Answer to Question #205430 in History for Limpho Madikgetla

Question

DISCUSS the spatial planning and design of the Medieval city (“age of faith”) by referring specifically to the difference between the organic city form and the planned city form. Make use of ILLUSTRATIONS to support your answer

Answer 1

The village was the smallest yet, arguably, the most important cell of a Kingdom's organism in medieval cities. Thousands of settlements were literally strewn across the landscape, only a few miles apart. Villages, which were at the heart of the agrarian economy during the Middle Ages, provided the most crucial product to a kingdom's inhabitants – food. A kingdom would fall without a single drop of blood being spilt if it didn't exist. On the other hand, a kingdom's riches and success were determined by its ability to produce surpluses of food and other agricultural resources. Surplus opened the door to two things: trade and cities. Both of them took advantage of villages' surplus resources, one to generate income by selling the resources, and the other to produce higher-value things and support a city's population.

People took their time settling in and developing during the start of this period. As a result, the Pre-Romanesque architectural forms were mostly ignored as individuals focused on constructing modest churches. However, a few Roman emperors, such as Constantinople's Hagia Sophia, built massive churches. Charlemagne's reign in Western Europe was marked by the construction of the Aachen Palace. At the same time, Arabs conquered the southern and eastern Mediterranean, constructing magnificent palaces like as Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock and numerous large mosques such as Kairouan. By the year 1200 A.D., people had begun to construct churches and castles in the Gothic architectural style. They built churches in Florence and Pisa, Italy. Similarly, Gothic architecture was used to design the cathedrals of Laon, Paris, Amiens, Reims, Chartres, and Rouen in France. The Westminster Abbey in England was built in the Gothic architectural style. People began to build churches and castles in the Gothic architectural style by the year 1200 A.D. They constructed churches in the Italian cities of Florence and Pisa. The cathedrals of Laon, Paris, Amiens, Reims, Chartres, and Rouen in France were also designed using Gothic style. The Gothic architectural style was used to construct Westminster Abbey in England. The power and affluence of the feudal aristocracy were implied by all of these strikingly beautiful and strong cathedrals and castles built in the Romanesque and Gothic styles. Members of the nobility, on the other hand, exploited peasants and serfs. All of these Gothic churches and castles were built with the intention of either spreading Christian influence or protecting and securing territory from invaders, barbarians, and Islamic monarchs.