Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . responds bay by bay with that of the aisle (Fig. 93).No attempt was made to raise the side arches to thelevel of the transverse, but they were high enough togive plenty of room for a good clerestory, and theircross vault was ramped upwards intersecting with themain longitudinal vault as best it could. In this way agood light was acquired for the nave, and the difficultyof the continuous thrust of a barrel vault was avoided.For the effect of cross-vaulting is to concentrate all thethrust on isolated points, that is on the piers that dividebay from bay. Bu

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Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . responds bay by bay with that of the aisle (Fig. 93).No attempt was made to raise the side arches to thelevel of the transverse, but they were high enough togive plenty of room for a good clerestory, and theircross vault was ramped upwards intersecting with themain longitudinal vault as best it could. In this way agood light was acquired for the nave, and the difficultyof the continuous thrust of a barrel vault was avoided.For the effect of cross-vaulting is to concentrate all thethrust on isolated points, that is on the piers that dividebay from bay. But the system was not complete, for thebuilders of Vezelay did not understand at first the needof strengthening these points sufficiently to take thisconcentrated thrust: and to their surprise the vaultsbegan to push the walls out, the arches became distorted, and at the end of the 12 th century flying buttresses hadto be applied at the points where resistance was required. Resultantthrust ofthe crossvault CH. xxii] FRANCE—BURGUNDY TOI. r-4/.£- ^-^ ^*^ fig- 93 (V.-le-Duc). 102 FRANCE—BURGUNDY [CH. XXII Vezelay, the vault Vezelay, naithex Vezelay, nave V Still the step first taken at Vezelay was a great advanceon previous construction, and led on naturally to thefurther development of vaulting on more scientificprinciples. The choir and transepts of Vezelay were re-built inthe 13th century, between 1198 and 1206, in a vigorousearly pointed style, of which they afford one of thefinest examples. But the Romanesque nave which wasdedicated about 1102 remains, and the narthex which wasdedicated in 1132. In the latter, benefiting by theirexperience of the nave, the builders adopted a moresecure way of supporting the main vault. The narthex, like that at Cluny is a church by itself (Plate CXIII), with a nave and aisles, three bays long and two storeysin height. The aisles are cross vaulted in the lowerstorey, while the upper, which is a triforium or gallery, has a ramping vault that give