Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/542

 510 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. this church was erected in tliis remote vilLage. What, however, gives it its greatest interest for our present purpose arises from the fact that the apse or choir was rebuilt in the 13th century, and we have consequently in immediate juxtaposition the Romanesque model as it was introduced to the Barbarians, and the result of their elaboration of it — the germ of the Gothic style and the full-blown flower. As before pointed out (p. 453), the progress was slow in the formation of a new style during the 1000 years that elapsed between the building of the Temple of Diana at Ninies and the Church at Carcassone; but here Avithin the limits of two or at most three .X> ^^^^^^%,^-^:J^sss^SS^^t;^^^ ^ ^^^ia#^s>i:t,m<^^js$$sk^^s^ =^-.x%^w^v^m^:ii^ 37G. Secti in of Easlcni rurtioii of ( hurcli of >Iortier en Der. (From the " Archives des Monuments," etc.) centuries, the progress made was so rapid as to be startling. The inhal)itants of Central France appear at once to have comprehended the significance of the problem, and to liave worked it out with a steadiness and energy of which it must be difficult to find another example. The nave of the church is as j^oor and as lean as it can Avell be, but every part of the choir is ornamented, while nothing is overdone ; and there is not one single ornament which is not a])propriate to its place, or which may not fairly be considered as a part of the ornamented construction of the building. It was an entirely new style invented on the spot, and complete in all its parts. Some of its ornaments were afterwards made more elegant, and more might have been done in this direction ; but as here represented the style was completed, and it is certainly one of the