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Reaching Up to God
Stare in
amazement at the Gothic buildings from Europe's past.
Gothic
architecture was most often used for religious
buildings. If you stand before a famous Gothic building
such as Notre Dame de Paris
Cathedral
in France, you'll see that the style
wasn't meant to create
simple buildings that ___1___ people from wind and rain.
Pointing sharply into the sky, Gothic
architecture is meant to make people tremble
___2___ at the power of God.
The Gothic style was based on
medieval
innovations in engineering technology that
allowed buildings to be created taller than ___3___.
Gothic buildings are famous for their
pointed arches,
ribbed vaulting,
and flying buttresses. These
developments made it possible to
build stronger and taller buildings, and they
gave the building a ___4___ appearance as well. Because of
the structure of Gothic buildings, artists had more
___5___ to create huge stained glass
windows on the walls. The artists would carefully cut
and ___6___ different sections of colored
glass, making them into windows that
filled the
interiors of the buildings
with colored light. Often the windows were
designed to ___7___ a religious scene or story. Like
paintings that glow magically, these
works of art add a lot
to
the overall power and
beauty of Gothic buildings.
The ___8___ of Gothic buildings are also
impressive. Their stony
spires
look stern and
chilling,
and many of the buildings feature
strange stone statues called
gargoyles.
These scary-looking statues take water away from the
roof and ___9___ it out of their mouths.
In
addition, their features are said to ___10___
evil spirits.
Gothic architecture, which was designed to be noticed,
is just as awesome today as it was when
it was created hundreds of years ago.
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