Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/423

Rh Bk. Vin. Ch. IX. GOTHIC STYLE IN PALESTINE. 407 CHAPTER IX. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN PALESTINE. CONTENTS. Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem — Churches at Abu Gosh and Lydda - Mosque at Hebron. CHRONOLOGY. DATES. Jerusalem taken by the Crusaders. a.d. 1099 Baudoulnl 1100 Baudouin II 1118 Foulques, Count of Anjou 1131 Saladin retakes Jerusalem 1187 DA.TEjS Third Crusade. Richard II. . . . a.d. 1192 Frederick II. re-enters Jerusalem. . . 1229 Retaken by Sultan of Damascus. , . 1239 Final overthrow of Christians .... 1244 IT may at first sight appear strange that any form of architecture in Syria should be treated as a part of that of Italy, but the circum- stances of the case are so exceptional that there can be little doubt of the correctness of so doing. Gothic architecture was not a natural growth in Palestine, but distinctly an importation of the Crusaders, transplanted by them to a soil where it took no root, and from which it died out when the fostering care of Western protection was removed. In this it is only too true a reflex of the movement to which it owed its origin. The Crusades furnish one of those instances in the history of the world where the conquerors of a nation have been so numerous as entirely to supplant, for a time, the native population and the in- digenous institutions of the country. For nearly a century Jerusalem was subject to kings and barons of a foreign race. The feudal system was imported entire, with its orders of knighthood, its "Assises," and all the concomitant institutions which had srvown up 'vith the feudal system in Western Europe. With them, as a matter of course, came the hierarchy of the Roman Church, and with it the one style of architecture which they then knew, or which was appropriate to their form of worship. The one point which is not at first sight obvious is, why the Gothic style in Palestine should be so essentially Italian, with so little admixture of the styles prevalent on the northern side of the Alps. It may have been that then, as now, the Italians settled loosely in the land. We know that the trade of the Levant was at that time in the ! lands of Venice and other Italian cities, and it is clear that it was easier to send to Italy for artists and workmen, than to France and