The Middle Ages, with its castles, walls and cathedrals, is quite often associated with an era when stone was the main building material. However, this is not entirely true. In fact, in medieval Europe it is impossible to name a single period and a single country where stone constructions were the majority among the erected buildings. And at the beginning of the epoch, if we judge by statistics, they were frankly rare.
Stone buildings became a distinctive landmark of the Middle Ages because of their impressive durability. Former castles, even if they were abandoned and neglected centuries ago, have survived to this day as often impressive ruins.
Stone churches and cathedrals, by contrast, have generally been rebuilt many times, but only partially. Many of the continent's leading temples have preserved fragments of walls and towers that remember the earliest stages, at least a thousand years ago. However, such massive and incredibly expensive structures were only a rare exception on the map of medieval Europe.
Massive decline
At the very beginning of the epoch, the proportion of stone buildings among new constructions was close to zero. One particularly characteristic sign of the changes between Antiquity and the Middle Ages was the abandonment of stone buildings, at least outside the Mediterranean zone.
In fact, even in Italy the scale of new stone construction declined considerably from the fifth century onwards. Secular and ecclesiastical rulers used old buildings, repaired them, sometimes enlarged them, but very rarely ventured into the construction of new buildings of durable material. Magistrates' and monarchs' residences and even the defensive fortresses of the early Middle Ages were mostly built of wood.
Wandering builders
Stone came back into fashion most quickly in sacred architecture. The speed and intensity of this process varied from region to region. In general, however, until the eighth or ninth century, stone was used to build mainly a few churches and monasteries in the West.
As a result, professional builders rarely lived and worked in one place. It was essentially an itinerant profession, as described in various sources of the period. After the completion of a particular temple, a team of builders would move to another city, region, or even to another part of the continent.
A symbol made of stone
A more noticeable revival of stone construction in the west of the continent occurred only at the turn of the millennium. However, the intensity of work on religious buildings increased initially. Changes in secular architecture were slower. By the 10th and to a large extent by the 11th century, only a few of the most important buildings were still being erected in stone.
Stone masonry was durable, but it also carried a valuable symbolism: it indicated the strength and stability of the power to build massive, seemingly indestructible structures.
This is why, for example, the
Carolings and their German successors, the
Ludolfings, lived in stone residences. However, under both
Charles the Great and the
Ottons, most defenses and even the minor residences of the elite were still built of wood.