, provided the peace and quiet necessary for contemplation.
Clustered around the cloister were the most essential buildings: dor-
mitory, refectory, kitchen, and storage rooms. Other structures, in-
cluding an infirmary, school, guest house, bakery, brewery, and work-
shops, were grouped around this central core of church and cloister.
Haito invited the abbot of Saint Gall to adapt the monastery
plan as he saw fit, and, indeed, the Saint Gall builders did not follow
the Reichenau model exactly. Nonetheless, if the abbot had wished,
Haito’s plan could have served as a practical guide for the Saint Gall
masons because it was laid out using a module (standard unit) of two
and a half feet. Parts or multiples of this module were employed
consistently throughout the plan. For example, the nave’s width, in-
dicated on the plan as 40 feet, was equal to 16 modules; the length of
each monk’s bed to two and a half modules; and the width of paths
in the vegetable garden to one and a quarter modules.
The models that carried the greatest authority for Charlemagne
and his builders were those from the Christian phase of the Late
Roman Empire. The widespread adoption of the Early Christian
basilica, at Saint Gall and elsewhere, rather than the domed central
plan of Byzantine churches, was crucial to the subsequent develop-
ment of western European church architecture. Unfortunately, no
Carolingian basilica has survived in anything approaching its origi-
nal form. Nevertheless, it is possible to reconstruct the appearance of
some of the structures with fair accuracy. Several appear to have fol-
lowed their Early Christian models quite closely. But in other in-
stances, Carolingian builders significantly modified the basilica plan,
converting it into a much more complex form. The monastery
church at Saint Gall, for example, was essentially a traditional basil-
ica, but it had features not found in any Early Christian church.
Most obvious is the addition of a second apse on the west end of the
building, perhaps to accommodate additional altars and relics (see
“Pilgrimages and the Cult of Relics,” Chapter 17, page 432). What-
ever its purpose, this feature remained a characteristic regional ele-
ment of German churches until the 11th century.
Not quite as evident but much more important to the subse-
quent development of church architecture north of the Alps was the
presence of a transept at Saint Gall, a very rare feature but one that
characterized the two greatest Early Christian basilicas in Rome,
Saint Peter’s (FIG. 11-9) and Saint Paul’s. The Saint Gall transept is as
wide as the nave on the plan and was probably the same height. Early
Christian builders had not been concerned with proportional rela-
tionships. On the Saint Gall plan, however, the various parts of the
building relate to one another by a geometric scheme that ties them
together into a tight and cohesive unit. Equalizing the widths of nave
and transept automatically makes the area where they cross (the
crossing) a square. Most Carolingian churches shared this feature.
But Haito’s planner also used the crossing squareas the unit of mea-
surement for the remainder of the church plan. The transept arms
are equal to one crossing square, the distance between transept and
apse is one crossing square, and the nave is four and a half crossing
squares long. The fact that the two aisles are half as wide as the nave
integrates all parts of the church in a rational and orderly plan.
The Saint Gall plan also reveals another important feature of
many Carolingian basilicas: towers framing the end(s) of the church.
Haito’s plan shows only two towers, both cylindrical and on the west
side of the church, as at Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel (FIG. 16-17),
but they stand apart from the church facade. If a tower existed above
the crossing, the silhouette of Saint Gall would have shown three
towers altering the horizontal profile of the traditional basilica and
identifying the church even from afar.CORVEYOther Carolingian basilicas had towers incorporated in
the fabric of the west end of the building, thereby creating a unified
monumental facade that greeted all those who entered the church.
Architectural historians call this feature of Carolingian and some
later churches the westwork (German Westwerck,“western entrance
structure”). In contemporaneous documents, writers refer to it as a
castellum(Latin, “castle” or “fortress”) or turris (“tower”). The sole
surviving example is the abbey church (FIG. 16-20) at Corvey. The
uppermost parts are 12th-century additions (easily distinguishable
from the original westwork by the differing masonry technique).
Stairs in each tower provided access to the upper stories of the west-
work. On the second floor was a two-story chapel with an aisle and a
gallery on three sides. As at Aachen, the chapel opened onto the
nave, and from it, on occasion, the emperor and his entourage could
watch and participate in the service below. Not all Carolingian west-
works, however, served as seats for the visiting emperor. They also
functioned as churches within churches, housing a second altar for
special celebrations on major feast days. Boys’ choirs stationed in the
westwork chapel participated from above in the services conducted
in the church’s nave.16-20Westwork of the abbey church, Corvey, Germany, 873–885.
An important new feature of Carolingian church architecture is the
westwork, a monumental western facade incorporating two towers.
The sole surviving example is the abbey church at Corvey.Carolingian Art 42116-19ASaint-
Riquier, Centula,
790–799.
16-20ATorhalle,
Lorsch, late
eighth or ninth
century.