Up to this time the Provençal architects had led the way, but the period had now arrived when their principles were to be taken up and carried out with the boldness and energy of the Northern kingdom of France, then in its youthful prime. The lay architects of the North, seizing on the Provençal principle of the pointed arch, which they at once perceived to be so flexible and easy of application to every requirement, soon developed from it the magnificent system of the perfected Gothic of the thirteenth century. This was at once felt and acknowledged on all hands to be an immense step in advance of anything hitherto attempted in the West, and was speedily allowed to overshadow, and finally to supersede all other varieties of mediæval development. Of this result numerous illustrations will occur in the course of our journey; but we shall also observe how tenaciously the original forms of construction and plan were adhered to in the South, even after the Northern Gothic had been accepted as supreme in all minor details.
Having now glanced rapidly at the general history and various phases of the architecture of Provence during the Middle Ages, we shall recommence our journey at Lyons, and visit the various places on our route southwards to Marseilles, and thence westwards and eastwards along the Riviera, where architectural subjects are to be found, giving a more detailed account of each in its turn, and specially noting those of the
At LYONS the traveller is at once introduced to the local style in the Church of the Ainay, which however is much modernised and restored. Some portions of the walls may be as old as the tenth century, but the consecration of the existing building (barring subsequent restorations) took place in 1107. The four granite columns of the choir are possibly antique.
The church has the Basilican form, with central nave and side aisles. The square lantern over the crossing, which forms a dwarf tower externally and cupola internally, is peculiar to this part of the country. The square tower at the west end (Fig. 35) with its successive stages of small windows, has a far-off resemblance to the ancient brick campaniles of Italy--a resemblance which we shall find more strikingly illustrated in more Southern examples. The peculiar incrustations in red and other coloured stones, which have a pleasing and Eastern effect, are a feature of common occurrence in the churches of the Auvergnat, not far distant from Lyons towards the south-west. The pointed doorways are modern, but are reproductions of a restoration of the twelfth century.