ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

CH. xixj FRANCE AQUITAINE 37church in itspresent form was begun ; the older church s. Front,at the western end was partly retained, and in the new engueuxpart the opportunity was taken of building somethingmuch grander, something that might be compared tothe great church on the lagoons of which the fame hadreached the west (Fig. 51, vol. i. p. 231).It is well known that the south and south-west of TradingFrance had during the Middle early Ages commercial with ^therelations with the Byzantine empire, and especially withVenice where alone inItaly the traditions of Byzantineart lingered, and these countries were then the greatmercantile centres of Europe. A colony of Venetianmerchants was planted at Limoges about 988-9 : theirgoods were brought to Aigues-mortesLyons, whence by mules and wagons theyon the Gulf ofwere conveyedto Limoges, and forwarded to the north of France,and from Rochelle to the British Isles. The Venetianshad a bourse at Limoges, and their memory was preservedin the names of streets and gates even afterthey themselves had disappeared 1 .It cannot be a mere coincidence that it was along this The dome. , -, -^ i r i 1 i r introducedline of commerce with the East that we find a school of to Francearchitecture in France which deliberately made the domea principlein church architecture thoughS. Front alone:has adopted the plan of a Byzantinechurch as well as thedomical covering.The suppositionthat the architects and their assistantswere Frenchmen and not Italians or Greeks is confirmedwhich is muchby the character of the carving at Perigueuxmore Romanesque than Byzantine,while thatat Venice1 De Verneilh mentions Rue des Venetiens, Porte de Venise, Eperonde Venise, at Limoges, and says that the ruins of the Venetian houseswere to be seen as late as 1638. UArchitecture Byzantineen France.