11 Facts About Brick Gothic

Brick Gothic is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock, but in many places many glacial boulders.

Buildings classified as Brick Gothic are found in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Kaliningrad, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

Brick Gothic is characterised by the lack of figurative architectural sculpture, widespread in other styles of Gothic architecture.

Brick Gothic building became prevalent in the 12th century, still within the Romanesque architecture period.

Brick Gothic drew on Romanesque building of its region, but in its core area Romanesque stone buildings were rare and often humble In character.

Related searches

Brick Gothic buildings are often of monumental size, but simple as regards their external appearance, lacking the delicacy of areas further south, but this is not exclusively the case.

Therefore, St Mary's Church in Lubeck, 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 normal for Gothic brick buildings in the Netherlands and the Lower Rhine region.

Brick Gothic architecture is found primarily in areas that lack sufficient natural supplies of building stone.

Since the German part of that region is largely concurrent with the area influenced by the Hanseatic League, Brick Gothic has become a symbol of that powerful alliance of cities.

The principal characteristic of the Polish Gothic style is its limited use of stonework to complement the main brick construction.

Southern French Brick Gothic is a specific style of Brick Gothic architecture developed in the south of France.