Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/490

 458 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part H. niietaken for a biulding of the Lower Empire anterior to Justinian's time. Its plan, however, and the details of its construction, j^rove that it belongs to a much more modern date ; Yiollet le Due would even brinf it down as low as the 12th cen- ilillMWiii^^ tury. It hardly seems possible that it should be so modern as this ; but the truth is, the whole history of the Romance style in this province has still to be written. It has not yet been examined with the care it de- serves by any competent author- ity, and till it is we must be con- tent with the knowledge that, in the neighborhood of the Bouches du Rhone, there exists a group of churches which, drawing their inspiration from the clas- sical remains with which the countiy is studded, exhibit an elegance of design as exquisite as it is in strange contrast with 317. Elevation of half one Bay of the Exterior of St. Paul au Trois Chateaux. the rude vigor — almost vul- garity — which characterized the works of the Normans in the opposite corner of the land at the same period. Passing from the round-arched to the pointed modifications of this style, the church at Fonti- froide, near Narbonne, shows it in its completeness, perhaps better than any other example. There not only the roof is ])ointed, but all the constructive openings have assumed the same forms. The windows and doorways, it is true, still retain their circular heads, and did retain them as long as the native style fiourished — the pointed- headed opening being only introduced by the Franks when they occupied this country in the time of Simon de Montfort. The section across the nave (Woodcut 319) shows the form of the central vault, which the longitudinal section shows to be a plain 318. Half Bay of Interior of St. Paul au Trois Chateaux. (From the "Archives des Monuments Historiques.")