Romanesque

[ roh-muh-nesk ]

adjective

1. noting or pertaining to the style of architecture prevailing in western or southern Europe from the 9th through the 12th centuries, characterized by heavy masonry construction with narrow openings, features such as the round arch, the groin vault, and the barrel vault, and the introduction or development of the vaulting rib, the vaulting shaft, and central and western towers for churches.
2. pertaining to or designating the styles of sculpture, painting, or ornamentation of the corresponding period.
3. (lowercase) of or relating to fanciful or extravagant literature, as romance or fable; fanciful.

noun

1. the Romanesque style of art or architecture.

Romanesque

/ ˌrəʊməˈnɛsk /

adjective

1. denoting, relating to, or having the style of architecture used in W and S Europe from the 9th to the 12th century, characterized by the rounded arch, the groin vault, massive-masonry wall construction, and a restrained use of mouldings See also Norman
2. denoting or relating to a corresponding style in painting, sculpture, etc

Romanesque

1. A style of architecture and art common in Europe between the ninth and twelfth centuries. It combined elements of the architecture typical of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire . The arch es on Romanesque buildings are usually semicircular rather than pointed as in Gothic architecture.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Romanesque¹

1705–15; Roman + -esque; compare French romanesque romantic

Word History and Origins

Origin of Romanesque¹

C18: see Roman , -esque

Example Sentences

“Their exuberant Romanesque character — which seems to me clearly influenced by Louis Sullivan — is quite unusual for his work, which is pretty uniformly Beaux-Art and classical in inspiration,” Callcott wrote in an email to Answer Man.

From Washington Post

The Victorian-Romanesque hotel, Mansion on Forsyth Park, equipped with modern luxuries, offers the best of both worlds.

From The Daily Beast

The Romanesque-styled Neuschwanstein sits propped on the Bavarian countryside in a stately pose.

From The Daily Beast

It is a building of the 12th century in the Romanesque style of Limousin, with three narrow naves of almost equal height.

From Project Gutenberg

A very modest Romanesque church laboriously hoists skyward a heavy stone belfry amid a clump of elm and nut trees.

From Project Gutenberg

In its illustrations may be recognised a series of good specimens of Romanesque forms.

From Project Gutenberg

Rome had succeeded to Greece as being the centre of Christian art, which assumed the phase commonly called the Romanesque.

From Project Gutenberg

A new style of architecture now arose, two forms of which, the Lombard and the Norman Romanesque, form important phases of art.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• alien
• awkward
• new
• romantic
• unfamiliar