Diamond vault

A diamond vault is a form of vault church architecture used in the Late Gothic and Renaissance style, which is based on an elaborate system of cavernous vaults in a manner resembling diamonds. It was widely used especially in Central European countries.

A diamond vault at the former Bernardine monastery in Warsaw (1514)

Diamond vaults are concave-convex ceilings so complex that, as their name suggests, they invoke the facets of a cut gemstone. First appearing in 1471 at Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen, Germany, they were employed for almost a century in locations as far apart as Gdansk on the Baltic to Bechyne in Southern Bohemia (today's Czech Republic).[1]

From the historical point of view, diamond vaults show the continuing vitality of the Gothic architecture in Central Europe, at a time when the rediscovery of the classical past in Renaissance Italy was changing the course of building. Architecturally, they offer some of the most impressive examples of geometrical experimentation and versatility in both secular and sacred spaces.

The design of diamond vaults involved an understanding of how the whole interior is shaped through a correlation of its geometry, spatial composition and support system. The vaults have the ability visually to integrate or to compartmentalise interiors, to make them appear to expand through seamless recession or to diminish them by the presence of claustrophobic, heavily projecting ridges. They can add an element of playful irregularity to symmetrical spaces, or conversely can harmonise oddly shaped interiors. Their plasticity is enhanced by the contrasting play of light and dark across their surfaces.

Diamond vaults are among the most original, yet least-known, creations of the Medieval architecture.

History

Corbelled vaults, also called false vaults, with horizontally joined layers of stone have been documented since prehistoric times; in the 14th century BC z. B. from Mycenae. They were built regionally until modern times.

The real vault construction with radially joined stones was already known to the Egyptians and Assyrians and was introduced into the building practice of the West by the Etruscans. The Romans in particular developed vault construction further and built barrel, cross and dome vaults. Some outstanding examples have survived in Rome, e.g. B. the Pantheon and the Basilica of Maxentius.

Brick vaults have been used in Egypt since the early 3rd millennium BC. widely used and from the end of the 8th century B.C. Keystone vaults were built. However, monumental temple buildings of the pharaonic culture in the Nile Valley did not use vaults, since even the huge portals with widths of more than 7 meters were spanned with cut stone beams.[2]

See also

Further reading
  • Opacic, Zoe; Diamond Vaults: Innovation and Geometry in Medieval Architecture, London: Architectural Association, 2005. ISBN 1-902902-47-5.

References
  1. Pevsner, Nikolaus (1992). Lexikon der Weltarchitektur. Prestel. ISBN 3-7913-1238-3. OCLC 881563406.
  2. "Niederschlag in Ägypten", Der Starke auf dem Dach, Harrassowitz, O, pp. 7–18, 2015-01-02, retrieved 2022-03-26


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