ORF-E
English
1 x 45 mins
Worldwide

Gothic – an architectural style that revolutionized 12th-century Europe. New places of worship were built: towering cathedrals that seemed to soar into the sky and break all previous standards. These “Pyramids of the Occident” are the largest buildings of their time. They were flooded with light, and massive walls were replaced by colorful windows – the total window area of Chartres Cathedral, for example, is larger than a soccer pitch. Starting in France, Gothic quickly spread throughout Europe, with examples of the new style of construction found in almost every major city in the Middle Ages. St. Stephen’s Cathedral is Vienna’s Gothic landmark. In stunning animations and dramatized sequences, the documentary leads us through the mysterious world of these unusual buildings to their creators, who constructed these monuments in the Middle Ages without the use of statics and computers.