archie
Sign in Get the app

02 · Medieval

Brick Gothic

c. 1200–1550

Pointed arches and buttresses in red brick, patterned with glazed bricks, under stepped gables and steep roofs.

Look for

Pointed arch Steep gable Buttress Spire
St. Mary's Church, Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany: an example of Brick Gothic architecture
St. Mary's Church, Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. Photo: Carsten Steger, CC BY-SA 4.0
Malbork Castle, Malbork, Poland
Malbork Castle Malbork, Poland · DerHexer; derivate work: Carschten, CC BY-SA 3.0
Holstentor, Lübeck, Germany
Holstentor Lübeck, Germany · Glenn Strong [1] [2], CC BY-SA 2.0
St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk Gdańsk, Poland · Gyddanyzc, CC0
St. Nicholas Church, Stralsund, Stralsund, Germany
St. Nicholas Church, Stralsund Stralsund, Germany · Darkone (talk · contribs), CC BY-SA 2.0

what it is

Brick Gothic is Gothic architecture built of fired brick instead of cut stone, mainly around the Baltic Sea in northern Germany, Poland, the Baltic states and Scandinavia. Builders used shaped and moulded bricks, black glazed bricks, and contrasts between red brick and white lime plaster to pattern the walls. Pointed arches and tall windows follow Gothic forms, but figurative sculpture is rare. Town halls often have stepped gables, and many churches are hall churches, with aisles as high as the nave.

St. Mary's Church in Lübeck (1265-1352) has the tallest brick vault in the world and set the pattern for about 70 Baltic churches. St. Mary's in Gdańsk (1379-1502) is a brick hall church 105.5 meters long. Malbork Castle (1274-1406) was built by the Teutonic Order, and Lübeck's Holstentor (1464-1478) is a city gate with two round towers. Gothic buildings in stone, such as cathedrals, carry figures in carved stone, while Brick Gothic walls are patterned with brick instead. Brick Gothic Revival churches of the 19th century stand across the same regions.

how to spot one

Pointed arch An arch whose two curved sides meet at a point, called the apex. It is the standard arch of Gothic and Gothic Revival buildings and pushes outward less than a round arch. Steep gable The triangular upper part of an end wall, framed by the two slopes of a steep roof. Steep gables are common on Gothic Revival, Tudor Revival and Queen Anne houses. Buttress A mass of stone or brick built against an outside wall to resist the outward push, called thrust, of the roof. It is common on medieval churches and castles. Spire A tall, tapering structure in the form of a cone or narrow pyramid, built on top of a tower or roof. Spires are most common on churches, especially Gothic and Gothic Revival ones.

Also look for

Lancet windowBell towerCrenellationBelt course

history

Brick building became common around the Baltic in the 12th century, in regions with little building stone. Early examples include Brandenburg Cathedral, begun in 1165, and Lübeck Cathedral, whose foundation stone was laid in 1173. The newly founded cities joined the Hanseatic League and formed the Wendic Circle, centred on Lübeck, whose St. Mary's Church (1265-1352) became the model for about 70 others, including St. Nicholas in Stralsund and St. Nicholas in Wismar. Between Prussia and Estonia the Teutonic Knights built mostly brick castles, among them Malbork, begun in 1274.

The Hanseatic trading cities kept building large churches and civic buildings through the 14th and 15th centuries. St. Mary's in Gdańsk was finished in 1502 and the Holstentor in 1478. In the 16th century Brick Gothic was replaced by Brick Renaissance architecture. St. Mary's in Lübeck was nearly destroyed by an RAF raid on 28-29 March 1942 and rebuilt from 1947 to about 1959. UNESCO listed Lübeck's old town in 1987, Malbork Castle in 1997, and the historic centres of Stralsund and Wismar in 2002.

where to find it

Hanseatic cities along the Baltic coast: Lübeck's St. Mary's Church and Holstentor, Stralsund's St. Nicholas Church, and St. Mary's Church in Gdańsk, plus Malbork Castle in northern Poland.

easy to confuse with

Notre-Dame de Paris, an example of Gothic Gothic Pointed arches, ribbed ceilings, and flying buttresses that let stone walls turn into glass and light. Palace of Westminster, an example of Gothic Revival Gothic Revival Medieval drama revived: pointed arches, steep gables, patterned stone window bars, and strong vertical lines. Canals of Amsterdam, an example of Dutch Renaissance Dutch Renaissance Tall skinny brick canal houses competing gable by gable: stepped, bell, and scrolled tops trimmed in white stone.