Brick Gothic vs Gothic Architecture
Brick Gothic is a regional variant of Gothic Architecture — the brick Gothic of the stoneless Baltic plain.
Brick Gothic
The Gothic of the brick-building lowlands around the Baltic, where the absence of building stone turned fired clay into soaring churches and gabled town halls.
- Load-bearing fired-brick construction in place of cut stone
- Tall stepped and traceried decorative gables
- Moulded and glazed (vitrified) bricks forming patterns and ornament
- Whitewashed blind niches and recessed panels on red walls
- Hall-church plans with slender stepped buttresses
Gothic Architecture
The soaring medieval architecture of cathedrals — pointed arches, rib vaults, and flying buttresses dissolving walls into walls of stained glass and skeletal stone.
- Pointed (ogival) arches in place of round ones
- Ribbed vaults concentrating loads onto piers
- Flying buttresses carrying thrust outside the walls
- Walls opened into stained glass and rose windows
- Soaring verticality, tracery, and richly carved portals
At a glance
| Brick Gothic | Gothic Architecture | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 13th–16th century | c. 1140–1500 |
| Discipline | Architecture | Architecture |
| Region | Northern Germany, Poland, Baltic region, Scandinavia | France, Western Europe |
| Family | Gothic, Vernacular Brick | Medieval, Gothic |
| Formal traits | pointed-arched, gabled, patterned-brick, verticalized | pointed-arch, vertical, skeletal, ornamental |
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