080200 SE Seminar: Romanesque Architecture in Ireland (2008S)

In the early Middle Ages Irish missionaries played such an important role in evangelizing England and the European inland after the turbulences of the mass migration that the chronicle of the Irish monastery at Regensburg is calling Ireland "insula sanctorum". In Central Europe Columban and Gallus / Callech operated in Raetia, Kilian / Cilléne in Franconia and Virgil / Feirgil in Salzburg. In the fine arts Ireland was characterized by its prehistoric Celtic tradition, which favoured geometric ornaments. This was the basis that Ireland from abroad predominantly adopted geometric patterns: From Egypt - which was well known by the Irish as source of monasticism - they imported wicker-work motives, from the Normans which settled at the Irish coastlands they imported chip-carving. Ireland never had been part of the Roman civilisation and therefore - independent from the classic tradition - developed its own stile. Monumental architecture so far was unknown. The numerous monasteries of the early Middle Ages consisted in wooden structures in form of hamlets. Around 900 AD round towers appeared as earliest stone masonry in church architecture. Irish monks - returning from the European inland - even brought more experience in Romanesque stone masonry to Ireland. In 1171 Ireland was conquered by king Henry II. of England, which
strengthened the Norman influence. Already since 1111 the Irish sustained the monastery of St.Jacob at Regensburg, from where other affiliations spread over Central Europe, as to Würzburg in 1135 or to Vienna in 1155. These monasteries always were keeping close relationship with the land of their origin and now they themselves were importing "Norman" patterns in stone masonry to Central Europe, which spread on different ways throughout the 13th century.