Architectural Styles
Norman
Alt names / subperiods
Timeline
Distinguishing Features
Geographic Presence
1066-12th C
- Solid & robust forms
- massive stone construction
- wide semi-circular arches
- thick stone walls
- barrel vaults
- groin (intersecting barrel) vaults
- cruciform (cross-shaped) layout,
- long nave, transepts, and an apse
- round towers & keeps
- relief carvings on doorways, capitals, and tympanums depicting biblical scenes, animals, and foliage
- narrow windows
- imposing facades with elaborate doorways
- simple ornamentation
- classical Roman influence
- England
- Normandy
- Ireland
Common Building Types
Landmark buildings
Historic Accommodation Types
Custom Hotel Examples
- Cathedrals
- Churches
- castles
- Abbeys
- Monasteries
- Durham Cathedral
- Tower of London
- Westminster Abbey
- Bayeux Cathedral
- Jumièges Abbey
- Caen Castle
- Keep of Rochester Castle
- Monastery and abbey guesthouses
- Cathedral / bishop’s hospitality
- Pilgrim hospitals / hospices (dormitories)
- Commercial inns and taverns in towns, ports, market centres
- Castle / manorial hospitality (guest chambers or sleeping halls)
- ‘Roadside shelters and bridge/passage lodges
- Urban lodging via networks
Hospital of St Cross (Winchester, England) — founded c. 1132
Norman abbeys with guesthouse accommodation typically outside the cloister –
- Bec Abbey (Normandy, France) — founded 1034
- Jumièges Abbey (Normandy, France)
- Fécamp Abbey (Normandy, France)
- Battle Abbey (England) — founded 1070s
- Reading Abbey (England) — founded 1121
Durham Cathedral and Priory precinct (England)
Castle/manorial hospitality (elite travellers) – Tower of London, Rochester Castle, Caernarfon
Landmarks
Original Accommodation
Adapted Visitor Accommodation
